I recall my father having to push the first doctor we saw who said my blood sugar level was fine. My father disagreed saying he would bring in a urine sample the next morning. Sure enough “He was right!” I was indeed diabetic. This has been a consistent theme in my life, remembering that “I” am the best person who knows how I feel! My dad knew something wasn’t right and pressed the point.

In 1994 I got married to my wonderful husband and in 2002 I was lucky enough to have my son.  Although 8 weeks early he was healthy and adorable! This, however, seemed to start a decline in my health. The first year after his birth I was feeling extremely tired and was eventually diagnosed with hypothyroidism.

Unfortunately I continued going downhill losing weight, no appetite, light headedness and no energy. I have a wonderful endocrine doctor at Duke who listened to my issues and tried to figure out what was going on with my health. Every visit consisted of running more tests to see if we could figure it out. She had suspicions about but my test results just weren’t in the range to show anything definite.

In the summer of 2005, I got extremely sick with a virus putting me in the hospital. They eventually stabilized me and were going to release me when I told the ER doctor that “I will not let you release me until you figure out why my blood pressure is so low that I almost pass out getting up to use the bathroom”.

At this point, they finally tested and diagnosed me with another autoimmune disorder called Addison’s disease. For individuals with Addison’s, our adrenal glands do not work and must be artificially replaced by taking steroids daily. With this diagnosis, I officially had Polyglandular Autoimmune Syndrome, 3 out of my 4 glands do not work! Although some might get depressed about this, I was actually EXCITED and so HAPPY that they had figured out what was going on and could treat it; giving me back some of the energy and desire to live a full life again!

In January of 2009, I got sick again with some sort of GI bug that was not allowing my food or medicine to digest. After 3 days of working with my doctor and each day feeling worse and worse,  I showed up his office asking for my tests results explaining that I felt horrible and something needed to be done! They said that they could not do anything. I called my Endocrinologist and decided to go to the ER. In the ER, I called my Endocrinologist again and pressed her to look up my tests results from earlier in the day. My sodium was so low and potassium so high it was effecting my heart! She called the head doctor in the ER and they had me in an ER room in less than 5 minutes (55 people were ahead of me in the ER waiting room). She told me later that I saved my own life by being proactive and making sure that I was got the help that I needed!  My final diagnosis for this visit was an upper GI bug that simply would not allow my medicine to get into my system and keep all of my levels at the appropriate level. Now I am very proactive when it comes to taking care of myself when I start to feel sick as I know what can happen if things do not get better in a short time.

I struggle each day with the weight I have gained, the energy I still lack and the higher blood sugars now that I am on steroids.  But I also realize all the work to stay healthy is worth it when I look into the eyes of the people I love! Each day with them is a treasure!

Remember You are Your Own Best Advocate!