And It's About Time There Was Some Support For Cushing's!
After 14 years of doctors telling me I was "just fat" or "there's nothing wrong with your thyroid, you just need to eat less", I finally diagnosed myself in nursing school. We were studying endocrinology and I saw a picture of a woman in the book who looked just like me! She had a moon face, thick neck, and her "before" picture was of a formerly attractive woman. Her other symptoms were "me" also - large pendulous abdomen, skinny legs and arms, aching joints and muscles, etc. I told my doctor to test me for it, and was found positive on a 24 hr urine. Referred to Dr. Plummer, an endo in Phoenix, who tested me for three months, including an MRI of pituitary tumor, as it took A GREAT DEAL to convince the best in Arizona, neurosurgeon Dr. White.
Pit surgery done at BNI in May, 2004. The recovery has been worse than the disease in some ways. Withdrawing from prednisone was hell. I'm finally off that, but now I can feel rotator cuff tears I didn't know I had because the cortisol and subsequent prednisone masked the injuries which I believe I incurred about two years ago. Just when I thought "no pain" was in in sight!
Just had shoulder repair surgery on the left shoulder, and I'll have the right shoulder done after my 2nd semester of nursing is over in May. The positive side of this is that the joint and muscle aches are gone, and I'm 40 lbs lighter without trying. I simply have no appetite! I am on pain pills (vicodin) for the shoulder pain which I only take at night. That was the only medication I had been taken this month; however, I have recently started getting very agitated at night, and my claustophobia which I've had all my life, has started to interfere with my daily living to a point of great discomfort, so my doctor has given me diazapam and xanax with the promise to seek counseling, which I'm now in the process of doing.
I would love to get in contact with more Arizona cushies and think it would be great to start an Arizona support group where we could all meet in person every couple of months or so. Whaddya think?
