Thanks MCF and brnice. You've been really helpful. brnice, I really can't think it's something normal to gain weight (and lose) in spurts. That doesn't look to be related to IBS.
MCF, I'm not editing my lab results. Well, I'm cherry picking the ones that came most out of range, but for the forum. I've been tested even for celiac disease, fructose intolerance, lactose intolerance, essential hypertension, etc. I don't believe those results would really be helpful. But I'll try my best to correct it: one thing I didn't mention was that I was tested with dex, but only for plasma cortisol and ACTH at 8:00 AM. With dex, my cortisol came 0.7 (the lowest) and ACTH below 5, which doc told me was because it was suppressed. Another ACTH some months earlier came 11.9 and cortisol at that morning at 6.2 (the highest and only one within range, both before and after. The other ones were always low).
I wonder if I was correctly tested. There was no UFC with dex, no salivary cortisol and no plasma cortisol measured in any time other than 8:00AM. Perhaps those would have been really helpful?
Well, by your comments and literature, looks like not only Cushing's is not to be ruled out but it's also still likely. Doesn't sound like cancer or chronic infection reaction right? And UFC values seem to be pretty high as well, don't they?
My endo looked helpful, but looks like she quit me. She strongly believed it could be Cushing's at first, so went on with tests. But after MRIs, looks like she quit. She tried to find another reason for my high cortisol. In the end she was considering bariatric surgery, which I don't think will really help. I feel hungry, but due to my food intolerances I end up eating less today than I used to when I was underweight (when I could not gain muscles despite all the workout I was doing. Perhaps because of cortisol already? I was having some bp peaks by that time too, but overall had normal bp), so I can't believe a bariatric surgery will do any good. Perhaps it's time to look for another endo?
Also, there is a possibility that a microadenoma was missed on MRI, particularly on pituitary. But by my readings, looks like an MRI is not really so necessary, many times it's possible to have a good clue only by blood and urine tests, correct?