Cushing's Info

It's been 16 years since I was diagnosed with Cushings Syndrome, I'm happy to report that I'm still doing well after my ordeal with the disease.

I had always been thin and quite fit up until my early 30's my first recognizable symptoms of the disease first started about 28 I began experiancing panic attacks.  They got worse and worse and continued into my mid  30's I also noticed that I was gaining about 10 lbs a year for no good reason, I ate sensibly excercised and was active.

Slowly other symptoms of cushings began showing up...my stomach was getting larger, my face rounder and the water retention or buffalo hump began appearing, I also began bruising easily, had spider veins and near the end the stretch marks also appeared.  I had gone to the Dr. about various things but never put everything together.

My dog got in a fight with another dog and my leg got in the way so his tooth went into my leg, well the wound never healed so I was in seeing the Dr. about that and he told me my blood pressure was very very high...I was put on meds and set home.  By then I was fat, miserable and still having panic attacks.  I was in a mall with my sister two weeks later and saw a poster showing possible reasons why people have high blood pressure saw a little illustration of a woman that looked just like me and I read  what it said and I looked  my sister  and said that's what I have....sure enough I went through a series of tests and eventually diagnosed with Cushings Syndrome.  I had a golf ball size tumor on my left adrenal and it was removed with the gland.

I went through a tough 3 month steroid withdrawal period....I chose not to medicate I wanted my other one to kick in  naturally and start working.  I lost over 70 lbs those three months and never had another panic attack again, I was pretty much my old self again.  I do notice since than that I do really have to take care of myself though, eat right, get plenty of sleep, only have an occasional cup of coffee and no alchohol...if I over do it I can feel the stress on my  remaining gland, the whole experiance has really made me very aware of how my body should be working.    I really want to take care of the good one now that  I know how important the adrenal glands are and all the functions they control in our bodies.

I just want to say if something appears to be off don't ignore it....I ended up having a full blown case of Cushings before it was diagnosed and if I hadn't demanded the tests who knows if my Dr. would've even caught it being it's such a rare syndrome and the symptoms can easily be written off as caused by other factors.

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