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Social workers like me learn the importance of advocacy. We advocate for our clients and strive to help them improve their lives in one way or another. Although we advocate for others, we sometimes forget to advocate for ourselves. When I started experiencing symptoms of Cushing’s disease, I realized…

About three years ago, my body began to change. Movement became more difficult and running long distances was increasingly painful. I watched as the scale slowly ticked upward, purple marks started showing up on my stomach, and my face become noticeably round. I had no idea what was going on…

Three years ago, I started developing symptoms of Cushing’s disease. These symptoms included weight gain, deposits of fat at the base of my neck (called a buffalo hump), striae, bone pain, fatigue, and general weakness, among others. Initially, these symptoms developed slowly but were exacerbated over…

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…

Someone once asked me, “What would life be like if you never had Cushing’s disease?” I then wondered, if I could time travel and erase my Cushing’s diagnosis, would I? I thought my answer to the latter would be swift and obvious. It’s not. I ponder my life…

Barriers are obstacles that get in our way as we pursue a goal. These barriers sometimes are out of our control, but sometimes we allow them to stop our progress. My journey with Cushing’s disease had a few self-inflicted barriers I needed to overcome to achieve my goals. Until…

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…

A quote that has circulated online notes, “Healing takes time, and you walk that path in your own way.” While most of us probably would agree that this is true, it’s easy to forget that the process doesn’t always look pretty, and it takes much longer than anticipated.

After having transsphenoidal pituitary surgery to remove a pituitary tumor in November 2015, followed by a gamma knife procedure a month later to remove the residual part of the tumor, I was closely monitored by my neurosurgeon. For the next three years, I would routinely meet with…