Addison's Disease Support Group

Addison's disease (also known as chronic adrenal insufficiency, or hypocortisolism) is a rare endocrine disorder. It is estimated that it affects about 1 to 2 in 100,000 people. It occurs when the adrenal glands, seated above the kidneys, fail to produce enough of the hormone cortisol and, sometimes, the hormone aldosterone

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/ Addison's Disease Support Group

Jittery and shakes

Darla40
Darla40
Hi, I've really been struggling with pre- crisis ( I'm assuming) been weak, jittery, shakes, cold, hair falling, very nauseated, craving salt thirsty , chest pain, no appetite, do any of u guys feel jittery and shaky when cortisol is low? I'm retaining fluid but it's not being pulled in my vascular system for some reason? Thanks for ur input. Darla
22Lynn
22Lynn
Yes, I get a deep shaking feeling deep inside that works it way out. It starts in the abdominal area. I take both HC and a dose of Klonopin to make it stop. I hate this feeling when it happens. Low cortisol causes so many things. Like the nausea, weakness, craving salt, and no appetite. You should probably double your dose of HC to avoid a crisis. Are you on Florinef? A good source of salt is chicken broth, that shouldn't bother your stomach too much. You also really need to stay hydrated even if you are retaining fluids. Do you think you need to go to the ER and get an IV of steroids and fluids? If you think you might be having a crisis you need to go to the ER. Do you have Zofran or Phenegran for the nausea? Do you have an emergency injection kit? When I get this bad I give myself a shot and can usually skip the ER. How bad is the chest pain? With the chest pain I think you need to decide if this is something that should be seen by a doctor. Only you can decide how bad your feeling and if you can handle this at home or need to be at the hospital. I hope your feeling better soon. Let me know if you have any questions, I've been dx over 15 years. Let me know how your doing. I'm sorry that your having such a rough time.
webber
webber
As usual, 22Lynn has given you great advice and I agree with being on the safe side and going to the ER or using emergency kit. I have found that the longer you allow your body to stay in pre-crisis the harder the actual crisis can be.
Hope you are feeling well soon!
deleted_user
deleted_user
I just got jittery and shaky today after an emergency feeding tube change (done without anesthesia or sedation, despite my really needing some kind of sedation due to prior traumatic experiences in that particular operating room -- there simply was no time to set up sedation). And they at first were saying "It's probably low blood sugar since you didn't get any food all day."

But then I said "It's probably low cortisol," at which point everyone freaked out and got me to my meds as fast as possible. I took a big dose of dexamethasone and felt a lot better within the hour, enough to really impress my physical therapist at my next appointment yesterday.

I would strongly advise taking your steroids, and if that doesn't work, going to the ER. Don't mess around with this.