Media Attention! Cushing's on Today

[~MaryO~]

She experienced extreme weight gain, thin skin and a racing heart. It took years to finally solve the medical mystery.

 

Angela Yawn went to a dozen doctors before finally getting a diagnosis for her life-disrupting symptoms.Courtesy Angela Yawn

 

April 27, 2022, 10:52 AM EDT / Source: TODAY

By A. Pawlowski

When a swarm of seemingly unrelated symptoms disrupted Angela Yawn’s life, she thought she was going crazy.

She gained weight — 115 pounds over six years — even as she tried to eat less. Her skin tore easily and bruises would stay on her body for months. Her face would suddenly turn blood red and hot to the touch as if she had a severe sunburn. She suffered from joint swelling and headaches. She felt tired, anxious and depressed. Her hair was falling out.

Then, there was the racing heart.

“I would put my hand on my chest because it made me feel like that’s what I needed to do to hold my heart in,” Yawn, 49, who lives in Griffin, Georgia, told TODAY.

“I noticed it during the day, but at night when I was trying to lie down and sleep, it was worse because I could do nothing but hear it beat, feel it thump."

 

Yawn, seen here before the symptoms began, had no problems with weight before.Courtesy Angela Yawn

Yawn was especially frustrated by the weight gain. Even when she ate just 600 calories a day — consuming mostly lettuce leaves — she was still gaining about 2 pounds a day, she recalled. A doctor told her to exercise more.

 

Yawn gained 115 pounds over six years. "When the weight really started to pile on, I stayed away from cameras as I felt horrible about myself and looking back at this picture is still very embarrassing for me but I wanted (people) to see what this disease has the potential to do if not diagnosed," she said.Courtesy Angela Yawn

In all, Yawn went to a dozen doctors and was treated for high blood pressure and congestive heart failure, but nothing helped. As a last resort, she sought out an endocrinologist in February of 2021 and broke down in her office.

“That was the last hope I had of just not lying down and dying because at that point, that’s what I wanted to do,” Yawn said.

“I thought the problem was me. I thought that I’m making up these issues, that maybe I’m bipolar. I was going crazy.”

What is Cushing disease?

When the endocrinologist suddenly started listing all of her symptoms without being prompted, Yawn stopped crying.

Blood tests and an MRI finally confirmed the doctor’s suspicion: Yawn had a tumor in her pituitary gland — a pea-size organ at the base of the brain — that was causing the gland to release too much adrenocorticotropic hormone. That, in turn, flooded her body with cortisol, a steroid hormone that’s normally released in response to stress or danger. The resulting condition is called Cushing disease.

Imagine the adrenaline rush you’d get while jumping out of an airplane and skydiving — that’s what Yawn felt all the time, with harmful side-effects.

Yawn was making six times the cortisol she needed, said Dr. Nelson Oyesiku, chair of neurosurgery at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who removed her tumor last fall.

“That’s a trailer load of cortisol. Day in, day out, morning, noon and night, whether you need it or not, your body just keeps making this excess cortisol. It can wreak havoc in the body physiology and metabolism,” Oyesiku told TODAY.

The steroid regulates blood pressure and heart rate, which is why Yawn's skin was flushed and her heart was racing, he noted. It can regulate how fat is burned and deposited in the body, which is why Yawn was gaining weight. Other effects of the steroid's overproduction include fatigue, thin skin with easy bruising, mental changes and high blood sugar.

Cushing disease is rare, affecting about five people per million each year, so most doctors will spend their careers without ever coming across a case, Oyesiku said. That’s why patients often go years without being diagnosed: When they complain of blood sugar problems or a racing heart, they’ll be treated for much more common issues like diabetes or high blood pressure.

Pituitary gland is hard to reach

Removing Yawn’s tumor in September of 2021 would require careful maneuvering. 

If you think of the head as a ball, the pituitary gland sits right at the center, between the ears, between the eyes and about 4 inches behind the nose, Oyesiku said. It’s called the “master gland” because it regulates other glands in the body that make hormones, he noted.

 

The location of the pituitary gland makes it heard to reach.janulla / Getty Images

It’s a very difficult spot to reach. To get to it, Oyesiku made an incision deep inside Yawn’s nose in a small cavity called the sphenoid sinus. Using a long, thin tube that carried a light and a camera, he reached the tiny tumor — about the size of a rice grain — and removed it using special instruments. The surgery took four hours.

The potential risk is high: The area is surrounded by vessels that carry blood to the brain, and it’s right underneath optic nerves necessary for a person to see. If things go wrong, patients can become blind, brain dead, or die.

Recovery from surgery

Today, Yawn is slowly returning to normal. She has lost 41 pounds and continues to lose weight. Her hair is no longer falling out.

But patients sometimes require months or even a few years to adjust to normal cortisol levels.

“It takes some time to unwind the effects of chronic exposure to steroids, so your body has to adapt to the new world order as the effects of the steroids recede,” Oyesiku said.

 

"My life was on hold for five years... I'm trying not to be too impatient," Yawn said.Courtesy Angela Yawn

Yawn’s body was so used to that higher cortisol level that she’s had to rely on steroid supplements to feel normal after the surgery. It’s like an addict going through withdrawal, she noted. 

 

The next step is finishing another cycle of supplements and then slowly tapering off them so that her body figures out how to function without the steroid overload.

“I am definitely moving in the right direction,” she said. "I hope that I’ll get back to that woman I used to be — in mind, body and spirit."

From https://www.today.com/health/health/cushing-disease-pituitary-gland-tumor