I have been treated numerous times with steroids for migraines and chronic sinusitis. I have the “classic look” of someone with cushings so says two doctors.
My endocrinologist says it’s not real cushings it’s cushingoid like. I guess he’s saying my body is mimicking it. I want to learn more to make sure he is right.
My body pain is unbearable and I am extremely exhausted. I need help and answers.
Jill wrote: “In December 2004 my dad who had addison’s for over 30 years had a triple bypass surgery 6 days before Christmas. The surgery was an amazine success and it was predicted he would be home before Christmas. Day 2 following surgery the hospital neglected to give him his steriods for his Addison’s for 22 hours, which they were completely aware that he had. 7 mistakes by hospital staff lead my father into shock and multiple organ failure. The doctor’s did think he would make it through the day. He survived for another 16 days until he contracted a hospital bacteria which crossed over into his brain and caused massive brain damage. Jan. 5, 2005 we took him off life support. I have been search the internet to learn more about Addison’s and why this happened.”
In September 2011 I’d been running and blacked out. Through the rest of the year even though I was careful about what I ate, was swimming 80 lengths of the pool everyday and running pretty regularly I was still gaining weight. It’s weird that I found it hard to climb the stairs at work because my thighs felt so weak but could still swim a couple of km. I found it difficult to sleep and bruised pretty easily.
It was a bit of a shock to be told I might have a very rare brain tumour releasing the hormone cortisol that affects 10 in a Million people. Things went downhill and Cushing’s Disease really started breaking apart my body. My muscles wasted and I carried on putting on fat. Joints skin and feet were all affected. I’ve heard Cushing’s Disease called the ugly disease so yep not great.
I’ve had back pain since I was 14, and 6 years ago I went through a series of steroid injections to try to relieve the pain. I ended up with steroid induced Cushing’s Syndrome.
I gained 80 pounds in under 8 weeks, grew a huge buffalo hump, lost more than half of my hair, had a horrendous headache that hospitalized me, gained the deep stretchmarks, grew facial hair etc etc etc. You name it, I had it. All in a matter of 8 weeks after my final steroid injection.
Fast forward to today and I still have all of the weight, my hair didn’t grow back, I still have SEVERE facial flushing every single day (the flushing alone is ruining my life) and I have yet to find a good, knowledgeable Endocrinologist who can help me. I did have a plastic surgeon remove the buffalo hump so I feel much better about that. We have only caught my cortisol level high 1 time. I’m not on any meds for the Cushing’s and I’m miserable.
Just hoping to get to know some other people battling this awful disease with me. Thanks for having me.
Stacy’s sister posted on Facebook:
This is my beautiful sister Stacy she was diagnosed with cushings disease in 2005 at the age of 19 she had two pituitary surgeries radiation and finally an adrenalectomy we watched her suffer struggle and fight this disease for ten years there were countless Dr visits and pills she had to take daily until she passed away in her home on November 4 2015 at the age of 30 we miss her so much she has left a hole in our hearts but we will continue to bring awareness to this horrible disease hoping we can save someone’s life…
…Thank you so much for sharing this I think she struggled with the stigma of the disease she was doing so much better but she passed suddenly of adrenal crisis we were shocked we truly believed that she had this beat I know this group was so special to her she even added me to it I think to help me understand what she was going through you are all incredible amazing people to have the strength to battle through this everyday.
My friend Amber is currently in school (taking Journalism I believe). She started reading my blog and had to write a paper for one of her classes, she asked me if it would be okay for her to write one about Cushing’s Disease and use my blog and/or me for information. I agreed. Amber found out quickly how hard it is to find useful information about Cushing’s Disease in Humans. Alot of sites are geared towards dogs and horses. She agree with the rest of us that it is retarded that there isn’t more information so that people could at least become more informed about this disease. Anyways this is a copy of what she submitted:
Living with Cushing’s disease
By, Amber Yake
When Stacy Ollenberger was 19 years old she began gaining weight at a rapid pace regardless of her healthy lifestyle, when she went to the doctor she was called a liar and told she was just getting fat.
