Cushing's Bios

Currently undiagnosed but I am a medical professional, and not stupid.

All through my adulthood (age 21ish to now at 43) I have had the following symptoms: B12 deficiency, Vitamin D deficiency, the depression/anxiety/irritability, major loss of emotional control (I can cry at the drop of a hat, sometimes in very inappropriate situations (like at work).

I can gain weight like no tomorrow (60 pounds over about 8 months. The only way I’ve been able to lose it is either gastric bypass (which created a whole other set of issues and had to be reversed) or an entire month on IV nutrition (TPN), in short abject starvation.

I have stretch marks all over the place, a fat abdomen (in spite of a tummy tuck), fat upper arms, fat thighs, back fat (oh yes, the ubiquitous hump between my shoulders and fat pads above my clavicles). I am weak to the point that a two mile walk has me in bed for the rest of the day. Forget working out, I drop from exhaustion. my back hurts, I have horrendous posture and get muscle spasms and a backache when I try to remind myself to stand up straight. I am always thirsty, and subsequently pee nonstop, I have a seemingly insatiable appetite usually for carby type stuff (although I really try to pay attention to what I eat).

I’m a total klutz and oh yes, the crowning glory: I have hair on my inner thighs, heavy hair on my lower arms and I can win a beard growing contest with a bunch of guys, although testosterone levels have been tested and are unremarkable. I’ve got a bit of hypertension (although also a little decreased kidney function, which may explain that.) I had a total hysterectomy for the heavy bleeding and constant ovarian cysts (but not the string of pearls pattern indicative of PCOS. Libido?, yeah right. I have the sex life of a nun and am frankly not interested. This is not genetic because I am the only one in my family that is like this.

Over the years I have been diagnosed with PCOS, major depressive disorder, and more recently some kind of unspecified eating disorder (apparently just because I’m fat). I have been treated as such over the years with totally no change. Birth control pills just made me bitchy, the cocktail of antidepressants seem to help minimally (I can still cry over nothing), and this is now having a huge impact on my professional life (like nearly destroying my career).

If all this crap isn’t a good reason to at the very least, look at Cushing’s, then I don’t know what is. Incidentally I had a doctor, some 13 years ago start the workup for this (had 24 hour urine, dexamethasone suppression test and a brain MRI) but this was pre-nursing school and I did not realize the seriousness of what he was suspecting, so I never followed up.

I finally have a primary care doctor who has immediately referred my to an endocrinologist. I appointment in 2 weeks and well…to be continued….

Updated January 9, 2016

still searching for a doctor who gives a ***. I’m quite peeved. It’s been a while since I updated because, well, just busy.

I went to the appointment and the doc pretty much just blew me off. i said that in my opinion, it was worth at least running the tests. I could be wrong but please humor me and run them. Well, he sent me off to the lab and all he did was a one-time single cortisol level. It was normal. His diagnosis, “weight gain due to excess calories” and recommended a medication that costs $1200 per month and was NOT covered by my insurance!!!!! Seriously????? Jerk!! I came into some money, so I ponied up for 2 months worth of the medicine and thus far I’ve lost 12 pounds and now I am plateaued. My new insurance covers it, so i’ll keep at it, but I’m finding a new doc. How hard is it to just run the bloody tests!!!

Have to go now, it’s time to shave the hair on my chin and go to my therapy session for depression. Someday, maybe someone will believe me, hopefully before I die!!!!!

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