continued from previous page.... (revised Sunday, 13. May 2003)

Towards the end of 2002, I find myself in a more positive mood.  I have regained a stone of the weight I lost and feel and look better for that.  I exercise regularly, usually going to the gym for a 90-minute workout three times each week, although I do not run. 

However, I have learnt to listen to my body.  When I feel tired, I rest.  I try not to push myself to the limit.  I have found an osteopath, who I see on a monthly basis and more frequently when I have severe pain.  He has helped to reduce the effects of the muscle spasms in my neck, back and shoulders.  I also take a low-dose (10mg) amitriptyline at night, which helps to reduce muscle tension and encourages restful sleep.  My knees remain a problem, although strengthening the muscles in my legs has helped.  I also have to be aware of my hydration levels as I have low blood pressure and dehydration aggravates this condition, which has resulted, on occasion, in fainting.

My initial diagnosis of Hashimoto’s disease occurred a while after the birth of my second daughter, in 1984.    Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease affecting the thyroid gland and the treatment is the same as that for an underactive thyroid.  However, the consultant told me, with little attempt at compassion, that this left me predisposed to further autoimmune diseases, of which the list was lengthy. 

Understandably, this was frightening news to me, especially when I discovered the other possibilities, so I registered with a different consultant; a caring and understanding doctor at a London teaching hospital.  This professor ran a series of blood tests and told me that I carried the antibodies for Addison’s disease, which meant that there was some likelihood that I would develop this in the future.  Again, this was worrying news but as the prognosis was somewhat vague, I pushed it to the back of my mind and continued with my life as a wife and mother of two young girls.

We later moved house and I lost contact with the professor of endocrinology.  In the autumn of 1996, twelve years after my diagnosis with Hashimoto’s, I became unwell.  I was continually tired and I seemed to have pain in all my joints, particularly in my knees.  The GP I saw in our new practice  suggested physiotherapy, which I tried for several months.  By Christmas I found it difficult to climb the stairs and would pull myself up on the banisters as I went. 

I asked my GP repeatedly to refer me back to the endocrinology professor, who had moved to a new hospital.  He refused and then, at my insistence, wrote.  The professor later told me that this letter carried an apology for wasting his time, dismissing me as a hysterical hypochondriac.  So I went and had the tests.  By then it was late January and both my daughters and I were suffering from flu. We were all at home one afternoon when I received a call from the professor.   He said that tests confirmed that I did have Addison’s and asked how I was feeling.  When he heard that I had flu he told me to see a doctor immediately and to start on hydrocortisone within the hour. 

Alarming as this was, I followed his instructions – he had telephoned the surgery and I was seen as soon as I arrived.  This time I saw a different GP, who explained everything to me. When I complained that I didn’t want to take steroids, she told me that actually, I had no choice.  I now realise how fortunate it was that I insisted on being referred, as the first GP’s reluctance to read my medical notes, which would have contained the information about the antibodies, could have cost me my life.  When I questioned him about it, he told me that I should congratulate myself that I had played an active role in my own healthcare.  

My health remains uncertain.  I am currently recovering from an acute inflammation of the joints attaching the ribs to the breastbone, which caused such excruciating pain that I was immediately given an ECG to rule out a heart problem.  Since then, I have been taking 50mg Voltarol three times a day, which has left me feeling exhausted although reducing the pain.  I was also told that non-specific inflammation  is linked with Addison’s – something which I had never heard stated so directly.  However, as I reflect on my health and my life, I take pleasure from the knowledge that I have worked hard, both to establish a useful life, and, whilst acknowledging that my illness will not disappear, in aiming to become stronger.

Julie

(Surname withheld in accordance with the ADSHG publishing code of conduct)