And It's About Time There Was Some Support For Cushing's!
I am from NC but currently live in Stuttgart, Germany. I am going to try to keep this brief because you can always read about my ordeal at my home page.
I am 32, married with no kids, currently living in Stuttgart Germany. My husband is in the military and we have been stationed here two years. I don't know how long I have had the tumor but I can remember being in high school and having cysts on my ovaries, being moody and depressed.
I have as the Asst. Director of a Child Development Center (Day care for the Army) One day while sitting in my office, the desk literally fell apart and hit me in the head. I thought maybe I would just fake a head injury and go have lunch with my husband. When I went to see him he insisted that I go to the doctor. Within 30 minutes I was strapped to a gurney and rushed to the hospital. I fractured a vertebra in my neck and had a concussion.
When I arrived at the hospital I had a CAT scan done to check on my condition and they found the Pit. Tumor. The last couple of weeks have been a journey of referrals and docs. I have to get a referral from an American doctor to see a German doc…or I can have my CAT, MRI’s sent 2 hours away to an American hospital and wait for them to respond. (That hospital is in Landstule, the same place they send the soldiers injured in the war). I have decided to go with the German doc, being that it is 5 minutes down the road.
So I was sent to get an MRI and it showed a pituitary adenoma that is pressing on an optic never and the carotid artery oh and bleeding. I have an appointment to see an endocrinologist on Friday to determine treatment and answer my questions. (My American doc has only been practicing since July and fortunately I didn’t have to deal with arrogance from her, she knew immediately this was beyond her expertise.)
The past two years have been absolutely miserable for me. I think the depression has been the hardest part…well I don’t know… the weight gain has me pissed also. I have always been very healthy, working out and watching what I eat. But it seemed like I gained 30 lbs as soon as I arrived here. It was so demoralizing not being able to lose the weight even though I was starving myself.
I started a web log to document my stay here. But what it turned into was a litany of Cushing’s symptoms. Everyday I was either high or low…. Wildly euphoric or devastatingly depressed. I didn’t even write about everything I was experiencing because I thought I was going crazy! I would often think to myself that I was losing my mind… and how right I was. The addy is http://www.angelfire.com/biz3/shawnandmike/Blogger.html (watch out for the pop-ups).
This site has been a godsend. Its great to know that I am not crazy! And others are dealing with the same disease/symptoms.
I am trying to remain optimistic; I have refused to let the depression control me. The anxiety and tiredness gets to me some days, but I muddle through it somehow.
My surgery is scheduled for Tuesday April 29th, 2003.
I have a 15mm Pituitary tumor, not sure if its Cushing's because the Germans do things a little different.
