Sunday, January 2, 2011

The story so far...

Now, I know those viewing my blog are my dear, sweet friends who are kindly indulging me by reading, but there may be a few who came in late and don't know the whole, miserable story, so I thought I should bring everyone up to speed.  My lovely friends who fit into the former category, and have had to listen to me bang on ad nauseum about my woes for the past two years, you are excused from reading this post.  Everyone else, you might like to make yourself a cup of tea or something before starting reading....it's probably gonna be long.  Sorry.
I'll start with Holly, as she is the one I'm most worried about.  Holly is 16, and has had a weight problem ever since she was a baby.  We have tried EVERYTHING in an effort to help her lose weight.  We've been able to slow down gains for some periods of time, but generally it just goes up and up. She now is classified as morbidly obese.  Several years ago, her health started to deteriorate.  She started getting severe joint pain, and it was during an episode of acute shoulder pain that a doctor happened to examine her shoulder, and noticed the red/purple stretchmarks that cover her entire back.  He raised the possibility of Cushings, and ran a 24hr urine cortisol test, which came back normal.  He said it wasn't Cushings, but by then I had started to research, and I KNEW there was something seriously wrong.
She then developed the first of 2 pilonidal sinuses.  Her hair started to fall out.  Her periods stopped.  Her sleep patterns began to get messed up.  The weight gain continued.  The stretchmarks spread everywhere, even down her forearms to her wrists.  She developed a buffalo hump. She became depressed.  We saw a pediatric Endo, who was very excited to see her physical symptoms, but then when he heard about the normal UFC, ruled out Cushings and told her to diet and exercise.
I took it upon myself to self-order some testing.  She did a fortnight of midnight saliva cortisol testing, over half were high, the highest being over 12 times the maximum range.  Our sympathetic GP ran tests for us, which showed high ACTH, low Vitamin D, very high insulin, below range morning cortisol, high creatinine, high inflammation markers.  She developed Hashimotos (an autoimmune thyroid disease).  She starting having severe panic attacks, anxiety and depression.  Despite all this, her Endo dismissed it all, and wrote her a referral to get lap band surgery.
It was during the time that Holly's symptoms were worsening, I began to notice a few things in my 13 year old daughter, Megan.  She suddenly gained 20 kgs in a short amount of time.  The stretchmarks began to appear, and she developed a buffalo hump.  I thought I was being paranoid and seeing Cushings everywhere, so we got her to do a midnight saliva test to put my mind at ease.  It came back high.  She also developed Hashimotos.  The Endo ran a UFC which came back at below range, so, like Holly, no Cushings.  She is also developing a multinodular goitre, and has multiple enlarged lymph nodes in her neck, which her doctors are choosing to ignore.
Considering what was happening with the girls, I decided to get my 24 year old son Michael some routine testing.  He's Autistic, a little overweight around the middle with skinny arms and legs, but otherwise seemingly healthy.  His ACTH came back at over 6 times the maximum range.  He had low testosterone, and low testicular volumes.  His UFC came back below range, like the girls.  We took him to an Endo who deemed the high ACTH a lab error, despite getting another high on retesting, and who told us not to worry about the low testosterone, because "he's Austistic, and unlikely to have children anyway".  I have my concerns about Acromegaly with Michael, he has a freakishly large head, but we haven't done any testing for this.
Now to me.  I was diagnosed with Hashimotos over 10 years ago, and developed a solitary thyroid nodule.  The nodule enlarged over the years, and began to bother me.  I had ultrasounds and the occasional FNA, and was constantly assured everything was fine.  A year ago, I'd had enough and demanded to see a surgeon to get the darn thing out.  He sent me for another FNA, and the doctor who performed it did an extremely thorough job, and found cancer (a rare type, Hurthle cell carcinoma).  My surgeon said judging by the size of the tumour, it had probably been there for over 5 years.  I had a total thyroidectomy and radio-active iodine treatment. 
In the past I was investigated for Acromegaly, I have many of the physical symptoms, enlarged feet/hands, frontal bossing, prognathism, extreme sweating, skin tags, nasal and bowel polyps, thick heel pads..but IGF-1 was normal when tested.  In the past year I also developed diabetes.
My other daughter, Melissa, 22, seems to have escaped unscathed. She does suffer from migraines, fatigue and sleep disturbances, but otherwise, is well.  I'm watching her like a hawk though, much to her annoyance!
So, there you go, there's our Endocrine nightmare!  Told you it would be long! This brings us to where we are now...we have found a sympathetic doctor, a geneticist, who suspects we may have a form of Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia, and is organizing thorough testing for early this year. So, hopefully, they will be able to put all the pieces together, and figure out how to help us.

3 comments:

  1. Jenny, did all the UFC's happen to be taken to the same lab? Or even sent away to a lab? Start to think they did not keep them cool..and they degraded. Too much coincidence having all three kids with low cortisol in UFC, while obviously cushie.

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  2. Does Harry have any health problems??

    I knew about all of this already, but to see it put together in one place.. wow, just wow. Way too much for one family. :(

    *hugs*

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  3. Lydi, the UFC's all went to the same lab, but the gals there are really good, the even know how to handle ACTH! Holly has had some normal range UFC's, but all the recent ones have been low. There's gotta be some receptor issues going on.
    Beth, despite total neglect of his health, Harry is fine. He has vitiligo though, not that it bothers him.

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