First Illness

As part of his treatment for Cushing's Syndrome, Q had his left adrenal gland removed. Since his left gland was producing too much cortisol, the right gland had shut down. A better explaination can be found here.

That was two years ago, and Q still had no natural cortisol production today. Everything he gets is in pill form.

If you're not familiar with cortisol, it is known as 'the stress hormone'. When your body is under stress--physical stress, in particular...such as during an illness or injury--extra cortisol is produced to help the body fight off infection. More information about stress and cortisol can be found here.

Anyway, during his initial recovery, Q was told that if he was somehow injured or started to feel ill, he is to increase his cortisone intake. Failure to do so could result in the worsening of symptoms, which could lead to hospitalization.

On a normal day, he takes 20mg. When sick, he has to double, or even triple that amount. In fact, Q wears has a medical alert bracelet that identifies him as cortisone dependant.

And we hadn't had to worry about that until now. But on Saturday, our cortisol balancing skills were put to the test. Q felt a sore throat coming on. He immediately doubled his dosage. He didn't feel better, but his symptoms weren't any worse than those of a common cold. He spent the weekend at resting and worked from home on Monday.

By Tuesday, Q felt well enough to go back to work. He even continued to double his cortisone intake. By Wednesday, he still felt some residual cold symptoms, but the doubling stopped.

Big mistake.

Early this morning, Q woke up with a fever. I urged him to take a triple dose of cortisone, which he did. He also tripled his midday and late afternoon doses.

So, now we'll see what happens. Hopefully the worst is past. In the meantime, I'm not feeling so hot myself.