My dad passed away and it seems the meds no longer work, she is dizzy and has nausea daily so bad that she is at home ill most days. I know the stress of mourning and the change in her life is a big factor. She's had repeated blood test and doctor visits , with little increases to her hydrocortisone, .but with no real change. How much of this could be related to mourning?
Beware of attributing physical symptoms to something emotional until ALL of the physical possibilities have been eliminated. Women, especially elderly women's health concerns often get brushed aside as being emotional in origin. Often, the symptoms of a syndrome or disease process present differently in women than in men, leading to mis- or underdiagnosis.
but never let the idea that there might be a NEW disease process in play escape the eye of the doc.
Years ago, my mom told me, "if you're a woman, doctors tell you three things about what your symptoms are: 1. You haven't gotten your period. 2. You have your period. 3. You don't have your period anymore. You should understand that my mother is a lifelong Republican and NOT a feminist. (I'm a flaming liberal, if anyone cares)
My trajectory with my mom's medical care has been to get all of these "guys" to look seriously at my mom's symptoms. And I think you should too.
One of the most influential things I learned in grad. psych school was "the George Gershwin story:. So, GG was not able to write any music, went to see an MD psychiatrist, who diagnosed him with depression and began to see him 5X a week (this is BEFORE antidepressants). People eating dinner with him reported that he was trying to use a fork to put food into the side of his head.
He died of a brain tumor. YES, he WAS depressed. But many of his symptoms were attributable to the tumor. So....please check our the physical beforehand.