can you be cured

[CHELLETO6DOGS]

My mother has told us since we were 7, well since I was 7 that she had addison's disease and told us that it was very important that she takes her medication everyday or else she could and would go into a crisis and could die... her sisters have it. i have never heard her doctors mention anything about it to us while we were with her.. she has switched doctors several times.
I noticed several times that she wasn't taking her thyroid or her addisons medication and as a teen I used to be so scared of loosing her.. finally a few years ago i called her doctors office to tell them my concerned and tell them how he isn't taking her medications she is totally with it mentally. i do also have permission to speak with her doctor's office.. the message i got back was not to worry she doesn't have a true case of addisons disease. and now she said she is cured from it when she came home from the doctors the following week  she said it was due to her fosomax that cured her and her bone density test was getting worse and that is why they feel she is cured.

Now can this be true.. my mother has lied about the medical issues in our family several times... she goes and brags how high her thyroid numbers are and how she is able to function she doesn't take her meds she wants to be sick and i have told her doctor this but there isnothing they can do.. now that we are arguing i am not to talk to her doctors anymore... i need know because I need to make my doctors aware of the possible addisons.  i have many many medical issues and i and sick of being tested for one thing or another. i don't really want to get tested unless I REALLY have to..i hope this makes sense
Thanks
Michelle

[rumpled]

Just so you know - dex is a very very powerful steroid that lasts up to 56 hours in the body. It is not the replacement steroid of choice and because it lasts so long, one of the side effects is that it eats bone - hence her bone issues.

My mom was very similar to yours - she was a nurse, did not take her medications. She died in her home. When we cleared out the house, we found so many pills that we filled a box 12 inches high, 8 inches deep to the top, of pills - no bottles - just pills! to take to a pharmacy to properly dispose of them. I even found more after that.  We could never get her to take care of herself.

[CHELLETO6DOGS]

I have talked and written several notes to her doctors. I should also mention that she use to work as a nurse with some of these doctors at a nursing home..
any way it seems like when they finally realize that she isn't taking her meds she changes doctors..
No way do i see the same doctors as her..and I make sure I do get a copy of all my records as I have many specialist and i need them to be on the same page...
My mom was taking dexamethazone or something like that... i don't know now she is moving 1 1/2 hours north of me and  i am not going to worry about it, she should know by not taking her medications what it is going to do my sister is now going to be going with her to these doctors and it will be much easier for my sister to get her help as she is head of Adult protective services... the way my mom is gong she is hurting herself and if she isn't taking the proper medication or taking meds for no reason she could also hurt others.. my sister is fully aware of this and has seen it so hopefully my mom can get the help she needs

thank you for your answer
Michelle

[rumpled]

I am so sorry about your mom - my mom also did not take her medications.

If you do some research, you will find that cortef, which is a corticosteroid, will cause bone density to go down, not up. If her bone density is worse, it shows she was taking corticosteroids or it could be other things - but fosamax only works on bones, it has nothing to do with the adrenals. So it would help clean up some of the damage, but it will not effect the hormones.

Taking corticosteroid will make you sick - taking too much can suppress the thyroid as well as make the bones thinner, make you tired, sick, etc. It can also eventually make your adrenals stop working.

Technically, Addison's disease is an autoimmune disease - so perhaps the message was right - and she has adrenal insufficiency - which is what I have - no adrenals. It may have been that the message was wrong but nevertheless - your mom is not medicating herself properly. She is not setting a good example for you and the doctors probably do not trust her and if you see the same doctors, they probably don't trust you either.

Your mom needs help. Can your write a note to the doctors about her behavior?