 |  | | Bill — Kingston, ON |
| | | My son was diagnosed with Addison's at age 2. Our first indication that something was wrong was when he would vomit in the morning then crave salty foods afterwrds and be fine for the rest of the day. Then the cycle would repeat again in the morning and did so for several days. It wasn't until the third day that he finally became very grey in his skin color and was almost non-responsive. This was our first Addison's crisis.
We immediately took him to the Childrens Outpatient Center where he was put on a saline drip. Blood tests were taken and he was found to have low sodium levels and high potassium levels.
It wasn't until he was finally admitted to the pediatrics section of KGH where he stayed for several days that they started to figure out his condition and placed him on hydrocortisone and florinef.
Up until his first signs of Addison's, Ethan presented himself as a very active and normal 2 year old. It was believed that the onset was brought on by him being sick with Norwalk virus which he contracted at his daycare. Due to his body trying to fight off the virus, the adrenal gland started to show it's inability to function properly.
Shortly after the Norwalk incident, Ethan suffered from constant constipation which, upon retrospect, could have been due to the lack of hydration in his body. He was taken to after-hours clinics repeatedly but was always brushed off as just normal constipation and given instruction to drink prune juice and other natural laxatives.
The next incident occured when finally, from all the constipation, Ethan was found to have a hernial tear and had to have surgery. At this point he was still not diagnosed with Addison's and had not yet had his first crisis. Therefore, he went through surgery with no extra medication.
It was shortly after surgery that Ethan had his first crisis and he was finally put on medication. Although Addison's was suspected, the final diagnosis took several months to confirm.
On a positive note, Ethan has an amazing pediatric endocronologist that he sees every 4 months. She has provided us with a letter explaining Ethan's condition and the procedure to follow in case of crisis. She is very accessible and is always available to answer questions.
We have only had one crisis involving hospitalization since his first crisis and upon presenting the letter to the triage nurse in emergency, Ethan had a room in less than 10 minutes and an I.V. drip in less then 30 minutes.
Ethan is now 5 years old and is as active as any other child his age.
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