|
In the
summer of 2001 my daughter Sarah, aged 14, complained of
having constant headaches, stomach cramps and no energy.
Every time she stood she felt dizzy. We took her to the doctor
and he prescribed some headache pills. Then
in August her periods stopped.
In October 2001
we took Sarah to Ibiza; this was her first holiday by plane. A
few days before we went I noticed she had lost quite a
bit of weight and was worried in case she was bulimic.
Two nights before we flew she started to throw up and
could not stand, but we put it down to a bug. Sarah
collapsed at the airport and was sick the whole flight.
When we reached our hotel, in between being sick, she just
slept. It was awful for her.
On our return to
England we went back to see our GP who took some
blood tests. A few days later I had a call asking to
bring her back for more tests. Very worried, I took her
back. By this time she was yellow - not the dark tanned
colour she usually was. I was told to take her home and
let her sleep until her tests came back.
Two days later she was nearly unconscious. I called the emergency
doctor who told us to take her to Addenbrookes Hospital
immediately. She was
admitted at once. They put her on a drip and later added
another; they had it going at such a speed the machine
kept going wrong. We met a wonderful doctor who asked
about our family history and told us they
were doing all they could to find out what was
wrong. Addison's Disease was suspected but so were
other conditions.
The next day they took Sarah down for a
scan which failed to locate any adrenal
glands. They then injected a hormone into her and every
half hour took more blood tests. Sarah was on a drip for
four days, during which time they put 16 litres of fluid into her.
It was not until the fourth day, when they were certain,
that they told us she had Addison's disease. She was put on
20 mg hydrocortisone a day and within a few days she was looking
much better.
We left hospital with a brief letter
explaining this disease and what to do in an emergency.
We were advised to find a support group, which we did.
But in the process of looking for support, we frightened ourselves silly with
some of the thing we were read on the Internet. We were
horrified at the risks and it felt like a nightmare.
Poor
Sarah would not talk about it; she still had little
energy and slept constantly. I gave Sarah her medication
every morning and evening. She started to go back to
school half a day at a time until
Christmas.
continues...
|
|
About us
ADSHG
Website Alert