Michael B’s Story. Michael B was first diagnosed with Cushing’s in 1979 and had a bilateral adrenalectomy in 1980. In 1983 the symptoms reoccurred and he had a third adrenal removed in 1983. He then developed Nelson’s syndrome and had his pituitary (plus tumour) removed, followed by another pituitary surgery then 5 weeks of radiotherapy.

This Golden Oldie was last updated 06/07/2008

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I was diagnosed with Cushing’s in late 1979 and had a bilateral adrenalectomy in 1980. After the operation my weight reduced and my blood pressure stabilised to normal. In 1983 the symptoms re-occurred and I had a third adrenal removed in 1983 (this was found by the use of radioactive cholesterol isotope injection).

The anterior pituitary is the anterior, glandu...

The anterior pituitary is the anterior, glandular lobe of the pituitary gland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After this I felt good until 1987 when I developed Nelson’s syndrome and had my pituitary (plus tumour) removed. Again all went well until an MRI scan discovered that the tumour had returned.

In 1998 I had this removed followed by 5 weeks of radiotherapy in the hope of preventing a further growth of this tumour. To date and several MRI’s later it seems to be working.

In the early days my symptoms were all physical e.g. moon face, high blood pressure excess weight, abdominal striae, localised headache, I never suffered from depression.

I write to reassure people that it is possible to live a normal life after Cushing’s. Keep up the work on the website. I did not have the luxury of so much information. My information came from trawling through my local library for information for, like others, I got little information from my doctors.