And It's About Time There Was Some Support For Cushing's!
I am here because of my dear Father!
My Father is a brilliant and eccentric 67 years old and has been having extremely hard to control high blood pressure for the past 2 months. He has been hospitalized 3 times (not including emergency room visits) in the past 5 weeks for Hypertensive Urgency, electrolyte imbalance, TIA’s and a small CVA. He was diagnosed with Diastolic Dysfunction, Bradycardia, with trace Tricuspid regurgitation and mild Mitral regurgitation, and a small patent foramen ovale in the Interatrial septum (The cardiologist said it was a small hole in the septum of the heart.)
He also has Glaucoma, a hydrocoele, and periodontal disease. The reason we are contacting you, is that he had a CT of his abdomen and pelvis showing Coronary artery calcification and an 18 x 13 mm left adrenal lesion, two cyst’s on his right kidney and one cyst on his left kidney. At our urging a 24 hr urine analysis was done showing polyuria, a slightly elevated level of norepinephrine, the cortisol level was extremely high 406.7. The primary care physician said that it indicated the likelihood of a functional tumor. (Obviously more testing is required.)
The other symptoms my father has been experiencing are severe headaches, bouts of excessive sweating, bouts of extreme anxiety, hand shaking off and on, bouts of burning pain in the lower chest & upper abdomen, bouts of intense nausea with out vomiting, excessive burping, weight loss (25lbs in the last 6 months and 10lbs additional in the 6 months before that), bouts of chronic diarrhea, fatigue, weakness, bouts of dizziness. Also he has been having mental confusion, bazaar behavior and short term memory lapses. (I know these could be associated with his stroke.) He has bouts of being chilled to the point of wearing his hooded coat and knit cap around the house and even to bed.
Ofcourse we wish to get to the bottom of this, if anyone has advice or help, it would be much appreciated. If you have any info that would be helpfull, we would love to here it! thank you so much, we need to get to the bottom of this. I dont want to lose my father. Thanks.
My Father went to the Mayo Clinic in MN, from the 14th of May to the 28th and had extensive testing done, the Endo, said we don't think Cushing’s is what is causing his hypercortisolism as his cortisol is now low (did not give us numbers) and the tumor on your adrenal gland is not functional because his cortisol is now low. The Endo was dismissive and said there is nothing wrong with his endocrine system. I think it might be Cycling Cushing’s, will need to see the tests and keep him testing to see how it goes.
The Neurologist, said the MRI revealed that my Father has white spots in his brain, he said they don’t know what they are, he said they sometimes see these in people that get bad head aches. He said there is no evidence that he ever had a TIA or Stroke, and his blood vessels look good.
He said he is not saying there is nothing wrong with my Father, he is just saying that they don’t know what it is! So my question is “Than What The Heck Were These Incidents!” They looked enough like a TIA/Stroke that that is what the ERs had said they were.
So in my research, I came across Multiple Sclerosis, and it describes, neurologic episode, The term “clinically isolated syndrome” (CIS) has been used to describe a first neurologic episode that lasts at least 24 hours, and is caused by inflammation/demyelination in one or more sites in the central nervous system (CNS). The episode can be monofocal or multifocal:
As this could explain many of my Father’s problems, I believe it warrants further investigation.
