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The End of Dance, Beginning of Cushing's?

I used to dance.  For my whole childhood I was enrolled in dance classes.  I loved to dance, even though I wasn't that great, it was the only activity that I enjoyed.  I tried playing soccer, and always went back every now and then but I was not into running, and one time cried in the middle of the field because my coach yelled at me.  (He didn't actually yell AT me, he was yelling so I could hear his directions!)

When I was 13, I was FINALLY old enough to go on a trip to New York City with the dance studio.  My mom was coming as a chaperone, and 3 of my best friends were staying in the room with me.  We had a fun night when we got there, we saw a show and went out for dinner, and the next morning, my little dance dream came tumbling down.  I realize now that the criticism from my teacher that morning probably came from frustration, having to organize this huge group, and partly because of Cushing's.  I started having symptoms around 13, which probably threw my whole body off.

 I was gaining weight, after being a skinny tall kid my whole childhood, I was probably in that awkward clumsy phase with the start of Cushing's.  Or was it the opposite?  Did this traumatic event in my young life somehow contribute to Cushing's?  I have read before that sometimes great trauma or stress as a child can contribute to the excess  cortisol production.

I tried another dance teacher in a new studio with new kids for a few weeks, but eventually decided that my self confidence was so crushed that I didn't think I could dance at all anymore.

I was less active, so that helped with the weight gain, and from then on things just spiralled out of control until 10 years later, when I was finally diagnosed with Cushing's Disease.  I sometimes wonder if this was the hiccup that set my life on a different path, or if it was always meant to be this way.  I guess I won't ever know.


Were you active as a child before Cushing's?  Did you become less active as you developed symptoms?



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