Guest Blog by Line

Line's Story!

I would like to welcome Line. Line is my first guest blogger and she also suffer from Addison's disease. Do you also have a Addison story you want to tell, then you are very welcome to contact me here. There is room for all Addison stories. The more we tell and share, the better our environment can tackle it with us...
Line will be my permanent guest blogger so you will get to see much more from her..

My story, that suddenly became an Addison story.
My name is Lina, I’m 34 years old and a mom to two girls, age 2 and 1, married to a wonderful husband for 5 years now and I live in Sweden.

I have for many years lived with terrible pain in my arms and legs and otherwise felt like I was living in a world of fog, most of the time. I was sick all the the time and I had a very hard time dealing with the world around me. The doctors checked me over for everything from authritis to leukemia, but nothing showed up, i was stuffed full of painkillers, just to keep up with day to day.
Right up untill, I checked myself into Helsingborg hospital, with a weight of 39 kg and a body, that had givin up. To my luck, if you could say that, there was a doctor there, that came up with the idea, to check my cortisollevel, and that showed, that I had Addisons disease and all of a sudden the last 15 years of troubles in my life made scence.

All of this really started, when I was about 17-18 years old, I began to fall, drop things and experience pain in arms and legs, and that infamous fogy world, that I suddenly found myself in most of the day. I began having trouble gaining weight, I ate like every other person and ai enjoyed food, but no matter what I did, nothing stayed on, and it just got worse and worse.

In 2003 I worked as an animalkeeper, at a pigfarm in Danmark and I loved my job, but one saturday morning, I was struck by a sharp pain in the left side of my chest and had to call an ambulance. I was brought to the hospital, where they found out, that I had a collapsed lung, so there I was, in the hospital, thinking what now, but again, no one found a cause for my symptoms.
After that I started getting one pneumonia after another, and was in the end , forced to give up my dream of working as an animalkeeper, which was a very hard thing to come to terms with.

In 2009, I started dating my husband and I started working at a 7-eleven on Helsingör station, and it went well, because standing behind a counter is’nt the most stressfull job you can find.

In 2011 I got pregnant with our first daughter and she was born in juli 2012, after 48 hours hard work, after the first pregnancy, the pain got worse, but three month after my first daughter was born, I got pregnant again. In my own opinion, my preganancys went as every other womans, normal morningsickness in the first trimester, but otherwise normal as I could feel, with the same pain in arms and legs as usual, but I steared clear of taking any painkillers now that I was pregnant.
The doctors keept a close eye on me , to make sure that both my children grew as they should, and both were born completely normal in the weight department.

Pregnancy number two, became a bit of a trial in the end, because I started bleeding in week 38 and Went to the doctor, that told me, that my placenta was’ nt moving up as it should, so they needed to keep an extra eye on me, to make sure it would’nt be in the way at delivery, at the last scan, they told me it was fine and the placenta was where it should be.
But than all of a sudden one thursday night, I felt pain and I started to bleed again, so I went to the hospital, to make sure everything was as it should be, but I was sent home, with the message, they did’nt have room.
My mother in law as smart as she is, did’nt feel comfortable with me, going all the way home, told me to stay the night at her place, just to be on the safe side, and that was the smartest thing I have ever done, because friday morning everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong.
I started to bleed so much it just ran out all over the place, an ambulance was called and I was brought to the hospital, so they could preform an emergency c-section.
My heart stopped on the operating table, but I was brought back after a little while. Luckily my daughter came into this world, without any complications from what happened, she was hungry as I dont know how to explain and the happiest little girl, that any one could ever wish for.

Now there I was,  a mother with two small girls, still in a lot of pain, bad lung and now to boot a heart, that had been shocked.
All of these symptomes, that I have descibed here, I have been told after the diagnoses, that it was because my body did’nt produce the hormones, that ends up with the diagnoses of Addisons disease, I now just have a very hard time coming to terms with the fact, that no other doctor, at any givin time of my visits, did’nt think to check for that, but that is probably a question, that I will never get an answer to.
Besides my Addison, I have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, from what happened, with the birth of my second daughter, I got anxiety attacks, whenever I went into my mother in laws bathroom or I saw the shirt I was wearing the day it happened, its gotten a bit better after I talked it out with mu husband and with as many people as I could, to get a distance from it, but I am still very sensitive to everything that can be stressfull.
I’ve started hydrocortisol treatment after my diagnoses, but my day to day, still does’nt work as it should, I have a hard time handeling ordenary tasks like taking care of my two children, and it hurts so much, that I cant be the mother, that I wish So much I could be. I know, that it takes time for the body, to get on top again after something like this, but it is very difficult, to lie in your room listening to your daughters having fun, playing, without being able to join in the fun.

The people who has Addisons disease, has an invissible disease, that shows, that we dont work like other people, you just dont see it, like other diseases, that is why, it is so hard for people on the sidelines to understand the reasons why we dont chip in, when something has to be done.
We more than offen get labeled as being lazy and I think that is a pity, because we dont do it on purpose, most of us really want to be a part of all life, we just cant do it all the time.

I write this blogg, because I wish to tell people about this disease, to help others in the same situation, to tell, that you are not alone, all of the feelings, that you fell, you dont have to carry alone, all of us with Addison will carry them with you and help each other,  because we are all in the same boat.

Lisbeth, the owner of this blogg, was sent from heaven to me, at a time where I needed her the most, she put into words how I was feeling and made me fell like I was’nt alone anymore and for that I’m forever gratefull.
I’m finally feeling like I’m getting in control of this situation, over this disease and that is what is giving me the strenght to keep fighting and I wish to help others by telling my story.

There will still be days where everything is black, that is part of the deal, but if we talk to each other and help each other, we will come out the other side, with the energy to keep moving forward and that is absolutely worth it.
So my final advise, before my first blogg ends, would be. Dont hide yourself behind closed doors, but let us in and let us help you carry those dark feeling, because we know how you feel and you dont ever have to feel alone again.
 
 


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