I was hoping this was going to be the title of this post! Yay! What a relief! That down side is, it didn't come from the doctor I had hoped it would come from. Anyway, I now have a new doctor that is within driving distance who is very good with all of this Cushing's stuff AND the other hormonal issues. That means I now have a one stop doc. I don't have to deal with two separate doctors for everything now. I really liked my other doctors, but they were not on the same page, and I was tired of being the book mark (stuck in the middle).
My new doctor looked at all of my labs since surgery, my pathology, surgical report, etc., and decided that I was ready for my next surgery... a BLA. He and I are on the same page about all of this.
So, I will be having surgery in Wisconsin with Dr. Chiang. The bad part is, my husband is called for jury duty for the month of May. Hopefully he won't have to go, but he won't know until the day or so before jury duty. At any rate, I will be getting surgery soon, whether in May or June.
I'm ready for a life free of Cushing's! I can't wait!!
Thank you all, for your prayers. I know I had lots of family and friends praying for me, and I really appreciate it.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
New news...
I found out something new. After my pituitary surgery, my pathology never said that they tried to stain for ACTH. I finally got around to calling them and asking them to stain it for ACTH. They should do that automatically. One of the resident doctors at my surgeon's office was in shock that they never stained it. When I told him, he had it pulled right away and had it stained.
Well, it stained positive. I knew it would, given my high IPSS results. BUT... here's the kicker. My surgeon had said in my report that he first went in the left side since my MRI showed what he thought was tumor on the left. My IPSS said on the right. He didn't find anything abnormal on the left, but he took a sample and sent it to pathology. They said it was normal (but now I know they didn't use ACTH to stain it!). Then, he went in the right side, and didn't see anything at first, but kept exploring, and found it on the posterior of the gland. He removed all of that and sent it on a slide. Now that they have stained them, BOTH slides stained positive for ACTH. That tells me I have HYPERPLASIA! There is nothing on the report that says hyperplasia, but I'm smart enough to figure that out, given the detail of my surgeon's report. He described where he took the tissue from, and what it looked like (normal, abnormal, white, tan, pink, etc.).
That makes me feel better about the BLA. I've known that is what I need. I've been tempted at times to go for the second pituitary surgery, just to get relief, but in my heart of hearts, I knew it wouldn't work. Now I REALLY know it wouldn't work. When you have hyperplasia, that means the bad cells are spread out, through out the gland, and you would never get all of them. They are basically sitting there waiting to become a tumor. I'm glad I held out for the BLA. Now, I just need to get the clearance. I think I'm close. I hope and pray it's soon! I'm so tired of dealing with all of this.
The Keto has been helping, but I'm still cycling. It doesn't stop that. That means sometimes it works really good, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes, I dip too low naturally, and I have to quit taking it for a bit. It's still a balancing act, but it does make me feel better than I feel without it! Most of the time, I never am low enough to even take the hydro with it. I has helped me lose 8 lbs and 8.5 inches, so I know it's working. I do bounce up in down in weight though, because I'm still cycling.
I'm hoping my next post will say, "CLEARED FOR SURGERY! YAY".
Well, it stained positive. I knew it would, given my high IPSS results. BUT... here's the kicker. My surgeon had said in my report that he first went in the left side since my MRI showed what he thought was tumor on the left. My IPSS said on the right. He didn't find anything abnormal on the left, but he took a sample and sent it to pathology. They said it was normal (but now I know they didn't use ACTH to stain it!). Then, he went in the right side, and didn't see anything at first, but kept exploring, and found it on the posterior of the gland. He removed all of that and sent it on a slide. Now that they have stained them, BOTH slides stained positive for ACTH. That tells me I have HYPERPLASIA! There is nothing on the report that says hyperplasia, but I'm smart enough to figure that out, given the detail of my surgeon's report. He described where he took the tissue from, and what it looked like (normal, abnormal, white, tan, pink, etc.).
That makes me feel better about the BLA. I've known that is what I need. I've been tempted at times to go for the second pituitary surgery, just to get relief, but in my heart of hearts, I knew it wouldn't work. Now I REALLY know it wouldn't work. When you have hyperplasia, that means the bad cells are spread out, through out the gland, and you would never get all of them. They are basically sitting there waiting to become a tumor. I'm glad I held out for the BLA. Now, I just need to get the clearance. I think I'm close. I hope and pray it's soon! I'm so tired of dealing with all of this.
The Keto has been helping, but I'm still cycling. It doesn't stop that. That means sometimes it works really good, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes, I dip too low naturally, and I have to quit taking it for a bit. It's still a balancing act, but it does make me feel better than I feel without it! Most of the time, I never am low enough to even take the hydro with it. I has helped me lose 8 lbs and 8.5 inches, so I know it's working. I do bounce up in down in weight though, because I'm still cycling.
I'm hoping my next post will say, "CLEARED FOR SURGERY! YAY".
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