well, not the exact beginning, but the beginning of Cushing's road.....

nearly two years ago I suddenly developed PPPB...pseudo perpetual pregnant belly.  I was volunteering with my daughter's  youth group on a local mission work week, painting in the heat of July and found i couldn't bend down to do the baseboard trim at all.  my PPPB was denying me this capability.  By the end of the week I was at my PCP's office, pointing in confusion to my distended abdomen.  This was followed by a couple weeks of blood tests, CTs, ultrasounds...nothing wrong.  I pursued with two specialist visits to an endocrinologist and rhuematologist, and I was just sure my family history of rheumatoid arthritis had caught up to me.  The endocrinologist evaluated me, judged me on what she perceived to be my lack of exercise...despite my insistance of the opposite having completed my 10th half-marathon earlier that spring.  Spoke the words to me that changed my life, 'we'll rule out any possibility of Cushing's syndrome' but coached me on the rareness of CS and ruling it out was more like a formality. 

The rheumatologist found no signs of arthritis, thankfully, but cheerfully handed me a presciption for Plaquenil, a powerful drug used to treat bouts of malaria and of course, lupus and RA.  She couldn't give me a reason to ingest this intense medication, other than...it may help.  I still have that written presciption to this day, it reminds me to believe in what I know to be true of my body and not let any doctor persuade me otherwise.

Then I got the call, an excited endo on the other line declaring that yes indeed!  I would be her first Cushing's patient!  hurrah!!  The medical person in me got excited, she was enthuastic about a diagnosis and eager to embark on this!  I failed to see the red flag that is probably very obvious to you.  Would being her first Cushings patient ensure me quality and efficient treatment?  No matter...we were excited!  She said I would need to do two more tests to confirm the diagnosis and then i'd be off for imaging to find the tumor causing my cortisol levels to soar well above normal.  Eagerly I picked up my lab slip and saliva kits and followed her instructions.  Days later, she undiagnosed me....in her words 'she was able to turn off my cortisol production' by my taking a steroid pill (i guess she crawled up in my head that night as i slept) therefore there was nothing wrong with me.  She didn't need to see me again...and my treatment plan was to diet and exercise....despite my complaints of low appetite do to queasiness and difficulting in exercising due to the insomnia that was now plagueing me

I guess in some ironic way I do have some gratitude from my first endiot....the days in between her diagnosis then undiagnosis I got busy on the internet and found a "Cushings Help" forum at http://cushings.invisionzone.com/index.php?act=idx.  The lightbulb turned on and I knew I had finally found the explaination to my suddent onset of symptoms that left me feeling like I had aged 15 years in 3 months