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Jennifer S' Story

Hi, my name is Jennifer. I am 28 years old, married with a 8 year old daughter, and live in Irving, Texas. Here's my story. I first began noticing symptoms about three years ago. I started having headaches every day (I rarely ever had headaches before). This came along with floaters in my left eye. Both of which I still have.

Now I have never been really a slim girl, but I noticed a steady weight gain despite no change in diet and not eating much anyway. This was mostly going to my stomach and face. My blood pressure also became high, and my skin and hair which was always SO dry became oily.

My doctor at the time kept blowing me off and made me feel as I was a hypochondriac and just fat. Needless to say I switched doctors, because I knew something was not right. My new doctor (whom I LOVE) seemed to agree that something was definitely wrong and began running tests. I told him about my ever growing stomach and he noticed my large purple stretch marks and immediately suspected Cushing's.

I was referred to an endocrinologist who agreed that I looked cushinoid and ran a few tests. One salivary came back high but the 24 hr urine came back normal. Well, he assumed I could not have Cushing's and basically blew me off but agreed to see me in 6 months. Umm, sorry but the way I feel, there is no way I will sit around for 6 months and suffer.

I began doing research and found this great site and immediately KNEW that I had this disease. I have most of the symptoms and develop new ones all the time. Sometimes I feel like an old woman who can hardly get around or get out of bed and other days I can't sleep. I really thought I was crazy for a while.

It has been about 2 months since I have found this site and I have just been too shy to post. During this time I have been to see Dr. Friedman in LA through the help of reading the posts. I decided not to mess around with Dr's who don't know anything about this disease.

So far I have been told that I have a 2 to 3 mm tumor in my pit gland. I am also waiting for urine and saliva test to come back. Dr. Friedman believes that I do have Cushing's and I hope I am on my way to a diagnosis and surgery.

I thank God for MaryO for creating this site. There is very little info out there on this disease unless you are a dog or horse. I am also fortunate to have a very supportive husband without whom I could not deal with all this. I will keep this updated when I get more information.



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