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Patty, Pituitary Bio

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April is Cushing’s Disease Awareness Month. I would like to help raise public awareness about this debilitating illness. It is so misunderstood by most medical professionals that their patients often suffer for many years without a correct diagnosis and, in far too many cases, never get a diagnosis at all.

I personally suffered from a common list of Cushing’s symptoms for years. I sought help from medical professionals and was told nothing medically was wrong with me other than I was menopausal and needed to lose weight.

I gained 70 pounds in a short amount of time due to a tiny tumor in my pituitary gland which was overproducing the hormone ACTH, causing Cushing’s.

Besides rapid weight gain, my forearms bruised. I had a red face and neck, grew a hump on the back of my neck. My belly swelled to pregnancy size. I had high blood pressure.

No matter what I ate, how much I worked out, or how much I explained to everyone around me that I was not doing this to myself, no one believed me. I went about five years not sure what I would do because my body was slowly breaking down and was in really bad health.

In 2016 my back went out and I needed surgery. I was at a followup visit with a PA when he asked if I knew why I blew my back out.

Desperate, I got emotional and told him my story. I told him I thought I had Cushing’s disease based on my own internet research. He was the first person to listen to me and gave me a referral to see an endocrinologist. The endocrinologist took one look at me and knew without testing, although we did test and it was confirmed.

I met with my neurosurgeon and ENT and had surgery June 2017 to remove a 1 centimeter pituitary tumor, which lies at the base of your brain. I will forever be grateful to the team of doctors who saved my life and also to the PA who listened to me.

Life is slowly getting back to normal (or my new normal, I should say.)

Shared from https://www.thecamarilloacorn.com/articles/disease-may-be-hard-to-diagnose/

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Kathleen (ForegoneLegacy), Pituitary Bio

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golden-oldie

 

Originally posted November 20, 2008

Hi, my name is Kathleen. I’m 24 years old and live in southern pa.

I had my two pituitary tumors removed 8/22/08 and I’m still not feeling any better really.

Over the last decade I have been diagnosed with cushings, Lyme, lupus, endometriosis, sinus
tachycardia, fibromyalgia, arthritis, asthma, the list seems to go on and on.

And I guess I had it in my head that once I had this surgery that I would magically get better and move on with my life – go to college, get an apartment, get my license, and hopefully lose all the weight so maybe one day I could be confident enough to start dating again.

Its been nearly 3 months and I seem to be losing hope. My neurosurgeon says that the pathology reports showed “essentially” nothing (still not sure what that means) and that he doesn’t need to see me again.

The ENT who did the surgery was wonderful but can’t really help with anything but making my
nose/sinuses/gums ok. 🙂 And endocrinologists – I have been seeing them for ten years, and never met one whom I liked or who was helpful. Right now I’m getting a full cardio workup to try to fix my weird rhythm.

All of this is being done at Georgetown in D.C, but I’ve been all over the east coast. I don’t know, I guess I hoped maybe you’d have some insight or hopefulness to latch on – cause I put all my eggs in this basket and I feel like I’m about to drop the basket.

Thanks for listening,
Kathleen

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