We know that the chances of remission with one surgery are not high. Maybe around 40%. But this surgeon promises to stick with me. That we will do this together. That he will advocate for me. I am trusting him.
I am going to also take a chance on the endocrinologist that I did not feel so comfortable with. He at least admitted that he'd never treated anyone with cyclical Cushing's. He told me I would not get well WITHOUT surgery. I have an appointment to tell him that I'm going to reschedule the surgery. I'm not going to any appointments with him alone. I'm nervous but am going to talk to him about it. Maybe that will help.
There are a lot of risks... of course the worst thing that can happen is death. Okay... that's out of the way. Loss of pituitary function is a possibility. This will require hormone replacement, and the fun of trying to find the right doses but is treatable with medications for the most part.
Another risk is the development of a condition called Diabetes Insipidus (DI). This has nothing to do with the diabetes you have heard of. It is caused by damage or injury to the posterior portion of the pituitary and the result is that the kidneys will no longer concentrate urine. Again, there is medication to treat this. And it's usually temporary and often resolves over time.
There are lots of other things that might go wrong... leaks of spinal fluid (CSF), blood clots, bleeding, infection, I'm sure it's a longer list than that. Thing is, that Cushing's itself damages tissues and I think increases the chances of complications by virtue of that.
But for now... I am trying (HA!) not to think about it too much. I have to do this family cruise and get through the holidays.
Having fractured my wrist really is putting a dent in my knitting plans.
Obviously this sweater is not going to be done in time to wear on the cruise unless I knit 24/7. I'm still having a lot of pain. Not from the fracture but on the other side of the wrist. I'm worried that I tore something that is just going to take forever to heal. And be a literal pain in the meantime.
So, that's a lot of words to tell you not much... There's a television interview of my neurosurgeon floating around on the net and if I can figure out a way to embed it I will. OR you can wander over and see it here: Survive The Journey Blog on my friends blog. She's a tech and research maven.
There's probably something else I wanted to post about... but my memory is lousy again these days. Trying to get through the CEU's I need to maintain my RN license has been real work. I don't get upset about it anymore... it just frustrates and scares me. I've GOT to get well.
