I've gotten several PMs about my long absence last week...

[Betsy]

So, I may as well fess up about it.

Poor Peter was frantic as we seem to have a sort of an unspoken watch alert that goes on for eachother and he had called a bunch of times without reaching me. He just knows that if I get run over by a bus one day, he is the one with the keys to the organization (he has them---but actually using them is another story)

I unfortunately got quite ill and spent a few days in the hospital after an emergency admittance last Monday night. Thank goodness someone I've been dating for awhile called and recognized I was not right...none of the words coming out of my mouth were making sense I understand and I was more or less delirious and on the verge of a coma. She rushed over and after me resisting for a bit (until the big time chills/convulsions set in), took my butt to the ER.

It turns out I was in a full-blown adrenal crisis with a life-threatening drop in my sodium levels. The cause is known and now fixed (infection from a bug bite and probably too much licorice root iced tea that day) and I'm all better now---quite alive, kicking and back to my usual feisty self. If you ever wanted to know what it is like when you are on the verge of a coma, just ask. Briefly, all of my senses were alive and extrasensory. I could smell her perfume as soon as she walked into the door which was 20 feet away from me. Any bit of touch hurt and felt like needles going into me, my hearing super sensitive and everyday lights really hurt my eyes.

My sodium levels were so low that it also threw my heart into a real dangerous irregular heartbeat so the entire time at the hospital was spent hooked up to a heart monitor but that part of me came away with a great bill of health. LOL...the only time it varied was when the girl came to see me. The sucky recovery part is that I now look (at least temporarily) like a domestic abuse surviver because they needed to get IVs in me so quickly I ended up horribly bruised. That's okay though.

I'm really thankful for Peter realizing something was wrong and of course, for my friend Loretta who immediately recognized I needed help; she saved my life that night last week and I will be forever in her debt.

And of course, I'm grateful that the hospital recognized the problem quickly as past experience has taught me that doesn't always happen.

Betsy

[Fee]

Hi Betsy,
So glad you are ok!! Thank God for Peter and Loretta..
Take it easy for a bit.
Hugs,
Fee
x

[Dana Gold]

Welcome back to the "world of the living", Betsy.....sounds like you had quite a frightening (and potentially lethal :whatchuta ) experience. As you now know with licorice, (the active ingredient glycyrrhizin) was a factor in the adrenal crisis.....deglycyrrhizinated licorice is available and if you still like it, use it in your tea.

http://www.kroger.com/hn/Herb_Drugix/Licorice.htm

http://www.kroger.com/hn/Index/Herb.htm

Use the link above for any other food/herb-drug interactions that may be of a concern to you....in prevention that is.

Dana :wavey:

[Betsy]

I intentionally take a little bit of tea each day as an herbal replacement for a certain drug---that day, I simply got stupid! :clown:

[Sunshine1]

I'm glad you are back. Scary stuff.

Aimee

[prince....ss?]

Good to know your still in the land of the living Betsy…Do they have psychic email these days?

Dana nice to see you again….What happened to your nice picture?

[Sunshine1]

I'm glad you are back. Scary stuff.

Aimee

Do you feel like you are swimming in your own body from all the sodium solution bags but bouncing off the walls from the solu-cortef? Was this a spider bite by any chance? ER's do start buzzing when you mention adrenal crisis or adrenal insufficiency.Go wake up that Endocrinologist. Were you so cold as to make your teeth chatter?

I was also wondering are your veins hard to stick? and if that has anything to do with the years of prednisone?

Do you use the licorice tea plus sea salt and certain foods?

have you ever had your thyroid checked?

It would be a boring world without you.

Peace,

Aimee

[melonaide]

Wow...Licorice. Never heard anything about that before. :confused_

Good to see you made it through.

[Betsy]

Melonade,

licorice root raises blood pressure. Often with some types of CAH low blood pressure can be a problem and a drug called florinef is given to keep it elevated but I do the licorice root tea instead. The problem is that too much of it also causes you to lose an excess amount of salt from your body and with salt-wasting CAH, that is a very bad thing. That day was very hot and I foolishly threw the tea ball with the root shavings into the pot of water I was using to make regular iced tea. Bad move--don't know what the f*** I was thinking. That, on top of the infection I had simply did me in.

