And It's About Time There Was Some Support For Cushing's!
Hi out there. My name is kate and I used to have a pretty normal life. Then one day, I had this terrible pain and that started off on at least six years worth of pain and being told what I have is in my head.
my senior of highschool, I was tired constantly but nobody could figure out what was wrong. Finally my allergist said that I just had really bad allergies and that was what caused my exhaustion.
fast forward to august of last year. I had a very stressful job as a supervisor in a large home improvement warehouse. I ignored my symptoms thinking it was stress. Later that month, I went on vacation. After I got back things started going downhill for me.
I was exhausted, not just tired but I felt like there was a bonecrushing weariness slowly leaching the life out of my body. Every single muscle in body hurt, my joints were swollen, my eyes were red and puffy. I had difficulty concentrating. I used to be pretty active but with the onset of these symptoms, just walking down the stairs hurt.
I went into a spiral of depression, everybody was telling me I was just stressed out. Finally, one doctor told me I have fibromyalgia. Ok, fibromyalgia. This was something that could not be cured.
after that my life spun out of control. A month ago I landed in the hospital for a suicide attempt. I was in too much pain. I couldn't go on. I stayed there for a week and among other things I found out that my blood pressure has been steadily increasing and I have gained sixty pounds in the last six months.
after I got out of the hospital, I went to a new primary care physician. She kept on saying lose weight lose weight lose weight. Then one day she looked at me, really looked at me and said, "have you always had this hump on your back?" maybe its Cushing's. Up until that point I had never heard of it.
They did an AM cortisol test on me. My mother looked up Cushing's on the internet and came to this wonderful site. She said that all my symptoms matched.
I looked and she was right. Especially about the painful skin rashes, the pain in my chest that nobody can figure out, the weight gain in my face and abdomen, stretchmarks and more.
Yesterday, I got my blood test back. It was high normal. I'm afraid. I know that something is not right with my body. I used to be able to lose weight easily. I'm only 22 years old. I'm getting married in 3 months and I don't want to die. I have to keep on plugging on and annoying the doctors until they humor me and do what they can to find out if I have this. It feels like I do. With most of biographies I have read, I thought to myself, this is me.
I want to say that finding out that other people have the same type of symptoms I do, has been a godsend. I was beginning to think that I was the only one. This site is helping me get the courage to fight. I wanted to thank you all for giving me courage... I think I might have a name for the way I feel.
