First of all, I wanted to ask anyone if they know if Addison's is hereditary. I just found out yesterday that my great grandmother on my mother's side had Addison's Disease! Hmmmm... Also, my husbands grandmother had Addison's Disease...could it be likely that my son will have it also, since he has 3 people in his family that have had it? My husband is seriously worried about this now.

Anyway...about the meds. If anyone could help me I would greatly appreciate it. They prescribed me Florinef, .1mg, to take once each day, but it doesn't say what time is better to take it. I took it in the morning, with the rest of the meds. Is that okay, or is there a better time to take it?

They also prescribed me Prednisone, 5mg in the am (I take it at about 6am when I get out of the shower) and 2.5mg at 2pm. Luckily Prednisone never upsets my stomach...I found this out by taking 40mg at one time for severe asthma, and even that much never upset my stomach, so I doubt 5mg will. Anyway...I took Chris' adivce and am also taking Milk Thistle. I'm just curious though, it says on the side to take "up to 2" capsules each day. They are 175mg capsules. Should I take one or two, for the amount of Prednisone I'm on? What time of day should I take it? Is 6am okay? I have a TERRIBLE time remembering to take meds in the morning, but if I can get in the habit of taking them all at the same time it may help. I wish you could take all meds at night, it would help me remember so much better b/c I just take them right after my nightly bath. I was just wondering.

Lastly, is this the amount I will have to be on from now on, or will they have to test and readjust my doses depending on how I react to them? My brother in law's wife's sister was diagnosed with Addison's Disease 3 years ago and my bil said that it took forever for them to figure out her dose amounts, and until then she had a lot of trouble with it. Is this usually the case?

Thanks for any help!! I appreciate all the responses to my questions so far! :)

Kara

My family does have a history of autoimmune diseases. My paternal grandmother had Lupus, Sjogrens Syndrome, and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Two of her sisters also had Lupus. My father has diabetes. And now my great grandmother had Addison's. I also have high ANA count, which they don't quite know the origin of.

Kara...

7.5mg prednisone is about the same as the 6.0mg methylprednisolone that Chris is on, so it's not wildly high.

Addison's, per se, is not hereditary, but sometimes it is caused by a hereditary condition -- there are several possibilities. One likely possibility is that the ancestor's condition was all caused by tuberculosis -- not heriditary!

Or different causes.

I'm not sure of the state-of-the-art in genetic screening for the conditions which are. Autoimmune diseases tend to have an inherited susceptibility factor combined with some triggering event, often a virus.

I'll take up that question myself, once I know what *I* have, but genetic counciling may be helpful for you, to identify what may or may not be relevant and what may or may not be a concern, and possible tests for your children that might flag a need to be on the alert -- and what you can stop worrying about.

I already know my daughters both need to be concerned about diabetes, and asthma, especially my biological daughter for diabetes -- my stepdaughter already HAS asthma, as does her biological father. By comparison, Addison's is not strongly inherited, so I'm much less concerned, unless I turn out to have something that is known to be inheritable.

-- Bob Kerns

Hi Bob, nice to see you at this board! :)

Thanks for your reply, I'll ask my doctor about the idea of genetic counceling. :)

Kara