And It's About Time There Was Some Support For Cushing's!
Hello, my name is Daniel Minton and I live in a small town called Tyler, Texas.
I began to gain weight I felt tired and it always seemed I could never get enough to drink and was always having to go to the bathroom. I work for a podiatrist as an assistant. Part of my job is to gather a lot of information for the doctor before the patient sees the doctor. At this time I was on high blood pressure medication. I saw my primary physician and he put me on high blood pressure medication and sleeping pills. I began wondering why I was on high blood pressure and what it was doing and just a lot of questions that I had unanswered.
I felt since I worked in the medical field I should have a good grip on different diseases their effect on people and why people took certain medication. One night I had looked up high blood pressure on the internet. I read all I could about high blood pressure and then I came to a link that said Cushing disease. I click on the word and as I read what the symptoms were I soon realize that I had the very same symptoms. I picked up the phone and called my sister. My sister is a nurse for a gastro doctor, I told her what my findings.
The next day my sister had her doctor order blood tests and I started the 24 hour urine test. When all the tests came back I was diagnosed with Cushing's. If you were to look up the word Cushing's I would be the poster boy. I had everything from moonface to the stretch marks.
On October 23, 2002 at 6A.M. I was having brain surgery removing a tumor on my pituitary gland. Since then I have returned to work I have my good days and bad days.
At the present moment I’m at 20 mg of cortef and I still have to take high blood pressure pill. When this all started I was taking 350mgs of blood pressure pill, now I only take 25mg. This disease as you are well aware can cause a lot of different problems both mentally and physically.
I was also asked to take a bone density test. This test confirmed that I had osteoporosis and I have had some mood swings and sometimes depressed. I have great family base from my parents to my brother and sister. I have really needed them for support and I think their a major reason why I have gotten better.
I’m writing to let people know that I have beat it!!!! It only been nine months since I’ve had the surgery and I feel GREAT. I no longer take any medication and when this started I weighed 245 and now 177 WOW. After a lot of support and the will to overcome all odds I made it. I just want to say you can make it too.
