KC-GoneNuttymomof1 - I just wanted to wish you a successful surgery next week! Thank you too for sharing! ![]() I think it is great about you having a baby in the middle of all the endocrine changes! I just wanted to rehash the endocrine changes for acromegaly that we talked about here in this thread: Increased hair growth Increased sweating Change in ring size, shoe size, hat size Insulin resistence High blood pressure Facial changes (jaw gets bigger, forehead enlarges) Soft tissue changes (swelling in hands, feet, toungue, internal organs) Increased skin tags (those little stretchy moles that you can just almost pull off!) There are more symptoms though. I really like the advice you got KC from this very kind gentleman. It is very important to remember this is all about YOU. Maria - thanks so much about the clarification pre-puberty and post regarding the height changes. In puberty, if you have acromegaly, the bones have not fused yet, so one of the symptoms you see is change in height and stature, and for some, dramatic changes! On tv last week, they featured a shoe store that made a pair of custom shoes for a youth who had acromegaly - 15" long! The newscaster took his shoe off and placed it INSIDE the custom shoes. This is the extreme though. Acromegaly works slow. I know with my own case, when my doctor considered I may have had acromegaly, my doctor wanted to see sequential pictures of my face. ![]() Co-secreting tumors are often missed. The doctors may pick up on the prolactin, but not test for acromegaly. In the cushings patients that I know who had both GH and ACTH secreting tumors, the GH excess wasn't picked up during normal lab tests (go figure). It wasn't until the pathology was run on their tumors was the GH found! Sorrell, Your endo need to test your IGF-1. The ranges differ depending on your age. Jean had some other testing done too in order to diagnose her using the GH diurnal rhythm, and a very strict protocol with the glucose tolerance test. I hope your endo keeps looking for answers and that there is explanation for all of your changes! Sometimes, the endocrine changes are slow, and it takes time for anything to show up on the lab sheet. Try not to get discouraged. We know about our changes! Minnie |
