Truthfully, getting started into discussing my history with Addison’s Disease is traumatic in itself. If I had fully conquered this demon, perhaps it would be easier to discuss. But, I have accepted that the battles are ongoing. It’s taken me almost ten years to reach this point of sharing. I guess I needed time, a lot of time, to sort through the wreckage.
Upon my eventual diagnosis, I discovered a particularly disturbing not-talked-about fact with Addison’s Disease…a lot of people who get a diagnosis of Addison’s, get it at autopsy. Some doctors will attempt to sugar-coat these facts while other doctors are bravely aware of these realities. Unfortunately, too many people with this condition remain undiagnosed with mysterious suffering for far too long. The “Addison’s” label is often given to a person only after they have become critically ill. I was one of those people. I was 33 years old at the time of my diagnosis.
I had been extremely sick for months and my condition was quickly deteriorating as I was consistently misdiagnosed, and my obvious symptoms were overlooked because I was so “young.” Just so you understand the serious condition I had reached before diagnosis…you should know that it took me going through an actual “Code Blue” while hospitalized to get to an answer. Thankfully, on that particular night, I had finally fallen into the hands of a brilliant doctor and he saved my life.
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