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Kate N (Kate NC), Steroid Induced Cushing’s

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steroids

 

Hi everyone! My name is Kate and I am 32 yrs old.

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.

 

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Joanne (Mojo1973), Steroid Induced Bio

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steroids

 

Hello Everyone,

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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Rita (Rita), Steroid-Induced Bio

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Hello to those who are frustrated & suffering!

My real search for a diagnosis began vigilantly just over 2 years ago. I was extremely hot,exhausted,weight gain (unexplained) and not sleeping well and sleeping all the time but extremely fatigued!!! My face became very round and my facial & body skin was a nightmare.

My husband kept saying that he thought it was systemic but I wasn’t sure. And, this sounds so sill but completely true, I was watching an episode of Doc Martin (UK series) where a woman was having trouble and he told her she had Cushings. Well, I had never heard of this disease so I looked it up on the internet and told my husband that’s what I have. Of course, he said that I was being silly.

I had very upset stomach most of the time to I had an endoscopy & colonoscopy where large cysts had developed. I also had burning and nagging pain in my upper thigh area thinking it was my Lymph nodes. Many more cysts were discovered on my ovaries and all the doctors cold focus on were the cysts and telling me that my blood pressure was too high and that I needed to lose weight.

I few months later I noticed small purple striations on my abdomen and just knew I had Cushings. So, I asked my doctor if he could run cortisol test on me and he said no problem. I had also told him at this time that I was using a steroid cream to control my eczema and he said that would not cause not effect me in such a way to cause such problems.

I had beeen to the emergency room, had 4 CT scans, atleast 7 ultrasounds, 2 MRI’s and so many blood tests that I had lost count.

Another doctor had recommended that I see an Oncologist so I saw 2 of them…..still no idea and 2 more visits to the emergency room.

I sent all my files and tests to the best Endocrinologist I could find and still had to wait 6 months for an initial appointment.

During the 6 months of waiting to see my Endocrinologist, my body had taken a severe turn for the worse. I could barely step up onto a curb and would spend 3 weeks straight in a bed.

I was extremely depressed and felt like I was dying!!!

April of 2014 my long awaited appointment to see THE BEST ENDOCRINOLOGIST in the state finally came!!!!! He took one look at me and said you have Cushings without a doubt!!!! he saw all the other files and tests that the other doctors had done and said they all did the same exact tests and have absolutley no idea what they are doing.

This is the best doctor I have ever been to see in my entire life, he spent over 1 hour with my during my first evaluation. (Please know,that he is not even covered by my insurance but I didn’t care……shelled out $510 and it saved my life.)

He would stop asking me questions until he got to the root of what was causing the Cushings. And it was the cream that I was using to control my eczema!!!!!!! Yes, please know that Cobetasol Proprionate will cause Cushings if used on a long term basis.

I had no warnings or instructions from my Dermatologist. He just said use this on your eczema.

Dr. Neil Breit saved my life!!!! He said that I was hands down, the worse case he had ever seen!!! And he said that I would have definitely been dead in 1 or 2years at best.

If you live in the Northeast, please seek out this doctor. He is the best and very passionate & loves his work. He truly cares and brings lots of smiles with his treatment!!!!j

Dr. Breit still spends 1 hour with me on every office there. And I still pay full price but do not mind, because he saved my life!!!

Also, right before my diagnosis, I discovered GERSON THERAPY. Regardless of whatever is wrong or just being healthy, juicing helps me immensely with energy and just feeling better as a whole!!!

Thank you for enduring my long story!!!!! Keep fighting for your diagnosis and don’t stop till you get one!!!

Thank you kindly for reading my story,
Rita in New Jersey

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Gabby (nielk), Steroid-Induced Cushing’s Bio

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I have been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2013. I have been on methylprednisolone for about a year and a half now and have all the symptoms of Cushing’s Syndrome.

My doctor wants to get me off the steroids but so far none of the other RA medications that I have tried have worked. It has been pretty frustrating.

I can’t get off the steroid but it is making me sicker in other ways.

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2014 in review ~ Cushing’s Bios

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for the Cushing’s Bios blog.

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The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 44,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 16 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

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