9:52pm April 29, 2014

I walked into my doctor’s appointment today on foot.

Which startled everyone from the nurses to the doctor. One of the nurses said she didn’t recognize me without my wheelchair. And my doctor walked right past me without noticing I was there at first. It was fun.

My doctor told me that GPs rarely get to cause such dramatic results in patients – usually that sort of thing is reserved for surgeons. So he’s incredibly happy with how well I’m doing.

He agrees that the fact that I never ended up in the ICU before isn’t because I didn’t need to be in the ICU, but because nobody with enough power to do that took my problems seriously. (Because I was sicker than I “should have been”, because adrenal insufficiency does that.)

He also says that at this point no doctor should question my need for anything like that, because there’s no shades of grey here: I have adrenal insufficiency, and I have it severely enough that they literally couldn’t find whether I had any cortisol in my body. Apparently this means people will take me more seriously if I become severely ill in the future. I hope so. I’m tired of learning all about what it’s like for death to hang around in the room waiting for you.

It’s actually a relief to have something so clear-cut and obvious. I mean it’s not the only clear-cut thing I have, but it’s finally an explanation for the worst problems I’ve had over the years, and that means a lot. It’s horrible to have a severe chronic illness that nobody can diagnose, that is causing life-threatening problems, and that nobody is taking seriously because it’s not diagnosed.

Anyway he’s thrilled with how much I’m improving on dexamethasone, and so am I.

I got the injectable hydrocortisone today, but no syringes, so I’m not sure how that’s going to work if I need them?

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