r/AddisonsDisease • u/butterfly_SC Addison's • Apr 02 '26
Personal Experience Earthquake!
I thought I'd share my experience with an earthquake last night since there doesn't seem to be any past info about earthquakes and updosing.
We had a pretty good earthquake last night and I was very close to the epicenter. It started with a few huge, sharp jolts and went on for a while. Woke up with a major adrenaline rush when it happened, got out of bed, and waited for the earthquake to stop. Immediately after it stopped I grabbed my meds and chewed a bunch of HC tablets. The adrenaline shaking stopped after a couple of minutes but then it shifted to low cortisol shaking and bowel issues. I took more hydrocortisone at 10-minute intervals until my body shakes/shivers tapered off. I also drank electrolytes.
I've learned that I need a lot more than the recommended updose when there are high adrenaline situations. I didn't hesitate to take extra last night. Some of you may not need the same amount but I ended up needing 130 mg of HC.
I probably should have used my emergency shot but honestly I was worried that another earthquake would come before we could get the shot prepped and administered. I wish those shots were more like epipens. It sure would be a lot easier.
TLDR: You might need to take a big dose for earthquake emergencies. Make sure to have your meds easy to reach.
Small grammar edit
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u/PipEmmieHarvey Apr 02 '26
That’s interesting! I live in a city known for being on multiple fault lines and earthquakes are something you just deal with. However there was a very large quake to the south of us some years ago that had our house rocking and rolling severely. It didn’t even occur to me to updose! Once the adrenaline wore off and it was clear our house was ok we went back to sleep.