So for any of the people who may be interested in this blog because of my prolactinoma, I guess I should talk about it a little. The pituitary gland is a little pea sized glad at the base of your brain and it is often referred to as the "Master glad". Although is is in you skull, right behind your eyes. It isn't really classified as a part of the "brain" but as an endocrine gland. Endocrine glads secrete hormones that are chemical messengers that keep our body in balance.
My pituitary glad has a little hitchhiker (8mm) tumor that is pushing on the cells that produce prolactin. Prolactin is a pregnancy hormone that is released during pregnancy and it allows the mother to breast feed. It also stops you from menstruating and it can make it difficult to loose weight. You need that fat for the bebe. A normal range for prolactin
is 4-30 ng/ml. When I was first diagnosed mine was 70 something, then it went up to 80 something then it would go up and down but relatively staying within the same range. The highest it went was 110 ng/ml. Although, mine is pretty high I still feel fortunate as I have heard that some people's levels go up into the high hundreds and even thousands.
Once I was diagnosed the team of doctors decided that since my levels weren't too too high and I wasn't experiencing any side effects that we would wait and watch. So every six months I go to the neurologist and endocrinologist and get everything checked out. Only once a year I get an MRI though. So every time I get my brain scanned the tumor wouldn't change and we would continue to wait.
I strongly believe that I am going to be tumor free someday. I am going to get an MRI and they won't find anything. When this is going to happen I am not sure...it just will when the time is right.
My biggest fear during this whole process was that I would have to take medication as I read all the blogs and posts where people suffered due to medication side effects. During my last visit in January my fear came true.. the doctor passed me a prescription and told me to start taking the pills asap. I thought that I had my mind made up and drugs were out but I didn't say anything to the doctors and I took the prescription.
Now anyone that knows me knows that I like to be well informed so I did research. Yes, I did the google search but I scoured the medical journals and real scientific data. What I found was that the drug that I was prescribed could potentially cause a long list of side effects included but not limited to nausea, othrostatic hypo tension (a favorite in pharm class), dizziness, blah blah blah and heart valve problems! I read the heart valve problems and was freaked out! I continued my research and trying to remain objective.
Once I had all the information I made a pros and cons list. If I take the drug there is a slight correlation with valve damage or I can have my hormones out of wack and get heart disease, osteoporosis, weight gain, be infertile as well as all the emotional aspects that come with hormones.
So I bit the bullet and I have been on the drug for two months. I have no side effects! Although the first few weeks I had a dry mouth like no ones business and the bowels were a little slow. After a month I became a real woman again! After 3 years of not having periods!! I think I am loosing my gut, which I could NEVER loose. Bye bye baby hormones see you again when I need you!
So when I get back to mainland I am getting my hormone levels tested and I feel that they will be in the normal range. I am also getting a MRI to see if the hitchhiker is shrinking. I think he/she is. So I guess that is enough babble for now. If you have any questions message or e-mail me angemacisaac@hotmail.com and I'll get back to you.
Overall, I feel blessed because if I was going to get a brain tumor I by far got the best kind! Here is a great video that gives a quick overview of pituitary tumors.
I love this video haha
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