I may need to change the name of this blog...

To add a new problem. I guess I'm relieved that I have some answers finally, but have you ever noticed that as soon as things start to get better, or you decide to move on, a curve ball is thrown? This feels like a little more than a curve ball...

I had my appointment with the endocrinologist yesterday. I wasn't excpecting anything because I figured any abnormal results would have been relayed to me immediately. I hadn't gotten any calls, so I thought it would just be another "well, let's keep testing- we don't know what's going on yet" appointment. That's not what happened. The doctor came in, shook my hand and I introduced him to Ben, then he sat down and started reading results on his computer. He sat with his back to us reading over result after result for over 5 minutes, in silence. Finally he turned around to talk. Fortunately, I had been reading over his shoulder a bit, so I was at least sort of ready for what was next. He said that they found a 4mm pituitary tumor that is causing Cushing's Disease. So far, all of my tests have been Cushing's positive except for one, and it turns out I may have done that test incorrectly. So, because Cushing's is progressive disease, and the tumor will continue to grow and cause more adverse effects, they have to do surgery to remove it. At this point, I have two more tests they need me to do before I speak to a neurosurgeon, just to get some more baseline numbers. When those results come in, my endocrinologist will refer me to a neurosurgeon he thinks is best. They refer to Barrow Institute, which is apparently a very prestigious neurosurgery institute. I feel good about that at least. The rest of it, I'm still figuring out. I'm glad I have a diagnosis. I'm glad there's an 80% cure rate with the brain surgery. And I'm glad that we found it pretty early. I'm NOT glad that it's not at all related to endometriosis or Hashimoto's disease, and is therefore one more problem I'm going to have to monitor for...well...ever.

I still don't have a timeline. Hopefully I'll be done with these tests in the next few days and then see the endocrinologist again in about a week and a half. At that point, it's going to be up to the neurosurgeon. My endocrinologist told me not to wait to long. The larger the tumor, the lower the cure rate and the higher the chance I'll have to get multiple surgeries to get all of the tumor.

I'll keep updating with anything else I find out. And of course, this is all happening when I was just starting to feel better, and think that I could move on. I JUST started my new workout plan, and I was pretty excited. But, I'll keep working out until the surgery, it can only help.