Cushing's Awareness Challenge, Day 1

April is always Cushing's Awareness Challenge month because Dr. Harvey Cushing was born on April 8th, 1869.

Thanks to Robin for this wonderful past logo!  I've participated in these 30 days for Cushing's Awareness several times so I'm not quite sure what is left to say this year but I always want to get the word out when I can.

As I see it, there have been some strides the diagnosis or treatment of Cushing's since last year.  More drug companies are getting involved, more doctors seem to be willing to test, a bit more awareness, maybe.

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How fitting that this challenge should begin on April Fool's Day.  So much of Cushing's  Syndrome/Disease makes us Cushies seem like we're the April Fool.  

Maybe, just maybe, it's the doctors who are the April Fools...

Doctors tell us Cushing's is too rare - you couldn't possibly have it.  April Fools!

All you have to do is exercise and diet.  You'll feel better.  April Fools!

Those bruises on your legs?  You're just clumsy. April Fools!

Sorry you're growing all that hair on your chin.  That happens as you age, you know.  April Fools!

Did you say you sleep all day?  You're just lazy.  If you exercised more, you'd have more energy. April Fools!

You don't have stretch marks.  April Fools!

You have stretch marks but they are the wrong [color/length/direction] April Fools!

The hump on the back of your neck is from your poor posture. April Fools!

Your MRI didn't show a tumor.  You couldn't have Cushing's. April Fools!

This is all in your mind.  Take this prescription for antidepressants and go home.  April Fools!

If you have this one surgery, your life will get back to normal within a few months. April Fools!

What?  You had transsphenoidal surgery for Cushing's?  You wasted your time and money. April Fools!

I am the doctor.  I know everything.  Do not try to find out any information online. You could not have Cushing's.  It's too rare...  April FOOL!

All this reminds me of a wonderful video a message board member posted a while ago:

https://youtu.be/GRaDr3cPAmE

So now - who is the April Fool?  It wasn't me.  Don't let it be you, either!

Transsphenoidal Microsurgery for Cushing’s Disease: Initial Outcome and Long-Term Results

Transsphenoidal Microsurgery for Cushing’s Disease: Initial Outcome and Long-Term Results

Dr. Cargill Alleyne - Augusta, GA 2012 Best Doctors

Dr. Cargill Alleyne

Neurosurgeon

You’re going to work hard whatever you do, so work hard doing something you love,” says Dr. Cargill Alleyne, director of the neurosurgery residency program at Georgia Health Sciences University, among other professional appointments. Research, instruction, publishing, inventing and clinical practice stimulate, invigorate and energize him. “When you’re in the operating room, you’re dedicating all your energies, all your senses, to one specific problem and time flies,” he says. That experience of flow along with the element of human interaction drew him to medicine and specifically to neurosurgery.

His unique ability to be in the moment, tending to each patient one-on-one and, at the same time, to consider the bigger picture and how he can contribute to it distinguishes his approach to medicine. The model for his own career and his message to the neurosurgeons he teaches is this: Perform one surgery and change a single life. Teach another person to perform that surgery, change several lives. Conduct research and publish results and broaden the scope of impact by reaching practitioners around the world. Improve a current procedure or implement a new treatment paradigm and influence the healing of future generations of patients. Every element of this model supports a philosophy of providing the best care possible at the personal level and ensuring that every person receives the best care possible.

The brain is the last frontier, rife with the potential for specialties and sub-specialties. Despite technological advances made since Dr. Harvey Cushing (1869-1939), the undisputed Father of Neurosurgery, pioneered effective operations, the organ of the brain still holds many mysteries. Young residents, believes Dr. Alleyne, have the advantage of flexible thinking and, thus, possess the power to not just practice neurosurgery competently, but to improve it.

Interestingly, Dr. Alleyne has combined his love of Hollywood productions, his interest in medical history and his professional training in neurosurgery to write a screenplay, Hands of Gold, Feet of Clay–The Harvey Cushing Story, which won 13th place at the 2006 FilmMakers International Screenwriting Awards. Though he very humbly says, “It was something to do,” the project required extensive reading and research and took a year to complete. A collection of coincidences suggests that perhaps it was more than something to do; it was something he was meant to do. For example, Cushing, incidentally, had a brother named Alleyne. Cushing and Dr. Alleyne both attended Yale. And the Cushing Tumor Registry, a collection of glass jars containing brain tissues from Cushing’s many surgeries, was stored in the basement of the building in which Dr. Alleyne lived during medical school at Yale.

Neurosurgeons dedicate six to seven years beyond medical school to honing their craft. They perfect technically precise procedures. Many lose themselves in their careers. Cushing performed more than 2,000 brain surgeries and recorded volumes of detailed notes and illustrations, advancing successful treatment methods but spending little time with his wife and five children. Dr. Alleyne shares Cushing’s commitment. Yet, he also values building a strong family with his wife Audrey and their children, Nicole, 10, and Nathan, 12. Working hard at what he loves energizes him for the ones he loves.

Read more at Augusta Magazine

Psychological Manifestations of Pituitary Disease

From the May 2012 PNA Newsletter:

 

Psychological Manifestations of Pituitary Disease

Editor’s note: This is an introduction to a lecture given by Dr. Michael Weitzner. It makes many of the points that the PNA strives to promote.

The objectives of this lecture are to provide an overview of the psychological and neuropsychiatric problems faced by patients with pituitary disease, the impact on family, and the options for treatment.

Cushing, himself, believed that there was a need to differentiate the psychological effects that resulted from the pituitary tumor from those that resulted from the stress of illness. It is now recognized that the hypothalamic-pituitary axis is not only an integral element in the expression of behavior, but also an essential part of the limbic system which controls our emotions.

Many patients with pituitary tumors develop an apathy syndrome which is the result of this interplay between the limbic system and the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. An important task is the differentiation of this apathy syndrome from other psychiatric disturbances which are also seen in patients with pituitary disease. It is well recognized that depression and anxiety are present in many patients with hyperprolactinemia and Cushing’s disease. Personality change and anxiety are commonly seen in patients with acromegaly and hypopituitarism. There are several options for treatment, both pharmacological and psychological. One element that is unfortunately ignored in this illness is the effect on the family. Effective treatment of the patient with pituitary disease included treatment of the family.

Michael A. Weitzner, M.D., Department of Psychiatry,University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida

From www.pituitary.org

Day Eight, Cushing's Awareness Challenge

It's Here!

 

Dr. Cushing was born in Cleveland Ohio. The fourth generation in his family to become a physician, he showed great promise at Harvard Medical School and in his residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital (1896 to 1900), where he learned cerebral surgery under William S. Halsted

After studying a year in Europe, he introduced the blood pressure sphygmomanometer to the U.S.A. He began a surgical practice in Baltimore while teaching at Johns Hopkins Hospital (1901 to 1911), and gained a national reputation for operations such as the removal of brain tumors. From 1912 until 1932 he was a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and surgeon in chief at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, with time off during World War I to perform surgery for the U.S. forces in France; out of this experience came his major paper on wartime brain injuries (1918). In addition to his pioneering work in performing and teaching brain surgery, he was the reigning expert on the pituitary gland since his 1912 publication on the subject; later he discovered the condition of the pituitary now known as "Cushing's disease".

Read more about Dr. Cushing

Today, April 8th, is Cushing's Awareness Day. Please wear your Cushing's ribbons, t-shirts, awareness bracelets or Cushing's colors (blue and yellow) and hand out Robin's wonderful Awareness Cards to get a discussion going with anyone who will listen.

And don't just raise awareness on April 8.  Any day is a good day to raise awareness.