Dear Danny,

Thanks for the directions on the CAH egg.

 Although, I don’t don’t find anything good about CAH - I’m sorry those genital exams at the best hospital in the mid- west ruined my trusting innocence. No ten year old should have to sit down on a man’s finger and so what if he is a doctor later on one of the experts quiped they were trained - so what I was still a child. Room was yellow and his tie was gold with blue poka dots. Thought of suicide after that was done to me and also later on- one of the experts actually had the nerve to tell me that it was thought that having me site down on his finger was less of a trauma ...alright. Having your training bra flipped up with one finger - no warning by the friendly endo after pulling it up yourself for a resident because he froze as he was doing it and then got right in close to you as he measured your breasts becase it was so gosh darn exciting that the little caher was in puberty but BS her during puberty as she sprouts more facial and arm hair (went way down in my 20’s after I took less cortisone on my own) ...minimize what she says as she relays that the kids on the bus and at school tease the crap out of her because of it - Hair ? Nawwww the big people in the white coats say. Bite me ....reading the records later that indeed the hair was a concern to them. Feeding someone more prednisone doesn’t make it better. hearing parents say what they feel about the way I was born .....Ewww gross ......the mother of a child with CAH wrote to me. Ya know, I don’t think people react to other conditions that way and the most recent- As I was being checked in by the floor nurse for my Gall Bladder problem. Upon me informing her about the CAH ...mostly needing extra cortisol because I had been throwing up and my blood sugar was low - the nurse says with a smirk Ohhh what are the symtoms of CAH? I then explained the symtoms of the adrenal crisis part .....she cared less and didn’t seem to hear me. Then I brought up excessive androgens that are capped when we recieve the cortisone to make up for the cortisol our adrenal glands lack - she then gets a big smile ad this is at three am ....that would be hermaphrodite  ....I looked at her and sighed thought Oh maybe she’d like to learn about the prader scale  yeah  so I told her that yes I’m female ..only female organs ...chromosomes like those matter blah blah with no testes only female internal organs but sometimes girl babies with CAH present on a spectrum of externally looking "normal" all the way to appearing externally male without testes and this is now called the prader scale ...I thought she would like or follow my use of medical terms ..yeah nope - She went ...You were born with a penis and vagina (in a really loud voice)  and there was the smirk again ...it was like she had been waiting to tell me that and got some satisfaction over it- The fact that this was an adrenal gland condition from lack of cortisol wasn’t of interest. I was then confindant that she hadn’t been listening when I informed this nurse about the prader scale...I wanted to tell her about the difference in each prader formation because medically I thought it was interesting ..I was born a prader four where the shape and text was soft and unto it’s own ... She says again hermaphrodite and gives me a look - moves her finger back and forth then smirk asks if  it stood up when I got excited ....Well, I was FIVE and had a clitorectomy ....Oh how do you enjoy sex? was her next question ...oh yes ..we have gone past the medical questions    ..here I am alone with this nurse in a freezing cold hospital room at three in the morning and been throwing up ...yes nurse hermaphrodite.....enjoy sex? what does this have to do with my hospital stay ? nevermind the Sex is fine but love is better. ...those people that write in their research articles sex is tramatic can bite me...genital exams are tramatic and if you want to get correct for the particular condition of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia  the old term that was used Was Female Pseudo Hermaphrodite SECONDARY to Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia and most with CAH don’t even fit under that term or the term intersex but those with the letters behind their names that live in the ivory towers of acadamia need those words for their articles and books ..sigh  boys don’t and most of the girls don’t either I then went to eplain the majority of girls have the enlarged clitoris and many women w/ CAH give birth to their husbands children... she wasn’t interested but went on to ask me what causes CAH? I’m sitting in the hospital bed stunned that she asked me that ......I’m like ...ummm it’s a genetic condition....a metabolic endocrine condition at that.....meanwhile calculatiing in my head that ...yeah I recieved enough solu - cortef in the ER .....so I should be OK because needing more hydro wasn’t on this lady’s mind ......because she went on to talk about DES and what happened to babies because of it. This nurse actually meant well- The lady with another nurse came by when they were working again to see how I was doing and I wasn’t even their patient- I was on another planet w/ double the hydro and another Dr. gave me pain med Dalaudin that is eight times as stronge as Morphine when all I really needed was a tylenol - double dosing Hydro plus the three 100mgs during the 10 day stay and haing the pain med that made me think there was snow on the windows and the roofs outside - look that man is walking on a snowy roof (I live in Florida), that lightening was coming off the tract that the bed curtain was attached and I was talking to a bald man with a sunburn in military fatigues  that wasn’t even there and these nurses came in and wanted me to be social...to chit chat more about CAH? When I left that place after ten days I was full of energy from the extra hydro plus everything else that comes with that - crying, moody and stoned from the pain med- I would like laugh and laugh also . After they discharged me? I made nosies like an owl ....unruffled my wings and I flew away even still I was well aware that the extra hydro makes me like and then that pain med too ...Wow  but felt bad that the nurses and the doctor in charge of my case didn’t connect it. The guy was like I don’t know how to help you. I’m thinking that pain med was power ....me and my adrenal gland thank you for the rest and not to worry - I have a personality that only the Endocrinologist Alliance can understand. (laughter) after seeing my endo for two years - I finally got a reaction out of him ..it’s about time - The evil thyroid made me do it : P

Gosh darn when is CAH going to be seen as just an adrenal gland condition?  I don’t feel there is anything good about CAH but I thought the thread was really cute in the way it’s intended.

Life is what you make it and family experiences also play a major role.

There was another doctor that said something very interesting to me- Besides CAH, I also have some other conditions that have popped up and the Doctor goes "I don’t know why God blessed you with these conditions." Interesting choice of words and how to think of medical conditions. Some of us are given conditions as a reminder of how humanity needs each other? or to at least make people think?