HCG with Pituitary Tumor

[Trenchant7]

Hi, I have a pituitary tumor, it took me til my fifties to even find the damn tumor, and the doctors weren't much help.

Can i ask how they eventually found it? Did they not do an MRI until the last minute? Or was an MRI ordered and nothing noticed?

What do you attribute them finding it to? I always love to hear stories of inept doctors and what they failed to do, that results in someone finding out they have a tumor 10 years after the fact.

My guess is they refused to run an MRI on your brain and instead ran a CBC or some other useless tests, then sent you home healthy. When they finally agreed to run the MRI in your 60's they found the growth?

[buttslinger]

Can i ask how they eventually found it?
What do you attribute them finding it to? I always love to hear stories of inept doctors and what they failed to do, that results in someone finding out they have a tumor 10 years after the fact.

Jeez, to make a long story semi-short, I lost my job, my house, my health almost twenty years ago. At first I had to go out on Severe Depression, then they did what's called a tilt table test, they strap you onto a table and tilt you up 70 degrees, after 7 minutes my blood pressure started plummeting, that gave me enough to retire on, and know it is not all in my head.

Some "Jungle Juice" from GNC that mimicked steroids got me looking at my glands, and some acclydine was supposed to raise my GH levels, but it didn't, so that was firming up evidence that my suspicions were right, and I had the bad pituitary. Now comes the nightmare of trying to convince the doctors. I saw on an episode of the Sopranos Dr Melphy said "What do I do if I find out my patient had a pituitary tumor, look the other way?"
That's when I knew that I had a rough road ahead. They gave me an arginine test first, and that showed my pituitary didn't work. Even with the test results in his hand, the doctor said I was OK. A few more months and a few more doctors and I got to meet Dr Berman, he was Chief Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist's doctor who treated his thyroid cancer. He was a fantastic doctor who turned me over to his buddy at Johns Hopkins. And he greenlighted everything. Three doctors gave three different interpretations of my MRI. Hopkins gave me the advanced version of the arginine test that was no fun at all but it gave Hopkins the clear power to get Blue Cross to shell out thousands for my HGH.
To be honest I did not see the night to day results I was hoping for, but once they had the pituitary result they started finding other things in that neighborhood like a bit of osteoporosis and diabetes, that they missed before.

I would say if you are curious that you may have the pituitary flaw, start with the arginine test, it takes an hour and they draw blood every 15 minutes after injecting you with arginine. It's cheaper than an MRI and in my case the results were EXACTLY the same as the more drastic test that you insurance company needs to see.
I had two MRIs, a couple docs said mine was small but normal, or normal, the third guy said it was empty cella, in other words a tumor had sheared off some off the pituitary when I was a kid, then dissolved away, leaving a small empty space.
I feel like this jibes with my life experience, it makes sense to me finally, a little peace, I don't go charging around to doctors or go to Chronic Fatigue Groups anymore. I used to pass out running in the heat as a kid, and I always looked young.