Health Issues

All:

I've been suffering from unexplained health issues for the last decade including chronic exhaustion, weight gain with the inability to lose it, water retention, heart palpitations (this is only within the last two years), lack of stamina, slow nerve response, weakness in the arms and legs, etc. I am also now pre-diabetic and I don't want to go down that road, but I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do regarding diet and it isn't making any difference.

I've been told to just get out there and exercise, but I physically can't do it effectively. It has gotten to the point that the cocktail of medications I have been taking since the heart issues have popped up are losing effectiveness.

I went to the doctor a few weeks ago and she decided to test my testosterone level. Men generally test (no matter what health and age) between 350-1,200. I tested 69. That explains most of my symptoms. However, my doctor and I want to know why the level is so low, she she has done more testing, this time checking some other hormones. I have some usually high readings for hormones secreted by the pituitary gland, and that means that I likely have a tumor on the gland that is secreting excess hormones in an uncontrolled way that is suppressing production of testosterone and who knows what else.

We are waiting another two weeks to confirm the levels are still abnormal with a second test, and then I'll probably have an MRI of my head to see what's going on in there. There is a possibility of managing it with medication, but a very real chance of surgery to excise the tumor in the near future.

It looks like 2014 is going to be full of specialists, health expenses and possibly surgery, but I have to get this sorted out because this is wreaking havoc on my body.

I would appreciate your prayers in this matter, especially for my wife. I'm not terribly worried about it (I'm more relieved because there's now an explanation), but she is extremely concerned.

 

Scheduled for an MRI tomorrow at Valley Ranch (the Dallas Cowboys facility). I need an MRI large enough to handle an NFL lineman. :laugh:

We are hoping to find a moderate-sized tumor, not too small where it is hard to remove, and not too large where it is wrapped around the optic nerves or infiltrating other structures.

If there is no tumor, I probably have something much worse.

If God decides to make the tumor go away, I'm good with that too.

 

Thank you for that, but I have ignored the rest of your advice.

This is a medical condition where my body is getting the wrong signals from my pituitary gland which is causing it to malfunction so that I cannot gain muscle mass, cannot properly metabolize sugars (fuel), retaining up to 40 pounds of water, have numbness in the extremities, etc.

For instance, my prolactin level (the hormone that tells the body to make breast milk to nurse a baby) is high, even for a woman who had just given birth! Since I am a man, my body is very confused about those signals. My testosterone is at the level of a woman. There are issues with other hormones that control growth and the heart.

This is not an instance of being lazy or sedentary, but a body malfunction related to what is almost certainly a tumor.

When I get exercise, my heartbeats get irregular and my body does not get enough oxygen to function properly because the circulation becomes extremely inefficient. It's tough to work out when you are gasping for breath and about to pass out.

I appreciate your willingness to help, but you're not being helpful. I'll let the doctors/neurosurgeons sort it out. I had my MRI this morning and the tech said they got some really good imagery, so I should know something tomorrow or Thursday.

 

It's a tumor.

Fortunately it's not very large where it is in danger of affecting my vision or infiltrating my brain or other nearby structures.

I'm being referred to an endocrinologist to develop a plan of treatment.

It will probably be drug therapy to balance out the hormones to manage the tumor, but if that's unsuccessful, they may go in after it.

I would appreciate your continued prayer for my healing and recovery. I am actually quite relieved it is a pituitary tumor because the alternatives are much worse. This is treatable in most cases and is almost certainly not cancerous.

 

Even if I grant your assertion you have made here (although I would like to see some medical evidence for this assertion), I was in very good physical condition when these symptoms began more than a decade ago. I was not obese, ate healthy food in moderate quantities (still do), and was physically active.

Yes, that was my first thing I tried. I went to a physical therapist for about six months. Did not improve, but got worse.

You are presuming quite a bit about me and my lifestyle for someone who has never met me.

That’s quite an audacious judgment/condemnation.

So you’re okay if people use hormonal treatments for a time to get into good physical condition? Would you at least grant me the grace to do that without assuming I have “no interest in the more difficult alternatives?”

Been there, done that. I hope you don’t mind that I am following the doctor’s advice. Furthermore, if the doctor had been more aggressive half a dozen years ago instead of telling me to just “lose weight” and not put together all of the physical symptoms (many more than I listed), I would likely not be in as poor of health as I am today.

I not only “showed interest,” but I followed through on it.

May I suggest not practicing medicine over the internet - especially when you have no idea of someone’s medical history or what they have previously attempted?

Thank you.

 

I didn't mean to come across so crossly, but I've had people falsely judging me for more than a decade, telling me to lose weight, not overeat and stop being a lazy bum. That gets really irritating because I don't overeat, I'm far from lazy, and I have worked very hard to lose weight with diet and exercise over the years.

I am NOT above such suggestions. You just assumed that I had not tried them. The assumption that disease only happens to people who don't take care of themselves is harmful to people who are afflicted.

My father died of lung cancer (mesothelioma) from exposure to asbestos and I don't know how many people assumed that it was self-inflicted from smoking. He literally had asbestos fibers in the tumors that filled his lungs.

My grandfather died a horrible death from malignant melanoma and people, who thought they were being helpful, told me that my grandfather wouldn't have had melanoma if he had used sunscreen. What they didn't know if that the melanoma first developed on a part of his body that was never exposed to the sun. It was likely caused by the chemicals he used in his profession.

You just don't have enough information to make the call. Since you don't, don't say things like, "You then would be in the vast majority today who has no interest in the more difficult alternatives."

That's condescending, condemning and irresponsible.

 

It has been a while since I updated this thread.

I went to an endocrinologist and he was initially dismissive of me but ran some tests.

I am waiting on the results of two final tests (one is blood work to ensure that the previous lab work was good) and the other is a urine analysis to ensure that it is the tumor on my pituitary gland causing the problems, not a tumor somewhere else in my body.

I definitely have Cushing's Syndrome, and probably Cushing's Disease. It is rare, and exceptionally rare in men.

When the tests come back and confirm Cushing's Disease, I will go see a neurosurgeon to arrange to have the tumor removed.

I'll update later this week when the final tests come in.

I would appreciate everyone's continued prayer for my recovery.

 

It's official. After an extensive battery of tests, the endocrinologist has determined I have Cushing's disease and will need to have neurosurgery in the coming weeks to remove the tumor.