The beginning......

Okay, so I am new to this whole blogging thing but I guess it's a good way to keep people updated and informed with what has and is going on in the wonderful of Stacy. As most of you know I have been through alot in the past 4 years or so. But most of you just know that I have been sick and don't understand it. I would like to start at the beginning of when I discovered that I was sick, this will help you understand a little bit better of the struggle that me and my family have undergone. Here goes......

After highschool I took one year of college in my hometown. I was going to school full time (taking 5 or 6 classes each semester), plus working full time and trying to have some sort of a social life... lets just say I was busy! I noticed that I started gaining a little weight but thought nothing of it... my lifestyle had changed and I wasn't as active as I once was.

The following year I turned 19 and decided to move to a new town and continue my education in a new place. I started gaining wieght at a very rapid pace (I gained almost 90 pounds in 3 months)even though I was going to the gym about 5 times a week, and swimming every morning before I would walk to the college. I couldn't figure out what was going on with me so I had gone to the doctor a few times just to be told that I had to be lying about working out, and what I was eating. They told me I was just getting fat. After a few times of being told this I started to think "Hey maybe it is just me getting fat, I am not sick." I began to sink into feelings of depression. A once outgoing vibrant person I slumped into a shell. I didn't want to go out, I hid from everyone... including my boyfriend who I had moved with. I noticed that I began not being able to sleep through the night... only being able to sleep about 2 hours at a time, my hands would constantly shake, and my mood swings were terrible. This was not normal for me, I used to be a happy-go-lucky sort of girl.

I would phone home almost every night because I was lonely (even though I lived with 2 other people) and depressed. My family thought I was just homesick and that I needed to just get used to living away from everything that was familiar to me, I would get better. Things didn't get better for me. One night while I was sitting on the couch I started getting pains in my back which soon moved to the front into my sides. The pain got progressively worse and eventually I could not take it any more. I got my boyfriend to drive me to the hospital and turns out they were kidney pains... probably stones. It was the worst pain I could ever imagine. My eyes even swelled shut! I started getting these pains probably 2-3 times a month but the doctors couldn't figure out what was causing. I even went and seen a urologist but nothing showed up in the CT scan. As all of this was going on I continued to gain weight. I still was going to the gym all the time, and swimming and eating healthy but nothing helped.

I continued to go to school even though I was only getting 2-3 hours of sleep a night, the mood swings increased and the depression was high. After my first year of school I decided to move back home for the summer, fully planning to return to school in the fall. When I came home I didn't get the welcome home I was expecting. I walked in the door and my mom almost hit the floor. She has a look of sheer shock on her face, she later told me it was because my face was so swollen, red and shiny she almost didn't even recognize me. It was then my mom knew something was seriously wrong with me.

I refused to go to the doctor because I couldn't take them just telling me I was fat again. After alot of persuading and convincing my mom was able to convince me to see a new doctor. I went to the walk-in clinic and met one of the greatest doctors I could have ever met. I told him my symptons, how I had gained an enormous amount of weight in a fairly short period of time, mainly in the abdomen area, sleepless nights, mood swings, swelling of the face, and the list went on. I could see the concern on his face and he told me that he would do some blood tests and we would work on finding out what was wrong.

I was relieved that I was not told "Your just getting fat", and that someone actually believed me when I told him that I excersise regularily and eat fairly healthy. Little did I know that once I had gone back to work my mom had gone back to the doctors office with my grad picture (that was taken 2 years before that) and walked up to the doctor and showed him the picture. My mom said he was shocked and that he wouldn't have even recognized me.... he looked at her and said I think she may have Cushing's Disease.

That was the start of a very long journey that has changed my life.