I do have some exciting news I wanted to pass along to people. The title of the post probably gave it away already....haha! I had been keeping this to myself for many weeks and have only told a few people. I wanted to know for sure what was going on.
Several weeks ago my husband and I went to Dr. Roger Sapp's Christ-centered healing meeting in Indiana. It was quite a journey for us to go, but we really wanted to!!
Some Christians believe that sickness glorifies God or has some sort of purpose, such as teach them a lesson or make them a better person. Others have misunderstood Paul's "thorn in the flesh" or the story of Job and then use those as reasons for why they are sick. I don't believe in any of those so I have been pursuing Jesus as my healer.
For more info on what I believe, you can also read my post, It is God's Will To Heal to get a better understanding too.
At the meeting, we had a great time visiting with people and making some new friends. At first when I was being prayed for, I felt nothing at all. We prayed a few more times and just decided to let things ride out. Then I had some other people come over to pray for me. They asked what was wrong and I went through that whole mess..."what isn't wrong with me"...haha As I was being prayed for again, I felt a deep warmth within the core of my body, but it only lasted a short time. I did not think too much of it. That weekend we prayed for others and it was a great experience! One person, we later found out was totally healed of his heart condition. That was pretty awesome! Thank you Jesus!
On Monday the day after we got back, I realized I had forgotten to take my hydrocortisone. It scared me a bit, so I immediately took it. The next day, the same thing happened. I just forgot, but I decided I wouldn't take it unless I started to feel sick.
Usually when I forget to take my HC, things escalate within minutes or hours. It does not take long to know that low cortisol is setting in. First, I typically feel a bit off and my head hurts. Then I begin to get this nagging pain in my stomach or back. If it keeps going, then I will get chills and the pain will increase. This is usually when I begin to feel weak and incoherent and my husband would have to help me. If even more time went on, I would have severe nausea and then vomiting. I never let it get that far because that's adrenal crisis territory and that is serious business. You can go into a coma and die.
I wasn't experiencing any of those symptoms. I was being very cautious and keeping an eye on myself though. There were a few days I took 2.5mg because I was still a bit shocked that I did not need it anymore...hahah!
It has now been 6 weeks since that meeting. My heavenly Father healed me of Addison's Disease or adrenal insufficiency! I am no longer taking hydrocortisone when previously I could not wean myself off of it at all. I used to take anywhere from 15-20mg of HC on a daily basis. Many people in the chronic illness community can attest to this fact. :) I have hundreds if not thousands of posts on forums that confirm my need for hydrocortisone on various forums and groups.
There has been a few attempts over the years where I took it upon myself to try weaning down on my dose. It always ended up going really bad. Below I grabbed a few snippets from old blog posts to show you!
From my post, Ugh HC Weaning Isn't Going Well in September 2010:
"It's been another 10 days or so and my body cannot adjust to this lower dose of HC...I have moments of complete hearing loss in my ears for a few minutes at a time. I've been feeling sick to my stomach, almost flu-like without actually vomiting though and I've been having crazy hot flashes and chills....Yesterday and the day before I had to take more HC. I was sort of afraid that if I didn't I'd start going down the adrenal crisis path. Ugh. I just hate to admit defeat on this because I really don't want to have to take HC for the rest of my life. It's pretty frustrating."
The next day I gave up and started taking the full dose of HC again.
From my post, Well that Didn't Work in May 2010:
"Going down to 15mg of HC was disastrous. It took me 1 day to realize that was a bad bad bad idea, so I'm back up to 17.5mg. I seem to do well here for now."
Going back and reading through all of that was amazing. Thank you Jesus, I was healed! There is simply no other explanation. Having been on steroids for more than 3 years, I should not have been able to go cold turkey like that any how, but I did! Over those 3 years I had tried SOO many times to come off of HC and it never worked. Just two weeks before this meeting, I tried to lower my dose and I could not do it at all...I immediately was sick.
I can't even tell you how incredibly happy I am about this. I no longer have to wear a medical alert bracelet. I always felt that thing marked me and it was awful. Thank you Jesus! I am set free!
Now I need POTS to leave my body in Jesus name and the world will never be the same. Watch out everybody! haha :) A healthy me, hasn't been around ever, so who knows what awesomeness will come out of it.
Update August 1 2013: I am still not taking HC. I continue to battle and stand for other healings, which have not come as easy.
2 comments:
Congratulations on feeling better and being healed of Addisons!! I too was healed of Addisons this past year after being on Hydrocortisone for almost 3 years. I was on 20 mgs in the morning and 10 mg pm, though. I was able to come off steroids this past June when my Endocrinologist retested me and my base level had gone from below 50 (3 years ago) up to 426 now. He said I was weak but good. I only have to take steroids for when I have a cold or flu, or stressed now. Now if I can just lose the weight that I've gained on these steroids. UGH...
I also have POTS and Systemic Mastocytosis. I found your blog because of the 23andMe raw data breakdown. THANKS for that!!! AWESOME!!! I'm going through that now.
Congratulations Dana and Gypsy Princessa on your healing. I feel happy for both of you in your success, and it gives me hope. I have had Addisons since 2008, and I'm still hopeful about healing, and reducing, if not coming off, my medication. In recent times because of stress in my life, even the 20mg I've been taking has been barely keeping me going, and this has discouraged me a bit. But reading your posts, it seems anything is possible!
Gypsy, I would really appreciate any advice you have to share about what helped you regain strength. Thanks! And thanks for posting.
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