This is not licorice like the sticks at the candy store. It's the actual root from the bush. As Dana mentioned, you can also purchase some refined versions of it and take it as a pill however, if I recall, the compound they remove in the refining process is actually the compound I want and need. I shred the root some and make a small cup of hot tea with it daily but you can also chew on the root if you can get past the strong flavor which is not that much unlike black licorice candy. It's the same plant the candy gets its flavoring from.

Do you feel like you are swimming in your own body from all the sodium solution bags but bouncing off the walls from the solu-cortef?

A little bit then but not so much anymore. I've weaned the drugs back down to my normal doses already because I don't like taking that much of anything! I'm still weaning on the florinef and back into the licorice tea and am doing .05 mgs every other day. They wanted me to take it and then wean off it again to what works for me but it's been real hot (the heat wave has broken over night thank goodness) and suggested I keep some on hand for those really hot days which is probably a good idea. However, what I take on those really hot days is only .05 mgs or so.

Was this a spider bite by any chance? No, it was a hornet sting that had occurred several days prior but is in a spot on my back where I could not really give it proper care.

ER's do start buzzing when you mention adrenal crisis or adrenal insufficiency.Go wake up that Endocrinologist. I never saw one---the ER doc listened to Loretta, they saw the med alert I wear and it was a done deal. The doctor I saw while I was there is a GP, and I was quite happy with him as he seem pretty knowledgeable and not into the power distribution of "do what I say...or else". As I posted elsewhere (and you read, Aimee) his feeling was why change something that has worked really well while acknowledging I got stupid one day. He was actually pretty impressed that I had figured the chemistry issues of the drugs and stuff. We really do know more than them but you know that.

Were you so cold as to make your teeth chatter? Unbelievably so---even though it was like 90 degrees out. That was the event where Loretta stopped trying to persuade me go to the hospital and gave me a choice of ambulance or car. One thing I do remember is her saying to me that she can't leave me alone but couldn't stay due to the last minute babysitter she found in order to come over and couldn't take me to her house as she wasn't prepared to tell her kids why there was a dead person in there the next morning.

I was also wondering are your veins hard to stick? and if that has anything to do with the years of prednisone? I don't really remember, but I saw a friend the other day I hadn't seen in a like a year and he gently pulled me aside and asked if I was being abused by someone when he saw the still noticeable purple bruises on my arms. They were pretty rough with getting that IV in the first time as it was done while I was being rolled down a hallway. In the past, there has been a problem with collapsing veins but prior to going to the hospital she had been dumping pedialyte and gatorade into me so I probably wasn't too dehydrated by the time the ER jabs came.
Do you use the licorice tea plus sea salt and certain foods? Yes...I'm using a lot of red sea salt this summer. It's from Hawaii and imparts a real nice flavor to all the fresh vegetables I eat. I also located a great organic animal farm (beef, pork and chicken). They raise their crops mostly for the really high end NYC restaurant trade but they also keep a little out of the way market that I was thrilled to discover. It's quite nearby where I live. As a result, I've finally have eliminated the last sources of unwanted hormones and chemicals being put into my diet from food. All of their animals are raised in natural surroundings on grass and pasture without hormones.

Pretty much everything is organic for me these days. LOL...they asked me to list my normal diet at the hospital (as you know, I'm pretty skinny but you may not know I eat like a horse) and the dietician was scratching her head wondering why she was sent to see me. Even in the hospital, Loretta was kind enough to prepare me fresh salads and other food and bring them to me. It didn't make my roommate too happy because she was on a restricted diet but I simply couldn't stomach their food. When the dietician had come up, I was there was chomping away on a wonderful fresh salad. Loretta even brought me in some nice crunchy sea salt!

have you ever had your thyroid checked? Yes, in the past and also at the hospital shortly before sending me on my way. Thanks for the reminder to call them and get the results.

It would be a boring world without you. Thanks, Aimee. I'm pretty grateful to be here in your world as well.

BTW, Aimee, I can send you some licorice from the spring root crop. Just don't kill yourself with it like I almost did!

Betsy