Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Quinton Update

It's been a long time since I wrote any sort of update on Quinton's recovery from Cushing's Syndrome. The fact is, he's doing quite well. A few highlights:

--Q and I try to go out walking in the evenings. If we don't go, it's because it's too cold, too windy, or there's something good on TV. Not because Q doesn't feel up to it.

--Q had an appointment with his endocrinologist back in December. At that time, the doctor lowered his daily cortisone dose.

--When we went to California, Q seemed to have the stamina to keep up with the rest of us through four days of almost non-stop walking and standing at the amusement parks.

--Q has also been working hard on regaining his strength. He's currently bench pressing 50 pounds. That may not sound like much, but it's more than I can do! We've also taken up tennis. That is to say we drive over to the courts at the local park and whack the ball around. Sometimes we even get it over the net...more than once!

--Around New Years, Q came down with a head cold, which included a fever. As advised by his doctors, he doubled his cortisone intake for the duration of the illness. He also spent a few days hunkered down here at home instead of going to the office. If he didn't follow these precautions, he could have ended up back in the hospital.

--A few days ago, Q told me that he feels better now than he did before last month's cortisone dosage change. And he felt better then than he did a year ago (before surgery). This is an indication that his remaining adrenal gland may have come out of its dormancy and is producing cortisol again. It will take further testing to see if that is, in fact, the case.

--He has another follow-up appointment in mid-March.

2 comments:

Menchie said...

I don't know anything about Cushing's syndrome (will have to do a bit of research there) but I am glad your husband is getting better.

My father has heart disease and I know how stressful it is when you worry about someone you love getting ill.

Ms. Val said...

Menchie, Cushing's disease and Cushing's synrome is common in dogs, cats, and horses, but very rare in humans (less than 10 per 1 million...90% of whom are women).
In a nutshell, it's the result of the body producing an overabundance of the cortisol hormone over a long period of time. It is usually caused by a tumor either on the pituitary gland (CD) or adrenal gland (CS).

Symptoms include central obesity with very thin limbs...stretch marks on upper arms and thighs...hump back...moderate to severe acne...very easy bruising...increased body hair...difficulty sleeping...fatigue...the list goes on.

In Q's case, we got lucky. When his general practitioner couldn't diagnose the problem, he referred him to an endocrinologist. The endo was able to tell it was Cushing's just by looking at him. Since the symptoms are so vague, it often gets dismissed as stress, bad diet, etc.

Anyway last year, Q spent the better part of 5 months in the hospital. He underwent 3 surgeries, and spent over 6 weeks in ICU. In addition, we almost lost him during the second surgery.

I almost wish I was blogging back then so you could go back to the archives to see what all we went through. Unfortunately, I started this site back in April...towards the end of the whole saga.