Cortisol is a hormone made by the adrenal (ah-dree-nal) glands (located just above your kidneys). Cortisol is a steroid hormone that is needed for the body to live. It helps the body to maintain your blood sugar level and handle physical stress, such as infection or trauma.
If your doctor has told you that your child's adrenal glands are not able to make enough cortisol on their own, then you must give a medicine to replace the cortisol. Your doctor will put you on either Cortef or prednisone.
Your child needs to take a daily dose of:
____ Cortef _________mg every _________________
____ Prednisone _____mg every _________________
Stress can be any unusual physical problem the body must deal with. Normally, during stress, adrenal glands make extra cortisol. If your child's adrenal glands are not making cortisol, you need to give extra cortisol when stress occurs. Your child's doctor will tell you how much cortisol is needed.
The stress dose is usually the entire day's doses combined and given every six to eight hours.
Examples of when extra cortisol would be needed:
- Illness such as chickenpox, flu or infection, with fever over 101.5 degrees
- Vomiting or diarrhea
- Surgery or injury such as a broken bone or trauma causing severe bleeding
- Any illness associated with decreased appetite
If your child needs extra cortisol, you should give a “stress dose” of:
____ Cortef _________mg every _________________
____ Prednisone _____mg every _________________
Failure to give a stress dose can cause serious illness or even death.
If your child is unable to take the medicine by mouth or unable to “keep it down,” it must be injected. You will be taught how to give the medicine by injection (“shot”). The shot is called Solu-Cortef.
Your child's injectable dose of Solu-Cortef is:
_________ mg or _________ ml every eight hours
A single shot of the injectable medicine will only cover your child's cortisone needs for eight hours and must be repeated every eight hours as long as stress continues.
Frequently, if the adrenal glands cannot make cortisol, they cannot make aldosterone either. Aldosterone is a hormone that helps to keep your blood pressure normal. The medicine that replaces this hormone is called Florinef. It is not necessary to take extra Florinef during times of stress. ____ Florinef ________mg every _________________
