Courageous in Cortisol
— Brandy Moody

Emotional scarring from Cushing’s disease wasn’t something I predicted, but everywhere I turn, I discover residual feelings from that experience. I’m 13 weeks postpartum with my first baby, and I hadn’t realized until I gave birth the extent of emotional and psychological turmoil Cushing’s put me through before…

I don’t particularly like tight spaces that make obnoxious washer and dryer sounds, but I guess these machines come in handy if you’re trying to confirm a pituitary adenoma (or anything in the brain, really). An MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, is an intimidating process for some. Oddly enough,…

It’s common for Cushing’s patients to develop health anxiety. Every little thing that seems off in our bodies can trigger worry or panic. This might result in excessively searching the internet and creating worrisome scenarios in our minds before observing the facts. I had a pituitary tumor removed…

Cushing’s disease has many ways of lowering our self-esteem, and self-care is crucial for building our confidence back up. I experienced symptoms such as weight gain, purple striae, moon face, a buffalo hump, and even acne. All of these issues combined meant I just wasn’t feeling beautiful…

I always find myself in nightmares I struggle to wake from. Sometimes I’m running away from the make-believe shadows I create in my subconscious, and other times I’m hiding from a maleficent being that somehow finds me in every corner of my mind. These dreams always end with iPhone alarms…

Diagnosing Cushing’s disease is a tough task, and I’m sure anyone who has gone through the diagnostic process can attest to that. Cushing’s can be cunning because its symptoms can appear as though they’re separate issues, rather than part of a bigger problem. Unfortunately, many social media…

Our bodies hold memories — memories that are sometimes represented by visible scars. These memories can also be invisible, but they leave an everlasting imprint, too, through heavy emotions. Our bodies are keepsakes of the things we’ve experienced, and sometimes it’s hard for us to feel proud of these…

It’s hard when you lose friends. It’s even harder when you lose them because you can’t invest the same amount of energy in them as you did before Cushing’s disease. People have their reasons and seasons in your life, but losing them is a hard pill to swallow. They…

Years ago, the sunrise didn’t have any meaning for me. Stars were merely decoration for the sky. “There’s always tomorrow” was the mindset I used to excuse procrastination and mistakes. Raised voices and the silent treatment seemed like acceptable solutions. Every day, many of us walk around forgetting that we…

Dear Me, I know what you’re thinking. There’s a desperate voice in your head begging for your body to return to the way it was before this disease. There are spiraling questions that seem to lead to no answers: “Why can’t I lose weight?” “What am I doing wrong?”…

College is stressful, but adding a chronic disease to the mix can make taking classes even harder. I didn’t realize it at the time, but at some point during my interpreter training program for English and American Sign Language, from 2017 to 2019, a pituitary tumor caused me to…