Welcome to Our Web site!
About Doris
I was born on April 6, 1961 with a cleft palate. Here
began my journey with the medical field.
As a teenager, I had many bouts of bronchitis and
pneumonia, sometimes twice a month, which left me with vomiting, diarrhea,
losing 10 lbs. in a week, nearly passing out on the few steps to the
bathroom and finding the only food I could keep down was ham or salted
sunflower seeds. No one seemed to know what was causing this and my asthma
developed at the same time. After 6 doctors, I was finally tested by a
competent allergist and found to have multiple allergies to pollens, danders,
dusts, foods. Once these were controlled with immunotherapy, I improved and
left for college shortly after.
I enjoyed a long “remission” of sorts during college,
marriage and the birth of 5 children. It was when our youngest was just
over 10 months old that I had an anaphylactic reaction to ibuprofen.
It was Aug. 30, 1994 and I was home alone with my baby,
as my husband had a martial arts club and took the other 4 kids along. God
provided a neighbor who had never before come over, to come over for a
rubber stamping session that evening. When she arrived, I could barely
speak despite taking extra antihistamines and using an inhaler. We decided
that she would give me a ride to where my husband was holding class and he
would take me to an after hours clinic or a hospital. For some reason, I
grabbed an epi-pen, although I had never before used one.
With my son in his car seat, we headed down the road,
stopping to get her cell phone. Within minutes, my face and throat were
very swollen. She tried to call 911, but there was no coverage on her cell
phone. She drove at 75 mph and a sheriff went past without stopping. My
eyes were nearly swollen shut and I felt like I was slowly drifting away, so
I knew I had to use the epi-pen. This was difficult because I couldn’t
remember the directions and my eyes were nearly swollen shut. I managed to
inject it and God provided volunteer firemen training at an unmanned fire
station just a few miles farther down the road. They called an ambulance
with advanced life support and got me on oxygen.
I had an IV of benadryl and fluids in the ambulance (my
then 5 year old daughter can still tell you what clothes I was wearing that
night) and then epi, solu-medrol, tagamet and more benadryl in the hospital
along with nebulizer treatments. This started the road of prednisone for
me.
We still didn’t know what had triggered the reaction
and so I unknowingly repeated this again 2 days later, except Vern drove me
to the allergy clinic. It was a less severe reaction since I was still on
high doses of prednisone. It was while I was sitting there being injected
with epinephrine that the PA and I figured out it was the ibuprofen that the
allergist said I could take by “trial and error.” Little did I know ‘error’
could mean losing my life.
I had no idea that this damage would cause my adrenal
glands to slowly fail, almost 2 years (to the day!) later. During these 2
years, I became more allergic to pollens, medications, you name it, and it
makes me miserable!
In August 1996, the kids and I caught the first cases
of croup. We were all put on prednisone. As I tapered the prednisone from
60mg to 0 mg over 21 days, my adrenal glands shut down. I had the most
incredible joint pains—almost like transition labor pains, as the pain came
in waves—that I had ever experienced. My PCP’s nurse practitioner looked at
my knees and said they looked fine, they took x-rays, etc. They called the
allergy clinic’s PA who actually told them that I was in steroid withdrawal,
but somehow the message never came across. Next we went back to the PA at
the allergy clinic. She talked with the Dr. and sent me to the lab for a
cortisol level that afternoon and the next morning---which would be 3 days
without prednisone. My labs came back at .1 both times.
Then they made the mistake of putting me on 30mg of
pred. and trying to taper from there. I was the first patient they’d had
with adrenal failure in a very mature practice. They practically yelled at
me “You do not have Addison’s Disease!” when I’d increase a little as I got
too low. “Stop messing with the prednisone!” But each time I had problems
tapering, they would bump me back up to 30mg and we’d start again. At some
point, we switched to Medrol. Later, after pharmacokinetic studies at
National Jewish Center proved I metabolized Medrol very quickly, I was
advised to switch back to prednisone.
Then the visits to endocrinologists began. They all
gave me tapering schedules and insisted my adrenal glands would respond.
This went on until Dec. 14th, 2000 when the head of endocrinology
at University Hospital in Denver admitted that I probably would never have
adrenal function again. It was a relief to stop the tapering yo-yo.
My health continued to decline until I saw Dr.
Rees-Jones in Aurora, CO in March, 2002. My biggest fear in seeing him (or
any other endocrinologist) was that we’d start again with the Cortrysyn Stim
Tests, etc. To my delight, he didn’t. He instinctively knew what was
wrong, what to test for, etc. He was wonderfully funny and embraced my
crazy, bizarre sense of humor without any hint of an ego. He found more
glandular failure and over the past 2 years, we’ve been a team to get me
stabilized. If I walk in without some crazy joke, he knows I’m very sick and
he’s going to work his butt off. If I have something silly, he knows I’m
doing well and it’s just a matter of tweaking medications to make me feel
even better.
Since everyone in his clinic seemed to know me, I once
asked if it was because of my practical jokes and silliness or my health
that they all remember me. The nurse replied that it was my unstableness.
Vern took this to mean my “mental” unstableness. I later asked Dr.
Rees-Jones and he clarified that it truly was the unstable health that made
me memorable. I’m working on being remembered for my silliness now.
In Sept. 2003, I was able to convince our insurance to
approve me for Xolair, a genetically engineered drug that binds to IgE,
stopping the allergic reaction virtually before it starts. I was to the
point of taking 7 different antihistamines, leukotriene receptors, and 20 mg
of pred. to feel comfortable during the worst part of the pollen season
which for me is mid-June to late Oct. It was not a good solution, but it
was the only solution until Xolair was approved. This has been my miracle
drug. I’ve gone from lying in bed nearly every day, to being up and about
and awake nearly every day. I no longer home school my kids in my nightgown
while lying on the floor. I’m sewing again, doing crafts again and on a
really good day, my family gets an entire meal! They’re really impressed.☺
Statement of Faith
I am a Christian who believes in Jesus Christ as her
Lord and Savior.
I was baptized and brought up in the United
Congregational Church, married there too. Vern and I have been members of
that church, also the Evangelical Covenant Church (the church he was raised
in), and the Black Forest Church--a non-denominational Bible-based church.
I simply believe that Jesus is my Lord and Savior
and the Bible is the only truth. One has to have a relationship with God in
addition to believing in Him, and that I have....some very personal meetings
that I may share later.
I am proud of my beliefs and want everything I do to reflect and glorify
God.
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