About to have surgery

[pioneerx]

I am diagnosed with 13 mm pit macroadenoma non functioning and about to have surgery. Currently I suffer from mass effects and Pituitary dysfunction. Io understand that after surgery I will need medications as hormone replacement. I am curious how long will I go on taking these med? Also I need to know about the recovery time from the surgery, when will I be able to go to work and so?

[rumpled]

Low ACTH - low cortisol - that can be dangerous - do they have you on cortef or did they do a stim test? ACTH is also a very fussy test to do accurately, so hard to say if it was done correctly (chilled tube, spun immediately, frozen promptly).

I used to have dark under eyes - but after surgery, I was so much better. Hang in there.

[pioneerx]

well I didn't test all hormones only ACTH, TSH GH and prolactin
and actually ACTH level is low

yes some other parts are dark too like knuckles
I have sleep issues, sometimes sleeping too much and other times can't even sleep even if tired
for skin under my eyes when i look closely I can see vains ! I don't know if its normal

thank you so much Rumpled

[rumpled]

Chest pains - what hormones are off? Many of us have to go to cardiologists for tachycardia on up depending on the hormone.

Eye pain - not that I have heard... eye issues and loss of peripherial vision are common.

Eyelids getting darker - what about other parts - knuckles, etc - high ACTH will cause darkening as well as high glucose. Have you been tested?

Skin under the eyes - that may be being tired - you may lose that after you feel better and pain recedes. Cortisol coming and going at the wrong time causes pain, and interferes with sleep.

[pioneerx]

Thank you so much Rumpled I really needed these info.
I was diagnosed about four months ago when i went to a neuro surgeon complaining from headache. Actually I suffered from migraines since as far as I can remember but these headaches were different.

As an experienced person in this, I have another question. I am trying to identify all symptoms that I have and are caused by my tumor. some symptoms are clearly caused by it but others are a bit confusing. I feel pain in my chest, pain in my eyes and actually my eyelids are darker than used to and so is skin under my eyes.

[rumpled]

You probably will need the medications for the rest of your life but it depends.

I say it depends as you will need testing after surgery, and the pit may recover some after surgery, but things do change, so you should get tested on a regular basis to see what is changing, what you need, what needs to be tweaked.

There is surgical recovery time, and hormonal recovery time. Surgical recovery time should take a few weeks if you do not get any infections and you follow instructions. Many think that since that they do not look like they have not had a major operation (no scar!), they tend to over do. Hormonal recovery can take years and can depend on how many years it took to get diagnosed. Some of my friends were off a month, some a couple of months, and me, well, I never was able to go back so it can vary widely.