For Helenlw7 and other adrenal glands insufficiency sufferers

Hello everyone 🌼

Undoubtedly with the amount of steroids intake through oral tablets, IVs, inhalers, nose spray, my adrenal glands started to get lazy. It manifested itself by an extreme fatigue, pains in my limbs and reduced mobility.

The hospital didn’t pick it up in December 2016, I had to have the cortisol level blood test which they didn’t do although they did a lot of blood work. By March 2017 my respiratory specialist referred me to an endocrinologist who ordered the cortisol test and it was below the norm.

She then ordered a synacthen test which took me another couple of months to go to as it was only done in one hospital around here.

They take your cortisol level early morning and inject you with a product, you lay there for 30mn and they retest you again. It should increase your cortisol level by at least 50% or climb up above the norm. Mine didn’t. So went back to the endocrinologist early september, she put me on prednisone because I had LAM and it has more inflammatory properties than hydrocortisone and is more suited to a lung disease.

It changed my life, I was pain free and I could breathe.

End of part one ! 🌸

[sassy59]

That’s some story Fran. Lots to go through and to deal with.

Love and hugs xxx 😘

[breatheeasy1]

Good morning Fran, thanks for the beginnings of an interesting tale. Sometimes it's quite a journey to get to the bottom of things...I shall read on with interest 😊. Lots of love xx

[helenlw7]

I went down a similar although not as prolonged. I was already on prednisolone because of joint and lung issues. I’m certainly not pain free and I still get breathless, but I’m happy to stay on my pred dose of 7.5 mg. it was too many steroids in pills an inhalers that got my body into this state in the first place!

[Hidden in reply to helenlw7]

Interesting to know, so I will try to taper down again once I am over this chest infection xx