And It's About Time There Was Some Support For Cushing's!
I am 30 years old, I started getting symptoms about 4 years ago, which started as weight gain and VERY high blood pressure, and irregular heart rate, I had extremely bad anxiety and depression, my doctors told me that they couldn't believe I was walking around with blood pressure of 220/135,and a resting heart rate of 145, I have had every test imaginable,..a few times, heart tests, dexo tests, saliva, ekg's, 4 24 hour cortisol, pituitary mri, inferior petrosal sinus sampling, and a thousand blood tests... my blood pressure is down and heart rate is normal now because I take MANY pills daily, well after I kept getting weirder symptoms, that include round face, hair everywhere, stretch marks, 55 lbs extra, hair loss, acne, loss of all muscle, vertigo, buffalo hump, extreme fatigue, the list goes on, thank god my Dr asked for a 24 hour test, that started it all, that was in March, I was finally diagnosed today!!!!!!!
It is 8/11/06 and I am currently waiting on the results of my sinus sampling, that I did 3 days ago, which was not fun. My MRI that I did a few months ago showed something, but it was asymmetrical , turns out it was due to my head being slighly turned =( I don't know what to expect here on out.
Update..since I made my bio...the IPSS test came back positive from the right side. I met my neurosurgeon on Sept 13, 2006 and was scheduled on September 15th.
Today is October 16th 2006 and I feel pretty good. A few days after surgery I had a A.m. blood draw which came back with results of <1.0 cortisol and <5 ACTH!!!! Still can't believe it. I lost weight right after surgery but it came back, probably because of the Cortef. I was off it for 3 days but decided it was better if I took everyones advice and slowly weaned off, so I am at 15mg a day. My depression is gone, anxiety is lessened. Those big painful pimple looking things on my jawline are gone, brain fog is gone, I can actually read things without having to re-read them over and over to comprehend. Huge appetite is gone. My energy level is so much higher now...I have so much further to go but now I have hope.
I will be having my MRI 10/18/06 and then 11/22/06 is when I will be having my suppression test. I will indeed update again.
Melissa D
Update~~5/9/07
Well since my last update I had my MRI which was normal, and all tests show me as cured so far. I have lost almost 50 pounds and I am happy to say that I can't remember what my symptoms were anymore. I have my life back pretty much. I go to the gym about 5 times a week and am finally building all the muscle that I lost.
The Cushing's seems to be gone but it is now thought that I may very well have ovarian cancer, and am in testing for that right now. I feel like I can get through this too seeing what I have already been through
