A Better Way to Explain it....

             I read fellow Addisonian Lana's blog this morning #62 Can you tell? and once again,as has happened so many times since I've started reading her blog, it was as if she was telling MY story, again.  She gave such a vivid descriptive detailed description of what happens when an "episode" is happening out of the blue.   

               Another fellow Addisonian had taught me early on to make sure I use proper terms when telling others (& especially doctors) what happens during events or episodes of unwell-ness. Be careful not to call an episode/event a crisis cause it can diminish a true crisis ( at least in a dr's eyes) She explained the difference between a crisis & an episode/event was that an episode we can pull ourselves out of, with stress dose steroids, salt increase, sleep, Gatorade/Powerade or coconut water ( any electrolyte replacer really).
           A crisis is just that , A CRISIS -- an event that without medical intervention will kill us  our blood work & vital signs will reflect what is going on INSIDE our bodies as our bodies start shutting down organs & body systems in an effort to save the brain. and allow us to live another day, in it's estimation, when in reality our own bodies are killing us by shutting down vital body systems that we need to live!!!
              As I read Finding Lana's blog out-loud to my husband, he got a little defensive, as he tends to do when I get in that shape and it has slipped his detection, much the same way Lana's husband did in her post. I have tried often to explain to him that I TRULY WISH my BRAIN would work and allow me to take my LIFE SUSTAINING meds when I approach that state but IT DOES NOT...that in a nutshell is the problem.
         Still so impressed by the way she expressed what I have experienced too many times before I read it to my best friend who has Graves disease & Hashimotos & is currently experiencing Adrenal issues too.   
         Things that I experienced six+ years ago she is now starting to experience as well and she will call me up and say I now know what you meant by...... Like I used to (& still have flare days when I experience periods of exacerbation) say I don't have enough air to talk on the phone. She now is experiencing "lung" problems and there are days when she can't talk on the phone because she doesn't have enough "air." everything takes so much longer to do because you're just not getting enough oxygen in. It hurts to walk,move,breathe.
          I have tried to explain to friends,family & dr's what happens when I KNOW I am going down. My inside body feels like I am going 100 miles per minute and my outside body is really only going 2 miles per minute. And then there comes a point when my mind & body no longer communicate. How do you walk when your brain no longer sends the signal? It is not a matter of "pushing" through the tiredness or the pain. It is a matter of the communication system is being disrupted. There are autonomic things our bodies just DO like breath, we don't have to think about it or remind ourselves to do it, we just do it. We generally don't think about making our legs walk, we just think, I need to go up these stairs or I need to use the bathroom and we just walk there but as the Addisonian episode comes over me,that communication signal gets lost/disrupted and all of a sudden I can't count on my legs to get me anywhere.
 .... Lana explained her experience like this......I'd already taken an early morning dose of Hydrocortisone, but knew I needed more. I literally jumped up to move to the tent fast because my body was about to go into another state of existence, I've already learned that there is a point when my body separates from my mind and that is when the body simply won't cooperate, per a typical Addison's Crisis..... once again although I've never met Lana we have shared so much....
      My hope is that this blog will reach others with this disease and assure them that they are NOT alone, although we may never meet face to face, we share so much.
          Thank You Lana for sharing your life with me and everyone else who reads your blogs.

P.S. I started writing this piece at the end of April beginning of May but I have had a bad flare days (more like month) BUT Thankfully the fog is FINALLY lifting. Not back to my abnormal "normal" self yet but each day Is getting a little better.