A bunch of my friends both on and off of Facebook have asking me recently What is Addisons Disease? The main reason being that I have it, and its essentially the main reason for the messed up avenues in my health - even the reason i sometimes need a cane and am constantly in pain etc. I realized that i dont think Ive ever explained it before, so to that end here you go, Readers Digest version: There is a hormone present in the human body at all times called Cortisol, produced by your adrenal glands, that among other things, acts as a neural transmitter sending signals from your brain all throughout your body on a CONSTANT basis. This chemical is responsible for all of the autonomic functions of the body: the continued proper functioning of your internal organs; production of other endocrine chemicals, manufacture of blood, growth and development of bones and muscles, even how much energy a person has - everything really. Though the levels of this chemical will vary throughout the day depending on stress, health, whether youve eaten etc., on average a normal human being will have a cortisol level of approximately 300 units in their blood stream. Remember that number: 300 units. Addisons Disease is essentially when your body, for completely unknown reasons, cannot naturally produce that neurotransmitter. Its EXTREMELY rare, researchers have no idea what causes it;its not inherited but may be related to a dormant gene that every human being carries; in some cases it simply gets switched on. So what happens? Well without this chemical that regulates your autonomic system, one by one your internal organs begin to slowly, and often painfully, shut down - completely at random, until you die. If left untreated it is 100% terminal, and there is no safe estimate for how long a person may have as it depends entirely on which bodily systems it targets first (digestive system may take a while, but your heart and its pretty much just over). There is NO cure, but there is a treatment: simply put in artificially what isnt there naturally. All that means is taking a pill every day. A treated person can live a more-or-less normal life, but still tends to get tired easily and has trouble fighting off infections if they get sick. So what about me? Remember that magic number 300 units on average at any given time for a normal person? At my absolute HIGHEST point I have 3. Just 3. I of course take the treatments, so I wont generally get any worse, but I was 21 years old when the doctors found it,. Im 6 foot 1 and weighed only 98Lbs. At the time they had exhausted all other avenues and had given me three weeks to live. After discovering that I had this stupidly rare disease, they started me on cortisone treatments and I immediately started to get better (but I never want to drink another can of Ensure again... blech!). The problem was that when looking back through my medical history they surmised that I had in fact had it from the time I was three years old. It mainly affected my lungs, which was misdiagnosed as simply Asthma. Every time I ended up in the hospital for my Asthma (which was A LOT) they would give me Prednisone - which n short periods mimics the effects of cortisol; so I would get a bit better and theyd send me on my way until the next time. All the while the disease began randomly attacking other parts of my body, so that years later when they found it... the damage was done. So much of what i have is simply irreversible. I may not get worse, but Ill never get any better either. My bones are extremely weak and Ive broken nearly everything you can think of - my left arm is largely metal, and I have almost NO immune system to speak of. I broke my back at age 11, which never properly healed, resulting in ongoing deterioration and micro-fractures all up and down my spine coupled with pretty severe nerve damage. I should have major surgery to correct that, but they dont want to do it because the Addisons Disease makes that much more dangerous, so I just have to live with the pain until Im older and try to build up the muscles in the meantime. I get tired very quickly, only to be replaced with sudden, oddly and often inapropriately timed bursts of adrenalin and the crazy strength that goes along with it. The best part is right now its under control and toned down somewhat, but severe stress can cause it to resurge with a vengeance at any time. If that happens my life expectancy lowers to roughly 45 years... Im already 36, so yay for crazy risks like university!:) So thats me in a nutshell and why I get sick so often and why you see me with a cane sometimes. There IS a reason, its just a crappy one.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 10:33:01 +0000