I was so sick starting about 5 pm yesterday and all night that I phoned the one endo here in town, whom I had seen once, and was able to get in to see him this morning. I have described my symptoms in other posts, but I will explain them again. I have episodes that I call Hormone Hell that begin with a scary, surging sensation into the back of my head on the left, accompanied by severe dizziness (not vertigo) and nausea to the point that I have to talk myself out of vomiting. I am overcome with anxiety that turns into panic, and I am quickly drenched in sweat to the point that my clothes and hair are soaked. This endo is known for not having a good bedside manner, shall we say. However, he went to Harvard and was at M.D. Anderson for a couple of years before coming here to start a practice in 1985. I think his credentials are good. About three months ago I had a 24 hour urine collection with him, and the expected result was 45. My score was 108. I asked him to do another one today, but he refused. When I described the symptoms I am having, he said most Cushing's patients have NO symptoms, and mine are absolutely not typical and do not sound like Cushing's. I asked him what else I might have. He did not reply. He discussed my MRI, which showed a minimally enlarged pit with no sign of tumor, and he said I might have a microadenoma. He was hurried, not inclined to explain things. He said he would like to put me in the hospital for a few days to figure out what is wrong with me, but I have no insurance. He told me if I have a tumor, it cannot wait, and I will have to pay cash for surgery. He said he has an excellent neurosurgeon. He said he was going to do a suppression test, but when I left, I was not given the meds for that. I asked about it, and the staff said he was sending me for blood work, a complete metabolic panel, and I would come back in a week to discuss that with him. Then he would or would not order the suppression test, based on the results of the blood work. At that point, I was very confused because the doc and I had talked about what day next week I could do the suppression test. I wish he had time to explain things to me more. I guess it is not unusual for docs to be hurried, however. He talked about how hard it is for him to make a living because of insurance companies paying him so little. Because I do not have insurance, I guess he spends as little time with me as possible to keep my costs down? Another thing that troubled me was this: I mentioned to him that I have MCS, multiple chemical sensitivities, and he was unsympathetic. He said if that was the case, then nobody could help me. Recently I have been reading that hypothyroidism may be the underlying cause of MCS, but I have also read research by Dr. Pall in Washington that MCS is caused by a weakened blood brain barrier caused by an excess of one chemical combined with a liver enzyme deficiency. So the person with MCS has more toxins going into his brain than the normal person, combined with the inability of the liver to filter them out. If I do NOT have Cushing's, then what do I have? Are my symptoms unusual for Cushing's? I would really appreciate some input. What is the Complete Metabolic Panel that I had blood drawn for today? What does it show? What good will it do? What is the suppression test like? Does it make you sick? What do you do when you take it? I have an appt with another endo in a town an hour's drive from here, but I had to wait for a month for that appt, and it is next Thursday. So I have a backup, and I think I will go to see what he is like, even though getting to his office is inconvenient. My problem is that I know nobody where I live, I am alone, and I have no family left alive. When I am very dizzy, I cannot drive, and I am then housebound. So I try to use local docs. I was up sick most of the night, and I feel absolutely awful.....dizzy, nauseated, with the surging into my head, skin crawling. What fun! | 