“I saw six doctors before I was diagnosed,” Ollenberger said. “Doctors told me it was just weight gain and I had to change my diet and exercise.”
After seeing five doctors in two different cities, she finally saw a doctor who realized something was wrong with her. He suspected she had Cushing’s disease and referred her to a specialist in Edmonton.
“Finally I saw another doctor and he knew something was wrong. He didn’t know what so he did a bunch of tests and found out that I had extremely high cortisol levels,” Ollenberger said. “He had seen Cushing’s once before and suspected that is what I had but wasn’t a specialist so he referred me to Edmonton.”
According to Ollenberger, an excessive secretion of ACTH, which is produced by a pituitary tumour, causes Cushing’s disease. The ACTH then triggers your adrenal glands to produce excess amounts of cortisol. Symptoms include upper body obesity, round full face, increased fat around the neck, and thinning of arms and legs among other things.
Ollenberger showed all of these symptoms, however; since Cushing’s disease is so rare, none of the doctors she saw thought that is what she had.
“The specialists in Edmonton did not want to see me because they said Cushing’s disease is rare and they said that there was no way I had it,” she said. “They had all my blood work and stuff, my cortisol was more than 6 times higher than that of a “normal” person, and they told us that the tests were wrong and needed to be redone.”
Ollenberger was finally seen by specialists in Edmonton, AB and has since had two brain surgeries in attempts to remove the tumour on her pituitary gland increase. She feels angry at the medical system for not diagnosing her symptoms sooner.
“If I were diagnosed sooner the symptoms of my disease probably would not have gotten so bad and I probably would not have had to go through everything that I have had to—two surgeries, radiation and now I have to get my adrenal glands removed,” she said.
“I mean my family doctor made me feel like I was just a fat slob who didn’t eat right or exercise. He had been my doctor for years, and for me to gain so much weight so fast he should have known something was medically wrong.”
The doctors were unable to completely remove Ollenberger’s tumour. It’s not shrinking or growing. It is not an option to remove more of the tumour so her next option is to get her adrenal glands removed.
According to Ollenberger, this will make her body not be able to produce any more cortisol. Because you need cortisol to survive, after her surgery she will have to start medication to replace the cortisol that her body needs to survive.
“I will be on medication for the rest of my life,” she said.
Ollenberger is also working with her cousin to create a Cushing’s Awareness day in Canada. She wants to educate people so no one has to experience the things she has.
“It only takes one person to educate many and that is what I would like to do, bring awareness to this disease so others do not have to go through what I had to” she said.
18 yr old daughter. Diagnosed with alopecia areata as a toddler. Continued through childhood until eventually lost most hair on body. Some re growth at puberty, but minimal. (Checked for PCOS age 15 ultra sound looked fine but showed mild fatty liver, she had started to put on excess weight)
Age 15. Late menses, then irratic, sometimes every 4 or 5 months, then heavy or light. Height growth stopped around 16. (Few inches shorter than all female relatives. ) Weight again, headaches, back pains, hump, chest pain episodes (3 different times), (ruled out as stress in the ER even though all episodes happened while she was having fun) light headed upon awaking in am, then felt nausea, sometimes vomits until bile. (many times led to testing of gall bladder some disfunction), (cyclical) constant throat and tonsil infections led to tonsil removal, still many throat and urinary infections, excellent student but deals with extreme fatigue, occasional brain fog, anxiety at times, moodiness, dry eye, thirsty a lot, some course black hair growth occasionally, acne, red face, moon face, problems in heat, a few pigment discoloration in spots, some purple stretch marks, weight gain heavier in midsection, repeatedly tries to eat healthy and can’t drop wieght unless she is ill and not eating at all.
Seems to be cavity prone even though she is diligent and obsessive about clean teeth. Wears corrective lenses, has vision blurriness at times, can’t wear contacts due to dry eye and discomfort.
