Cushing's Info

Hi,

I'm a 34 year old mother of two and live in Scotland.  I am currently in the process of being tested for cushings.  Like many others I have been going to my GP for years with various symtoms and I was told it was stress or becuase I have had children or its all 'part of ageing'.  I even had one doctor say to me that my belly was fat because of the 'modern' lifestyle of sitting watching TV and eating!!  Full time working mum of two toddlers( one of which has a medical condition), sitting with my feed up watching tv? absolutely clueless!

I have all the classic symtoms of cushings such as hump, uneven distribution of fat ( belly, back of arms and back), aches and pains( mainly under right breast and ribs and back as well as sore shins). I  am 5ft and was a size 6 all of my life ( main hobbie was running, although I always felt bloated)- not that you could see if by looking at me.  I was told that I had IBS because I also suffered from bad constipation.   I finally realised there was something seriously wrong with me after the birth of my second child( horrendous labours by the way- 96 hours for my first and 36 for my second- I apparently have an ineffective uterus and suspected cpd( which was dispproven as I had a second OP birth to an 8lb8  baby), lots of pain and contractions that dont do the job as fast apparently( I told the doc to try giving birth to babies of this size when you are tiny and they are facing the wrong way- my first was an emergency c section but I was determined the second time, so they made me do it completely natural due to the complications that they think would ahve arose from an epidural  or pther forms of pain relief.  My normal healthy weight is around 7.5 stone.   I put on around 3stone with each child during pregnany.  My belly never went down after my first completly, I'm not talking about a wee bit a bloating -  I didn't have much fat or stretch marks on it just looked swollen making me look in the early stages of pregnany.  Still I managed to get my weight down with loads of running( my usual sport).  Howevr after my second child I lost around a stone immediately but after 5 months of serious exercies I had not lost a single pound and I went back up to what I weighed while pregnant but even my pregnancy clothes dont fit becuase of the weird distribution of fat.  Although I have maintained my weight  since( 2.5 stone over my pre pregnancy weight , I still look pregnant due to a large amount of what I can desrcibe as sticky out saggy fat( classic cushings) on my belly.  I have a plerithery of other symptoms which when I have the time I will post(including sleep disturbances and condocondiditris).   I normally have an outgoing , bubbly personality and I have not been myself( anti-sociable and depressed).  Looking at before and after pictures of myself makes me feel sick- I dont want to feel and look like this for the rest  of life.

To cut a long story short. in desperation my husband came to the doctors with me and we booked an appointment with a locum who I had never seen before.  We took pictures of what I looked like before and my wedding ring( 5 years now and had it taken up 3 sizes but it is too small again).  To our amazement she gave us a referal to an endo as she agreed there must be something wrong.

I have had 3 abnormal cortisol urine tests and one normal.  I have a microadenoma on the left side of my pituitray.  Dispite this I have still not got a diagnosis because my endo doesn;t belive that this is the culprit becuase I passed the low dose overnight dexa test.  My CT scan of the adrenals was however clear.  I am currently waiting to go in for 4 days worth of testing ( this has been delayed several times now(3months)) which I hope will be at the end of the month(Jan '10).  My worst nightmare would be for everything to show up fine and be send home.  I am also paranoid about not looking bad enough to make them think I have cushings because I am still small compared to a lot of people who just keep gaining more and more weight.  I think I might be in the early to medium stages of cushings and cyclic so I'm worried I will be out of cycle during the tests.

I will post some photos and further info when I find the time.  Reading other peoples stories has certainly helped me and I hope I had do the same for others.  I would be happy to hear from anybody with similiar experiences.

Bye for now.

Collette

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