A fit and healthy dad saw his waistline shrink before almost "wasting away" in hospital until doctors discovered a rare condition.
David Mason, 74, was diagnosed with Addison’s Disease in 2015 after seeing his health take a “nosedive” following a period of significant weight loss. David, who lives on the edge of the city centre in Kirkdale, initially noticed going down in waistband sizes towards the end of 2014 but believed this was due to the large amount of walking he was doing in his retirement.
The former bank and insurance information security officer said he had never heard of the rare condition when doctors revealed the diagnosis after a period of significant ill health. This led to being induced into a coma for a number of weeks before eventually having to learn how to walk again, noting how the symptoms were “like having a tap in your big toe and all of your muscle power draining out.”
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Addison’s disease impacts fewer than 10,000 people in the UK and can lead to severe fatigue and muscle weakness, but can be controlled with medication once diagnosed. However the condition can lead to a sudden and potentially fatal worsening of symptoms which in some cases can be treated in an emergency with an injection of steroids.
David wants to raise awareness so members of the public know how to react when somebody requires urgent help. He told the ECHO how he is still recovering physically and mentally after suffering a traumatic experience when needing his own steroid injection last December.
Speaking about the symptoms that eventually led to his diagnosis, David told the ECHO that there were initial fears that he had bowel cancer in 2014. However in January 2015, he said his health took a “nosedive” and was placed into intensive care.
He said he only realised some weeks later that he had been in an induced coma. His weight dropped to as low as nearly six stone while in hospital.
Due to the severity of the symptoms, doctors at Liverpool Royal believed David may have been suffering from something rarer and so was eventually diagnosed with Addison’s Disease in April of the same year. He was also diagnosed with Coeliac disease in the same period.
David said: “In February in the coma, I could only hear what was going on and I couldn’t speak. [Being diagnosed], it was a massive shock to the system. This was something I was going to be living with for life and I had to become an expert patient [to manage the medication.]”
He added: ”When undiagnosed you are wasting away. It was a bit like having a tap in your big toe and all of your muscle power draining out."
Speaking about the sudden worsening of symptoms, David said that he has to carry an emergency injection of steroids at all times which needs to be administered to a muscle in his leg. “If you were to not do that you would end up in an Addison’s coma,” he said.
Accustomed to walking and hiking with a group, David said he had to learn how to walk again with the help of a Zimmer frame in his recovery.
He told the ECHO: "I was starting again from scratch. I was not going to be able to do what I was doing before. I couldn’t even get around Sefton Park without having to stop at first.”
But by September of 2015 he was able to undertake a nine mile walk. More recently he said he also took encouragement from former LFC star Jay Spearing who recently revealed that he was also living with Addison’s Disease following diagnosis in December 2022.
In terms of how members of the public react to people suffering a worsening of symptoms, David points to an “exemplary” response which occurred on a train journey to London. After a train guard put out a call for medical assistance, an anaesthetist administered his injection but continued to ask for guidance rather than fully taking over the situation.
This was in contrast to an incident in December last year where a sudden onset of symptoms led to David falling and breaking his arm. A member of the public in response took over the situation and David claims they waited for the ambulance to deliver the injection and moved him into a more isolated space which added to his mental trauma.
David said the best way to respond is to “listen and react” to those suffering a worsening of symptoms and requiring emergency treatment. You can find more information and support on Addison’s Disease here and coeliac disease here.
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