An article from the April 2001 Newsletter.
I spent all my working life underground in the coal mining industry. I first struck trouble when I was 57years of age, (I’m now over 70). I had shocking leg pains and no “get up and go”. My shoulders completely locked up on me. It got that bad that I even had trouble driving the car. It meant that work was out of the question. My GP was at a loss, as to the cause. Bone cancer was initially thought to be the culprit. Then acute arthritis followed as a diagnosis. As time went on, the symptoms were getting worse every day. I had been off work for 13 months. We had a death in the family, and that very night I had my first crisis.
I was put into hospital, and I went into a coma for four days. While I was in that condition, I was put onto a drip feed. Lucky for me, it contained cortisone. Little did the medical staff know that that was exactly what I needed! Two weeks later, I had another bad turn. This time, I had kidney failure. Until this event, no-one seemed to know the real cause of my troubles. I was under an arthritis doctor in Newcastle. He was treating me once a month with cortisone injections. Luck was with me again, as I showed him the large brown freckles on the palms of my hands, one day. He sent me for blood tests. The results took over a week to come back.
In that week, I had yet another crisis. So, it was hospital again for me. This time I was in Royal Newcastle Hospital Intensive Care, on life support. After two and a half days like that, the result came back - it was “Addison’s Disease”. I started on cortisone treatment - 30mg Hysone, and 1 Florinef tablet/day. Three days later I was sent home.
Not long after my treatment began, my blood pressure became too high. The Florinef was removed. I did not take that for sixteen years. In 1998, a very funny thing happened, regarding my medication. My health seemed to be slipping back to pre-diagnosis problems in more ways than one. I had chest pains, cramps in my arms and legs, low blood pressure, etc. For some reason, I decided to check my cortisone tablets. To my surprise, I found that a mistake had been made. Instead of 20mg tablets, I had been given 4mg tablets. In effect, I had been taking 6mg instead of 30mg of Hysone every day. It took three and a half weeks before this mistake was found. I am sure that even such a short time on a lower dose caused me trouble. Because of that experience, I have learned to check my tablets as I get them from the chemist.
William makes a VERY IMPORTANT POINT!
All of us should check every bottle and package of tablets we get from the chemist for:
1) Use by date
2) Any tampering or partially damaged packaging
3) Correct dosage for tablets
4) Correct size and appearance of tablets. Get to know the size, and depth of your steroid replacement tablet. Does it have an indent across the top? Is it thicker than the lower dose tablet? Does it have a design printed on it? What does the name brand look like? What does the generic brand look like? What colour is it usually? If it is Florinef, is it really pink enough? (Florinef have a fairly short shelf life)
5) Never hesitate to go back to the chemist and query what they have given you. Much better to check than be on too much, too little, or a totally inappropriate medicine, as a result of someone’s mistake.
