Cushing's Disease

My wife has been through a lot in the last couple of years. On New Year's Eve of 2006, she was about five months pregnant and went to the hospital because she "just didn't feel right", and we were informed that she had experienced something called a "fetal demise", which still sounds extremely cold to say to this day. Essentially she was walking around with a not living baby in her belly for who knows how long.

It was crushing to both of us, because both of us had already accepted that child as a family member. It affected both of us as if it had been one of our other children. I have never cried so hard in my lifetime. In retrospect, however, that event helped mold the child that was born on December 7th of last year, and I frankly would not have him any other way. I still cry for my lost one fairly regularly. I am not sure I will ever fully recover from that blow.

On that fateful New Year's Eve, a CT scan was done on my wife's head, where the doctors saw what they referred to as a "remnant" on her frontal lobe. The doctor said that he would give her a referral to get an MRI to further determine what that "remnant" was, but that he didn't think it was very serious. It seemed so not important to him, in fact, that he did not even give us the referral, and when my wife called the hospital to request the referral a few weeks later, they told her that she would have to come in to the ER once again expressing the same symptoms in order to get the referral. Not willing to return to the hospital which so coldly informed us of our child's "demise" (especially considering that the surgery done to remove the "necrotic fetal tissue" was not properly completed and my wife had to have a SECOND surgery performed at a second hospital) we never got the referral.

Flash forward to my wife's most recent pregnancy with our little one. Because my wife had exhibited problems with the last pregnancy, they paid closer attention to her this time, setting DOZENS of appointments to monitor the baby and my wife. She had very high blood pressure, was gaining weight at a very rapid pace (even for a pregnant woman), and was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. All of those things in combination coupled with high levels of protein in her urine led the doctors to a diagnosis of preeclampsia.

My wife told a couple of doctors at Desert Perinatal (where she was treated) that the doctor who had essentially our last baby dead had informed us that there was something anomalous on her brain...which they ALL disregarded and did not even bother to follow up on. Not wanting to argue with doctors, we left it alone and assumed that the issues that my wife was having were a direct result of this preeclampsia.

Well, as it turns out, that anomalous mass that was seen on the CT scan was a tumor on her pituitary gland, which we found out very recently. My wife has gained weight rapidly, is dealing with muscular and joint discomfort, and is still fighting high blood pressure and diabetes.

My wife's current doctor recently diagnosed my wife with Cushing's Disease, which is apparently what she has been contending with throughout this entire ordeal. The worst part: we diagnosed it before the doctors did. We are not doctors and have no medical training, but we were able to get online, plug in a list of symptoms, and receive the exact same diagnosis as it took doctors about a year and a half to come up with...all because no one would check on the ANOMALOUS MASS IN HER BRAIN even though it was clear that something at least POTENTIALLY was there.

I am absolutely livid, and I intend to spend the better part of the upcoming years becoming a millionaire by exposing the fraud that is the medical system in our state. Reading through a list of symptoms associated with Cushing's Disease, there is NOT ONE of them that does not match my wife's condition to perfection. Would it seem reasonable that out of SIX doctors that have cared for my wife in long term situations would have at least been CURIOUS about this strange little thing in her brain? Apparently not.

My wife needs to get better...and the way she is going to get better is by seeing doctors outside of this state who actually have a clue as to provide treatment to people instead of collecting money from "customers". The medical profession is quite lucrative enough for these people to donate some modicum of time to actually establishing what is wrong with people before treating symptoms instead of diseases. All the blood pressure medication and insulin in the world could not cure what my wife is dealing with right now, but our doctors didn't know that because they didn't pay attention to her long enough to actually establish what the real problem was.

So, at the end of the day, my wife is in the very advanced stages of Cushing's Disease, which is a very life threatening illness if not promptly treated. She will require surgery to remove the tumor, which many in the medical field in my state have stated that NO neurosurgeon here is capable of doing with any level of safety. We'll be in California or Arizona having the procedure done within the next couple of weeks, BECAUSE IT HAS TO BE DONE THAT QUICKLY IN ORDER TO PREVENT MY WIFE FROM DYING.

Had the doctors well over a year ago properly diagnosed her condition, none of this would have been so difficult to manage. However, they were apparently too anxious to get off to their golf game or buy another Prada bag to actually spend any time diagnosing instead of prescribing medication to treat the symptoms.

I am absolutely livid.