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I have worked out 5-6 days a week since I was 16. I always had a very physical job and went to school. I dieted, I tried high carb/low protein and high protein/low carb. The weight just would not come off, in fact, I kept gaining. I asked my doctor for help and he gave me different diets to try. I did, with no weight loss. After many months I asked for more help and he prescribed diet pills. Still the weight was slowly going up.
I was bruising easily, they would be huge and last for a long time. I noticed hand tremors, they started to get worse. I then asked him to test my thyroid. My levels were not normal. He tried to adjust levels, but first too high, then too low. This went on for over 21/2 years. He finally referred me to an endocrine specialist, one of the best in town. After 1 year of trying to adjust my levels, he decided my thyroid needed to be removed. Soon my levels were close to normal, but never exactly right, but close enough.
My depression started to get worse. I was on the highest possible dose for this brand of anti-depressant. Then I started feeling anxious, so Xanax was added. I was in a near fatal accident. It took me about 6 months to recover. Since this injury was not permanent, I did not receive any financial aid. My savings disappeared and my credit cards were maxed out.
A year later I got a job as a nurse’s assistant. The first month my legs started to hurt so bad. I had shin splints that would not go away. The weight was still creeping up. One Saturday morning while I was working my legs started to hurt so bad I couldn’t walk. I left work in a wheelchair. My family took me to an urgent care clinic. After being there for 2 hours and since I wasn’t able to walk to be x-rayed, they sent me to an emergency facility. We were there for four hours, they took several x-rays, found nothing and sent me home with hydrocortisone, which did not help.
For the next 2 months I laid in bed in so much pain. I couldn’t work, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even get out of bed to go to the bathroom. Every couple of weeks, I would call my doctor and tell him the pain was the same. "Oh, a couple more weeks" the pain would be gone, he’d say. After 2 months I called the orthopedic surgeon that took care of me after the car accident. He ordered x-rays and found I had stress fractures in both legs!!
Several more months and several more x-rays and my legs were not healing. He sent me to an osteoporosis clinic where I saw a doctor who researches osteoporosis. Several visits and more blood tests, and a big zero! A bone scan and bone density, all normal.
On a visit to my endocrine specialist, I asked him why this kept happening. His reply, eating too much and not exercising enough. He also blamed the car accident; not possible, I was walking the same week.
When I went back to my orthopedic surgeon for a follow up, my arm broke. He decided that had to be repaired along with one leg. But another doctor repaired my arm. After being home for about a week, my arm became infected. I was hospitalized immediately. While the doctors were trying to decide what to do, the screws fell out of the plate; none were left intact.
The doctor that did my arm accused me of doing all this to myself. I was interrogated by several doctors and nurses. They were asking if my family was doing this to me! In reality, my family was doing everything for me, no way. They then had a psychologist test me and she determined I was doing this for the attention of my orthopedic surgeon. Now that is in my permanent records.
I went home with a pick line. Finally the orthopedic surgeon that believed in me tried everything and had another endocrinologist check me out. She found my cortisol levels were through the roof, 1000 times higher even if I had broken bones.
She did more tests: blood, urine, MRI’s, CAT scans, it seemed endless. She wanted to make sure her diagnosis was right so she sent me to a clinic with an excellent reputation. More blood, urine, MRI’s and CT’s. This well respected facility determined the tumor on my brain wasn’t large enough to be causing this, so remove both adrenals.
Back home my endocrinologist was happy to find out the diagnosis was Cushing’s, but did not believe that my adrenals should be removed. Meanwhile, 7 bones broke in 7 months.
Finally, a petrosal sinus sampling test showed the tumor on my pituitary was the problem and a few months later, the tumor was removed through my nose. I am on the mend, but it is a very, very long process with a few set backs along the way. This is a brief insight to my battle with Cushing’s. I felt like I was trapped in a heavy fat suit, so heavy it was breaking bones.
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