My Assessment- true or false?

I sure wish I had more knowledge in the are of sciences. Honestly I barely passed chemistry and biology in college. It has always been a struggle for me, but over the years I have had to learn more practical aspects of health care.

Dr. Blevins PDF'd my lab results to me with a note that said they are all normal. This is great; worth celebrating. What I wish to understand and when I get to talk to him someday, maybe I will remember to ask is the following:

My Cortisol level was (5) 6 weeks post-op, Normal range for a.m. is 4.5 to 22.4. This is when they told me to keep taking my dexamethasone every other day and I took half the amount every day. Then about three weeks after that my level had gone up to (6.5) and they told me I could stop taking it. Quite frankly the weeks that followed were not the greatest. When my sodium dropped to dangerous levels and I was so wiped out after my hospital stay the endocrinologist in town did more blood work and both he and my endo in SF felt it could be that my cortisol is not kicking in. The risk of surgery is that all these hormones that your pituitary kicks out can become under active and sometimes for life (scary). So far the only one we have identified is the Vasopressin which has given me the Diabetes Insipidus. So back to my lab results. My cortisol level is (22.3). I am wondering what the heck does that mean?

My assessment of the higher number is that Cortisol is a stress hormone and it would be normal when your body is going through this much stress that your Cortisol would increase? Do you think this is right? I am just puzzled, but think I can relax and know that I will not need steroids for the rest of my life (at least at this point). I also can assume that the reason I felt so horrible and could not walk and was so sick was because of two reason: the hospital raised my sodium too quickly and they deprived me of my DDAVP which made me extremely dehydrated.

Who knows if I am right, but this is what I am thinking. Any doctors out there who could clarify would be great! Ha ha!