Addison Disease Support Group

Hi All;

For those of you who work. Have you had to tell your employer about your adrenal insufficiency in case you would have a crisis and unable to inject yourself at work with the Solu Cortef?

I recently started a new job and had an episode that nearly made me pass out and I told my co worker about the injection and she said I had to let the first responders at work know in case I needed the injection. Well, turns out that they are not trained to do this and would have to wait for paramedics. My question is... has anyone had to deal with their employer on this and how was it handled. I am now afraid I may lose my job.

Thank You

You won't lose your job, and if you did, you can sue them. And also, addison's crisis doesn't happen so instantly, it's a lead up to thing. I have always been able to determine when I am approaching addison's crisis door step sort of speak, and I immediately increase my pred over the next few doses. And can always tell when I'm beginning to feel better. Do you take hc or pred? What may happen more suddently is the drop in blood pressure when getting up from the desk. Take care

I take hydrocortisone.

I showed my member of staff how to mix my hydrocortisone and how to inject - she wasn't impressed and said I need a nurse not a member of staff. There is no way she would do it for me...anyway, I have had a couple of espisodes but you do feel it coming on, its hard to explain what it feels like but you will know. The problem is for emergencies like car accidents and so on, then you just have to make sure you have a medic alert bracelet on.

I work in a small office where everyone knows. A friend of mine from high school also works there, and he knows how to give the injection.

Be aware the EMT's will NOT give you the injection. THey have to wait for permission from the ER doctor, and they won't get it until after you arrive at the ER. Usually you will be able to inject yourself, but in case you cannot, in the rare case of a severe trauma, you will have to decide what you want to do about that.

Like someone else said, they cannot fire you for that. It is a lawsuit waiting to happen. It is an intramuscular injection, so it will be quite intimidating to a random coworker. My friend at work has been with me through this whole process, and he understands that he isn't going to hurt me - extra steroids will never cause me harm, so if he thinks he should inject me, he'll do it first and think about it second. He also has seen me have a crisis, been at my house after I got home from the hospital, etc., so that's totally different from your average coworker.

My suggestion would be to train a couple of coworkers to jump up and down and demand you receive solu-cortef asap while drawing attention to your medic-alert bracelet. They should demand to ride on the ambulance, and then jump up and down again at the hospital. That is truly the most effective short of injecting you themselves.

Cynthia