In 2004, I was 16 years old. I was born with a cleft lip and palate and was just one year away from having my final surgery and being done with hospitals for good. I got very sick. Shortly after my birthday that year, a doctor saved my life by diagnosing me with the very rare Addison's Disease. It is a chronic condition affecting the adrenal glands - and the chemicals that are involved with almost all major processes of the body - and means I will be on medication for the rest of my life.
It was 3 years before I came to terms with the diagnosis and drew myself completely out of a very dark depression (which may well have been symptomatic of the disease as well as a result of the diagnosis). Since then I have, very slowly, been trying to balance living a normal-ish life with the complications, irks, irritations and side effects of the medication and disease.
There is little help from the medical teams available as there is no way to correctly measure and establish the right amount of medication that is needed on a day-to-day or hour-to-hour basis to provide the body with exactly what it needs. I have to figure it out on my own.
This is my space to express, vent, share and explore my personal experiences living with Addison's.
