My Pituitary: 01/2010

Officially it's called an adenoma

You can Google Non-Functioning Pituitary Adenoma if you want detailed information but in a nutshell it’s a benign tumor in my pituitary gland.

Three times, it's grown to the point where it affected my optic nerves and pituitary function. Surgery was performed Feb. 2007 again in Feb. 2009 and yet again Nov. 11, 2010 to remove as much of it as possible.

My vision was preserved in each case however I've lost Growth Hormone production and am on thyroid medication to help those levels.

I had radiation after my last surgery. The risk is I could over time loose all pituitary function. The hope is it will slow or stop the persistent tumor's aggressive growth.

1/28/10

GHST Results

Normal growth hormone level is 5 ng/ml. After given Arginine to stimulate it the level should rise at least to 7 for at least a few hours. My level started at less than 0.5, after I was given the Arginine it rose to 0.6 for ½ an hour, then dropped back to less than 0.5 the remainder of the test.

The persistent, pain in the butt fatigue isn't all in my head darn it.

The next step is another GHST except instead of Arginine they'll use glucose. It'll be conducted by a different department of OHSU. This is for ‘independent’ confirmation of my low results mostly for the insurance company since growth hormone replacement is ‘non-standard’.

The test is scheduled Feb. 18th at 8:30 am.