 |  | | Francisca — Edmonton, AB |
| | | I had not been feeling "right" for some time, and since I didn't have a family physician, went to somebody I had never seen before. I told her that I was exhausted all the time and had no energy. I had no appetite and had been steadily losing weight. She ran the usual tests and I never heard back from her. "No news is good news."
Looking back, I had an unexplained "tan", but thought it might be residual colour from going to the tanning booths over five months before. In addition to the tan, my mom had commented on my purple gums on more than a few occasions.
I continued to get worse. By this time, I was showing up later and later for work every day. My employers thought I was out partying every night, but that was not the case. I had two alarm clocks set and wouldn't hear either of them go off. Arriving at work around 10am and barely making it through to the end of the day at 4pm, when I would walk home, have a large tin of tomato or Clamato juice and go to bed for the night. On my way to work one morning, I got off the bus and collapsed sideways against the building. Later that day I started experiencing severe abdominal pain. The pain woke me up at 6am (the earliest I had woken up in at least a month). I assumed I had appendicitis, and drove myself to the nearby ER.
Walking into the ER, I got into the line waiting to see the nurse. Before I got to the front, a nurse came running up to me with a wheelchair - she had me get in and took me right in. I looked like death.
The resident that spoke with me in the ER had an idea of what I had. After checking the colour of my crease lines (palms, elbows, and armpits), he asked whether I'd been having salt cravings. Besides the sodium-packed tomato and Clamato juice, I had been devouring salty Dutch licorice - the double - and the triple-salted varities. I was admitted to the hospital.
Unfortunately, it took an entire week before any treatment was started. In the meantime, I was put through a battery of tests, including an internal (the OB-GYN found an ovarian cyst and was planning on operating), barium enema, and multiple blood tests. By this time, my energy level was non-existent. I couldn't make it to the bathroom on my own anymore and needed help with everything.
Blood tests started early every morning, but as the week progressed, my blood pressure dropped so much that they weren't able to draw more than a few drops. I thought I was going to die. At the end of a week-long stay, a physician provided me with Cortisone Acetate and told me to take one tablet in the morning and a half tablet in the evening. I started feeling better in a very short time.
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