Life with Chronic Illness

People have been posting this on Facebook so I thought I'd do one!  (I stole some others' answers though because I couldn't have said it any better)

1. The illness I live with is: Cushing's disease then Adrenal Insufficiency. I had Cushing's disease for 7-10 years and had unsuccessful pituitary surgeries in December '09, and February '10. I had a bilateral adrenalectomy in September, which left me with adrenal insufficiency obviously.

2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: 2009

3. But I had symptoms since: 2000

4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: saying no.  To work, friends, family.  It's been hard not being able to do the things I would like to do.

5. Most people assume: that I am just fat and lazy.  My body is still getting used to lower doses of steroids and it will take time for me to loose the weight and build up my strength again.

6. The hardest part about mornings are: EVERYTHING.  I am in pain when I get up every morning and it ta…

This is the MRI that set it all in motion for me.

From Road to Recovery

See the little area that looks like it's a little bit darker than the rest of the bright white pituitary gland? That's the tumor they never found. You can see it even pushed the right carotid artery out of the way (the black circle above it). Now, two and a half years later, I am finally done with this disease. That half of my pituitary gland is gone, there are still tumor cells up there and all I can do is hope they don't grow too fast, since they can't do any more damage to my body.

before having to call out sick.  I spent all weekend sleeping, went back to work on Tuesday ready for a longer week, felt a little "off" at the end of the night and fell asleep before midnight.  I woke up in the middle of the night super congested and with a very sore throat and a nasty cough.  Of course I would get a cold!  I called out Wednesday and decided to take a trip to the doctor's office to see what they had to say about this considering it was my first illness post BLA.  The NP I saw was incredibly nice and very sympathetic when I burst into tears when she told me I had to stay home at least another day.  (Who cries about not being able to go to work?  Something is wrong with me...) I spent Wednesday and Thursday sleeping, monitoring my temperature, taking Advil, and sleeping.

This morning I woke up feeling a little bit better so I decided to go to work.  Of course things like "How are you feeling?" made me cry about 12 times before I had a chance to …

8 weeks post op and I went back to work last Thursday.  I started out slow, a 6 hour day on Thursday and a full day on Friday, then 3 days off.  Thursday night I was tired and achey but I was surprised that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!  I had a horrible time waking up and getting ready on Friday, and was dizzy and nauseated most of the morning.  By lunch time I thought I was going to collapse so I went and sat in my car and tried to regroup before our notoriously crazy Friday afternoons.  
It was as busy as I remembered it being a few months ago and I struggled to keep up.  We finally finished and I had planned to meet my dad for dinner.  After driving home, I got into bed and just collapsed. My whole body hurt, I was exhausted, and I slept for 13 hours straight.
Yesterday I spent most of the day in bed.  I was still exhausted and in a lot of pain.  Today was a little bit better.  I slept most of the morning/early afternoon then managed to get up and get dressed and go…