Aha!

Most of you have probably already figured this out, but today I came to a "mini-conclusion" about how to manage Annie's symptoms. I have always thought of her neuro stuff as being in one closet, and her endo/Addison's stuff as being in another. If she came up with a symptom, I always had this feeling that I needed to figure out which closet to look in to get the answer, or the solution to the problem, i.e., is her nausea being caused by her seizures, or her Addison's? As soon as I figured that out, THEN I could treat it.

Well, one of her pet symptoms is nausea/vomiting. The cause may be neuro (seizure activity) or endocrine (the Addison's). Bottom line, though, it doesn't matter what's causing it, because if it's seizures, she is under stress, so she needs more hydrocortisone. If it's Addison's that's causing the nausea, she needs more hydrocortisone. The cause of the nausea may be something that would be nice to figure out--sometime later today--but the solution to the nausea will almost always involve more hydrocortisone. This clarity is a little gift from God today, an answer to your prayers. :)

Now, the exception to this rule would be if we were in the doctor's office on Olivia's 14th birthday, because say, Olivia had a cough or something like that, and I happened to use the antibacterial gel so I wouldn't transfer swine flu germs to Annie, and say, that time that I did that, I also noticed that Annie was drooling, so I grabbed a couple of tissues to wipe her mouth without totally letting the gel dry that was on my hands, so that Annie could possibly get a whiff of the gel that would cause a visceral response such as retching. Then, I wouldn't necessarily give her more hydrocortisone. I would ask the receptionist how fast she could hand me an emesis basin. And then, Olivia and I could possibly set a record on how much time it took to obtain the basin, put it under Annie's chin, and save Annie's outfit, in the doctor's office. Hypothetically speaking.

Jean

For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6