And It's About Time There Was Some Support For Cushing's!
Hi, My name is Dianne and I am 52, mother of 2 adult children and grandmother of a soon to be three year old boy. I enjoy spending as much time with him as possible but, physically, I have been seriously going down hill for the last 5 years. When ever I brought it up I usually was told you need to loose weight. I have tried and tried but I have been gaining in leaps and bounds for 10 years now. Or I hear...thats just what happens as you get older. I am at the point now where my once strong legs are so week that I can not climb stairs without pulling myself up by the railings. Even my 74 year old mother is more spry than I am. In January after seeing a program on Cushings I began putting 2 & 2 together.
I have all the symptoms with the exception of purple straie(sp?). I have stretch marks except they are not purple. As a matter of fact last February, my hubby and I were in Orlando at a convention and a woman asked me "are there 2 babies in there?" when I replied no she asked "you mean that is one baby?"
This past January, I spoke with my Doctor who has been handling my HBP and suggested that I should be tested for Cushings. He set up the Urine and blood test they were elevated. The next was an MRI pituitary study. It showed a 5mm adenoma. I am now in the process of more testing at MGH in Boston at the Neuroendocrine Clinic. I am awaiting the results of the dex/crh test and I am told the next step is the PSS (not looking forward to that one, at all).
I feel so many years of my life have been wasted on this disease. I want to get back to "normal" what ever that may be now.
Any words of wisdom out there?
Dianne
Update July 25, 2007
Well, no one responded to my original post, but I thought I would update it.
I am one week post op from transsphenoid surgury to remove the tumor from my pituitary. I had a very adept surgeon at Mass Gen Hospital, Brooke Swearingen. All went well and he even coordinated with Dr Ralph Metson to close a CSF Leak from my left nostril that I had been living with for years.
I feel fortunate to get both taken care of at the same time. At this point I have not noticed any changes regarding the Cushings except my blood test for Corisol is showing low. Still living with the aches and pains. I am told it will get worse before it gets better.
