Crisis Averted

For what may be the first time I can think of, I averted an Addisonian crisis!

This happened a couple days ago and between being wiped out from that and having family in town for the holidays, I haven't had time to post. But I wanted to be sure to record what happened, in case it can help me or you in the future.

If you read this blog regularly, you know I have been trying to slowly wean back the mega dose of Prednisone I was on. I started on 25mg in early November and was down to 7.5mg the week of Christmas. The day after Christmas, I only took 5mg. By the next morning, I was a shaking, sweaty wreck.

I woke up around 7am and fed the kittens, like I do every day, but I forgot to take my Prednisone. I know, so not ok. I was just so tired and I kept falling back asleep. I finally remembered I needed to take my meds at 10am so I had gone a good 20 hours without any steroid.

My body got PISSED off.

I started to feel the familiar signs. Severe nausea and feeling like I need to vomit. Shaking and heart racing. Followed by heart slowing.

I checked my blood pressure and heart rate twice during this episode. My heart rate went from 48 bpm to 110 bpm in the space of about 60 seconds. I have no idea what that means, I would think it was wrong but the bp reading came out the same, so I don't know.

I knew I needed to stay hydrated, get some food in me, and probably take more steroids than the 5mg I had managed to down around 10am. I called my oh so awesome dr, who totally calmed me down. I was in tears at that point, I was so sure I was going into crisis and I didn't want to spend the last few days of my family in town in the hospital.

My doctor advised me to take another 5mg since I hadn't thrown up yet, and then take another 5mg in an hour. My sister made me some scrambled eggs and I downed about a liter of Kangen water.

And for the first time since I don't know when, instead of falling down the scary cycle of nausea, throwing up, then hospital, I actually started to feel better! I stayed in bed and watched movies with my sister most of the day, but by yesterday I was actually feeling pretty good. I kept taking 15mg/day which was my dr's recommendation. I think I will stay on 15mg through the holidays and then start cutting back by 2.5mg a week again.

The goal is to stabilize around 7.5mg or 5mg of Prednisone so I can switch to the equivalent dose of Hydro Cortisone. It has been a long, slow process but I'm determined not to give up.

I can't stand the side effects of Prednisone or Dexamethasone and HC feels like my only hope!

PS: If you pray or believe in positive thoughts, please send some love to my friend Heather, Baby Gavin's mom, whom I have posted about before. She has a very important blood test tomorrow that could affect the course of her life. Please keep her in your thoughts. Baby Gavin passed away 11 months ago today. We were able to perform a Random Act of Kindness in his memory on his 11-month birthday, December 26th. I will post pics from that day soon. It was incredible.