Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Cushing's Awareness Day 2014

It’s Here!

Dr. Cushing was born in Cleveland Ohio. The fourth generation in his family to become a physician, he showed great promise at Harvard Medical School and in his residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital (1896 to 1900), where he learned cerebral surgery under William S. Halsted.

After studying a year in Europe, he introduced the blood pressure sphygmomanometer to the U.S.A. He began a surgical practice in Baltimore while teaching at Johns Hopkins Hospital (1901 to 1911), and gained a national reputation for operations such as the removal of brain tumors. From 1912 until 1932 he was a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and surgeon in chief at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, with time off during World War I to perform surgery for the U.S. forces in France; out of this experience came his major paper on wartime brain injuries (1918). In addition to his pioneering work in performing and teaching brain surgery, he was the reigning expert on the pituitary gland since his 1912 publication on the subject; later he discovered the condition of the pituitary now known as “Cushing’s disease“.


Today, April 8th, is Cushing’s Awareness Day. Please wear your Cushing’s ribbons, t-shirts, awareness bracelets or Cushing’s colors (blue and yellow) and hand out Robin’s wonderful Awareness Cards to get a discussion going with anyone who will listen.

And don’t just raise awareness on April 8.  Any day is a good day to raise awareness.

robin-harvey


MaryO

Friday, April 4, 2014

Cushing’s Awareness Challenge, Day 4

Another idea I borrowed from Robin - using a Wordle as inspiration for today's post.

Even though I'm "in remission" since 1987, I'm still way too fatigued, napping every afternoon for several hours.  People think I should be normal since my pituitary surgery was so long ago.  Well, no.


me-tired

Just a few days ago, I posted this abstract on Severe fatigue in patients with adrenal insufficiency.  I don't think that they needed to do this study at all.  Just ask any Cushie!

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Fatigue is a frequently experienced complaint in patients with adrenal insufficiency (AI) and may be influenced by cortisol levels.

AIM:

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of severe fatigue in adrenal insufficiency (AI) patients, to assess which dimensions contribute to fatigue severity and to determine the association between salivary cortisol levels and momentary fatigue.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS:

We performed a cross-sectional study in the outpatient department of a university hospital. Included were 27 patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), 26 patients with primary AI (PAI), 24 patients with secondary AI (SAI) and 31 patients with adrenal insufficiency after treatment for Cushing's syndrome (Cush-AI). Measurements included computerised questionnaires to determine fatigue severity and physical and psychosocial contributors. Patients took four saliva samples at home, in which cortisol levels were measured.

RESULTS:

Severe fatigue was experienced by 41 % of the CAH patients, 42 % of the PAI patients, 50 % of the SAI patients and 42 % of the Cush-AI patients. Psychological distress, functional impairment, sleep disturbance, physical activity, concentration problems and social functioning contributed to the subjective experience of fatigue. Salivary cortisol levels were not correlated with momentary fatigue.

CONCLUSIONS:

A considerable proportion of AI patients experience severe fatigue. Salivary cortisol level is not a significant predictor for momentary fatigue in AI patients.
PMID:
24615365
[PubMed - in process]
From http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24615365

Back to my nap now...
maryo colorful zebra

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Cushing's Awareness Month, Day 3: Symptoms

robin-symptoms

Robin has made another excellent graphic of some of the symptoms of Cushing's.  There are far too many to be listed in any image, as shown by the list at http://www.cushings-help.com/toc.htm#symptoms

Just to be silly, a few years ago, I did my own version of Cushing's symptoms:

The Seven Dwarves of Cushing's

Men Get Cushing's, Too!


Robin (staticnrg) writes:
“If you don’t have a blog or don’t have the time to blog, you can still share for 30 days. MoxieMelissaTx and I are trying to make it easy for you. Share others’ blog posts. Share the info-graphics we are putting up each day. Tell your own story. Do a Wordle. Do something. It can be one day, or all 30 days. The more we talk about Cushing’s, the more folks will find out about it and/or realize they have it.”
I wanted to share Robin’s graphic.  It’s rare for men to have Cushing’s, even rarer than women.

Some men do get Cushing’s, though.  Some of their bios are here: http://www.cushie.info/index.php/cushing-s/news-items/14-bios-of-male-patients

Cushing's Awareness Month, April 2014


Thanks to Robin for this wonderful logo!  I’ve participated in these 30 days for Cushing’s Awareness several times so I’m not quite sure what is left to say this year but I always want to get the word out when I can.

 As I see it, there’s not a whole lot of change in the diagnosis or treatment of Cushing’s since last year.  (Apparently, Dr Harvey Cushing would have agreed with me: http://cushieblog.com/2014/04/03/what-would-harvey-cushing-say-about-cushings-disease-today/ )

 Maybe this is the year…?