My adrenal incidentaloma was discovered after an abdominal CT in 2011.  My doctor told me that it was insignificant, and no follow up was needed.

Late 2012 I began having symptoms which led me to believe that something hormonal was going on.  I was having extreme anxiety, headaches, insomnia, new onset hypertension, hair loss, blurred vision, memory problems, dizziness, and extremely heavy menses.  I went to the gynecologist because I thought it might be premenopausal symptoms.  The doctor started me on birth control pills to regulate the periods, which was the only symptom that improved.

My general practitioner sent me to a cardiologist for my blood pressure which was spiking as high as 194/110.  The cardiologist immediately suspected a pheo, and referred me back to the GP with a recommendation for a referral to endocrinology.  The initial round of labs were all within normal limits with the exception of plasma cortisol due to the estrogen pills.  The endocrinologist told me to follow up in one year.

A lot of people started telling me it I was just stressed out, and depressed.  I don’t buy it for a minute.  It feels like something chemically is wrong. It’s hard to explain….I just don’t feel right.  Yes, I have stressful things going on, but not anything that should make me feel like this.  Especially when things are fine, and I am going to meet a friend for coffee why on earth would I almost freak out on the way there? I started feeling better for a couple of months, then the symptoms came back.

I have had 3 near panic attacks in the last 6 months, social withdrawal, rapid abdominal weight gain, hospitalized with 24 hours of amnesia (transient global amnesia…which left lesions on my hippocampus), headaches, hypertension, amenorrhea for 8 months, increased facial hair.

My first lab test was the high dose dexamethasone which I did not supress.  Last week I did the 24 hour urine…a whopping 3650 liters!!  I will get the results on Thursday.  My endo said he will need to do an adrenal vein sampling as part of the diagnosis.

Has anyone else had to do this?  I am in Germany, so maybe it is just different protocol here, but I really don’t want to have to do it.

Thanks for any feedback!

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