What I really wanted to do was post my goals and stuff. Self centered, I know. You're saved from that with yet another rant.
I read other Addison's forums in addition to
my own forum. This morning I saw a post on another forum accusing a high functioning, non-martyr Addison's person (Jim) of being "lucky" with his health. Jim is really active, takes his meds 6X a day and has a great quality of life. He's also not afraid to speak his mind about Addison's facts and treatment. I wish more people would emulate Jim and try his techniques instead of whining that taking meds that often is too much work.
From my experience with Addison's,
luck has NOTHING to do with quality of life. Those of us who have good Quality of Life work
damned hard to get to where we are.
Common denominators in us "lucky" people with good quality of life:
- We research our conditions
- We proactively work with doctors instead of following doctors blindly when it comes to our treatment
- We replace hormones that are missing
- Almost everyone I know who has a good quality of life is on less steroid than they need on a regular basis (Lymes peeps included) and consistently underestimates their needs, we rarely over replace
- Speaking entirely for myself on this one. Instead of relying on HC sometimes to keep me going so I can do more, I take the opportunity to use it to rest my body
- We take our bioidentical meds physiologically. If our doctor has given us different instructions, we tend to keep that in the back of our mind and experiment with amounts and timing
- I think everyone I know who has a good quality of life is on HC as opposed to a long acting steroid (if you are the exception, that's awesome but for the most part HC is the thing for people with good QoL)
- We don't drink diet soda or regular soda for that matter
- We sleep enough and regularly
- We eat well and regularly with more protein and salt in our diets than the usual person
- We get exercise regularly or get activity during the day like walking 5 dogs at once (for you L xo)
- If we're not feeling well, we take a look at all factors and don't blame the Addison's first
Yes, there are people who do all of this and their QoL still sucks. Guess what? They are usually the most educated and spend an incredible amount of time on 1 & 2. Eventually, they will feel like their Quality of Life matches the effort they are putting into their health. These people are, by no means, "lucky."
As you can see, much of QoL is not "luck," it's hard work, lots of research and a healthy lifestyle. Secondly, it's taking bioidentical meds (particularly HC) in a physiologic manner. Yes, it's hard work to go to bed when everyone else is watching movies, it's hard to set up pills for a month, it's hard to make sure there's good, healthy food on hand at all times, it's hard to get regular exercise (especially with chronic medical conditions) and it's hard to take meds multiple times a day. Give it a try and see if your Quality of Life improves.
Hard work does NOT equal luck.
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