And It's About Time There Was Some Support For Cushing's!
I guess I started to notice signs of Cushing’s about 2-3 years ago, but didn't realize what was happening to me. I was 25 @ 135 lbs and started to gain excessive amounts of weight and in a short period of time ( 40-50 Lbs. in a couple of months. I was always tired and no matter how much I slept I and couldn't feel energized. I also started to notice that I couldn't handle being in social situation. I had no desire to be around people. Friends and family would make comment to the affect "It's like forcing her to have fun"....but I couldn't help it, all I wanted to do was to be by myself. I started to isolate my self from friends. Classic signs of depression, but I just thought it was because I was ashamed of the weight gain.
About a year ago I started to get blinding migraines and noticed that I was nausea most mornings. Try to explain to family and friends that you are positive that you are not pregnant and that it's not morning sickness (especially since I’m gay). I was achy all the time. I also started to notice that my arm strengthen was weakening. It got to the point where my arms would get so tired from blow drying my hair that they would start to tingle after about a minute or so. I always had a strong upper body in High School & College, I was a Goal Keeper in Soccer. I also started to get tired after walking a flight of stairs. This is not normal for a 26 year old.
I’m now 27 and I can’t drop the weight no matter what diet I tried. I’m currently at 198 lbs. I’m getting more & more frustrated about the weight and I noticed about 6-7 months ago I started to get these red/purple stretch marks on my stomach. They looked liked surgery scars. A friend made a comment that it looked like I was slashed all over my stomach.
Back in Dec ‘06 I threw out my back picking up my keys. I decided to setup an appointment for a physical since I haven’t had one in 3 yrs. I know, I should have one once a yr, but I always would put it off. My Primary Care Physician red flag was raised when she was doing her exam and noticed the stretch marks. She also noticed bruises on my body that I didn’t even realize were there. She asked how often the bruising occurs, and my response was whenever I bang or bump into something. I also have high blood pressure & cholesterol. My doctor told me that I have classic signs of Cushing’s Syndrome. The one sign I didn’t show too much was the “hump back”.
I went to the Endo on 2/14 and the Specialist Dr. Golden said that 90% of his patients who come in thinking that they have Cushing’s, he wouldn’t send them for further testing, but felt that I fell into the high risk category. I went for the dexe test on 2/16 and are waiting for the results. Depending on the results, the Endo said the next test would be the 24 hr urine test. I just feel somewhat better knowing that I’m not crazy, that there is something wrong with me. It’s funny, but I actually want the results to come back positive for Cushing’s and find out that I have a tumor causing these problems. Well I’m keeping my fingers crossed and waiting for the test results to come back. I’ll keep updates.
