Do I need an emergency cortisol injection kit?

[sferios]

Hi everyone,

I've been on pred now for six months (currently taking 20 mg per day). I have a friend with primary adrenal insufficiency and he keeps telling me I need a rescue pen in case I get injured or suffer physical trauma. He says I could die quickly without it.

This link he sent me says death can occur in 30 minutes...

adrenalinsufficiency.org/yo...

Is this true? And if so, why hasn't my rheumy told me this?

Also, if true, at what dose of pred is this no longer a concern?

[PMRpro Ambassador]

He has primary adrenal insufficiency - yours is secondary adrenal insufficiency which is rather different and you are probably on enough pred to cover you for most eventualities so you are unlikely to die since there is a fair amount of corticosteroid sloshing around your body. He has only what he takes as replacement therapy in the form of hydrocortisone and it is much less than you are on for a start and is out of the body far faster as well.

You MIGHT be considered worthy of an emergency kit when you get down well below 10mg and if your adrenal glands don't start to wake up and produce cortisol. We have a few people on the forum who have one but not many.

[Zebedee44]

PMRPro has said it, you can stop worrying about that scenario. You are clearly a great worrier and over thinker and the dose of pred you are now on seems to be raising your anxiety levels. Anything above 10 mg made me feel completely wired, invincible, but my brain couldn’t keep up with my body’s need to be active and there was a lot of meltdown. You will come through this but try to take it steady. Best wishes, Chrissie