Finally ended up at endo after many other doctors. Have been waiting over 3 weeks for results of dex suppression text. Still no news from doctor, even though I call. Frustrated, have known things were wrong outside of the norm, separate of the auto immune disease Alopecia Areata. Yet no one can figure out a connection or what.
My Daughter hasn’t felt good in 4 years. I’m sick and tired of no one trying to find cause. If it is Cushing’s, why the lack of urgency to help us figure out. After chest pains episodes etc, I’m scared of damage to her body. Not to mention possible infertility issues down the road. I’m tired of being treated as if its nothing All I want is my kid to be the happy go lucky, full of energy, brave, intelligent, confident (even though she has been bald most of her life), like she was her freshman year of high school.
I have been severely ill for over a decade. Bedridden mostly. Cushing’s was the first disease a doctor had suspected (then ruled out). After many tests and specialists, I came full circle.
Last October, a new endocrinologist saw my buffalo hump and decided to order saliva tests. They were crazy high. I was referred to a doctor at Mt. Sinai in New York for further testing.
On Feb 1st, I had an MRI of my pituitary and BAM! there was a tumor! On March 3, 2016 I had pit surgery. I’m on the other side now and the recovery is rough to say the least.
I work from home as a writer, have two wonderful kids and furkids, and a partner. We are all trying to get through this together.
I will try to keep my introduction short. I am a 43 year old wife, mother, and certified freak of nature. I was diagnosed with steroid induced Chushings in October of 2015.
Since I was a child I have had random medical issues but over the Over the last 20 years I have become a connoisseur of the medical arts. Funny because the I worked in the medical field for 15 out of the 20 years. I seem to collect diagnoses like a girl scout collects badges.
At 17 years old I collected my first big badge after months of being sick, Chronic EBV. In my 20’s I received the badges for Hashimoto’s Thyroidism, Fibromyalgia, and Adenomyosis.
As I moved into my thirty’s my badges were getting bigger and better; they included Sjogren’s syndrome, Raynaud phenomenon, Hemiplegic migraine, Meniere’s disease. It seemed every time I needed to go to the doctors they wanted to test me for something new. All I wanted was relief because my symptoms were getting more aggressive. They have caused me to several surgeries’ not limited to Hysterectomy (by 28years old), Splenectomy, Smart plugs in my lower eye lids, EGD’s and Colonoscopies.
My hemiplegic migraines have caused multiple visits to the ER and the hospital’s Neuro floor. With these Migraines I have TIA’s so I have trouble walking or talking for days after. As the years have gone by my illness has gotten worse and it all came to a head in June 11th 2015.
I felt awful and I had for several months. My new doctor was very confused because my blood work kept coming back normal for the most part, but I kept having random fevers (up to 105 degrees Fahrenheit) joint swelling and body aches/pains.
On June 11th my family couldn’t take it, they had watched me be in pain for too long, so they took me to the doctor in the morning. When the doctor saw my whole family there at my appointment in tears, he decided to do more blood work. After the appointment he sent me home and said I should hear from him in the next few days with the results. So, we left feeling defeated and like their would never be any help. About two hours after I got home the doctor called and said to get to the hospital that something was wrong but he was unsure what it was. My blood work showed my inflammation markers at 174 and my WBC 28,000. In addition to that my kidneys and liver were fighting to staying the game. This was the start of the current medication roller-coaster, and prednisone was the main med in this cart I’m riding in.
It took three months to get the inflammation and WBC down but I took 1 month at 80mg then 3 months of 60mg of steroids. My taper is going very slow and painful. I’m currently down to 4mg and it will take till October to ween all the way off. But because of the steroids I gained 70lbs in four months. This brought my 5 foot frame to 211lbs. I have all the best signs of Cushings and for the most part I’m dealing ok. Until I can’t bend over to put on my shoes or I have to use my vpap machine to breath at night.
I guess I should tell you what my current badges are narrowed down to. I have a rare auto immune auto inflammatory disease called Hypergammaglobulinemia with Familial Mediterranean fever. To have have name gives me a direction. I would rather I do this then one of my children. I just want the information for my family so they can have early diagnoses and live a long life without pain.
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