Interview with Monic', pituitary patient

Monic's Bio: Hello My name is Monic’. I first started my Cushing’s journey when I left for college in 2006 I was 19. One month after I left home my symptoms started to appear. The first signs right from the beginning was weight gain and having no period. After a very long year of trying to figure out what was wrong with me I was sent to OHSU to see Dr.Cook. After many Dr. Appointments and being told I was crazy, Dr. Cook started testing me for Cushing’s. To his great surprise (no surprise to me) I passed all of the various testing to prove that I did have Cushing’s. 3 months later I had pituitary surgery. I was sent home but it was unclear if my surgery had worked. A month later I had my period and things were starting to look good. I returned to school that spring. By the end of spring quarter all of my symptoms had returned. I then went back to Dr.Cook only to be disappointed by his reply and his lack of confidence that I really did have Cushing’s. (Even after I had passed all of the tests.) After a couple of long months, I decided to go see Dr.Ludlam at Swedish Hospital in Seattle WA. The rest is history. After another long couple months of testing Dr.L was confident I still had Cushing’s. He gave me the choice to choose between a BLA and a second pituitary. On March 10th 09’ I had my BLA and life has been much better since. I can’t thank Dr.L and Kelley enough. Their team stuck with me against the odds. Dr.L also let me be the deciding factor on what I would like to do for treatment which was a huge blessing to me. I truly believe that there are many people suffering from Cushing’s disease that do not know they have it. I want to tell them that there is hope and to never give up. I would never be cured today if I had given up or listened to the first Dr. that told me “No you do NOT have Cushings.”