Posted by tealady on May 10, 2005, at 3:09:18
In reply to RE: Pheochromocytoma (and Anxiety) » tealady, posted by Elroy on April 9, 2005, at 21:31:11
Hi Elroy,
Sorry I musta missed this. (my indicators don't turn off for some reason). Thanks for sharing all of this:-) Hope your feeling at least a bit better at present and they found something easy to fix!..just included your post as its been so long..my reply below
_________________________________________More info to previous answer.... info on Pheos and Pheo symptoms from 5 other sites:
QUOTE:
Primary Symptoms for Pheo: Many clinical signs can be present, including paroxysms of hypertension (80%), diaphoresis (71%), palpitation with or without tachycardia (64%), pallor (40%), nausea with or without vomiting (42%), tremor (31%), weakness or exhaustion (28%), nervousness or anxiety (22%), epigastric pain (22%), chest pain (19%), dyspnea (19%), flushing or warmth (18%), numbness or paresthesia (11%), blurred vision (11%), tightness of throat, dizziness, convulsion, neck or shoulder pain, extremities pain, flank pain, tinnitus, dysarthria, and unsteadiness. END QUOTE
http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1788.htmQUOTE: Some doctors feel that the most common symptoms of Pheochromocytoma are headache, palpitations, and excessive and inappropriate perspiration. I feel that in this case, the doctors are ignoring the anxiety part of the illness which I personally feel is the most frightening one. Along with the anxiety, I experience tremors and uncontrollable shaking, nausea, weakness, chest pain like angina, and abdominal pain. Sometime I am flushed, other times I am extremely pale. I generally find myself looking at my hands, because they feel numb, and my palms are usually strangely mottled and sweaty... I have been told that these symptoms of nervousness and anxiety, nausea and chest pain, et cetera are rare. Yet every "Pheochromocytoma" friend I have talked with has these symptoms. END QUOTE
(Amen brother!)
http://members.aol.com/threepeb/QUOTE: Pheochromocytomas are a rare cause of hypertension, being the underlying cause of only about .01% of cases of high blood pressure. The manifestations of pheochromocytoma are varied and often not particularly specific and it is easy to understand why such a rare tumor may not be diagnosed immediately by even the most astute physician. Headache, perspiration or palpitation are symptoms found in 90% of such patients. Anxiety, tremor, high blood sugar, nausea, thoracic or abdominal pains, weakness, weight loss, shortness of breath, visual disturbances and heat/cold intolerance are other occasional symptoms. Patients can also sometimes present with confusion or psychosis, constipation, tingling sensations (in hands/feet), seizures, or high blood counts as well as Raynaud's phenomenon. Ironically, patients can also have a slow heart beat (bradycardia) or hypotension, particularly when standing up suddenly. END QUOTE
http://www.fitzgeraldmd.com/news/archives/000046.htmlQUOTE: Pheochromocytomas are usually benign. They may occur in or near the adrenal glands, or anywhere along the sympathetic nervous system roughly from the base of the skull to the bladder. The most apparent symptom, caused by the increased secretion of epinephrine and norepinephrine, is hypertension, or high blood pressure. This hypertension may be constant or intermittent. Attacks may occur every few months or several times daily, and typically last less than five minutes. Physical and emotional stresses can initiate an attack. During severe attacks, patients may experience headache, sweating, anxiety/apprehension, palpation, tremor, pallor or flushing of the face, nausea and vomiting, pain in the chest and abdomen. There may be a tingling, burning, or crawling sensation on the skin of arms and/or legs and/or presence of urinary difficulties. END QUOTE
http://www.vhl.org/newsletter/vhl1999/99dapheo.htmQUOTE: Different people can tolerate different amounts of stress before becoming ill. Some people are more sensitive to stress and are more likely to develop anxiety disorders. This can be caused either by genetic predispositions to anxiety, or by previous (particularly early childhood) exposure to certain stressful circumstances. Certain tumors of the adrenal gland (pheochromocytoma), may cause anxiety and tension by causing the release of cortisol, a stress hormone (this condition is rare). END QUOTE
http://www.pnt-200.com/anxiety.htmlWon't even bother listing the symptoms shown here: http://www.pheochromocytoma.org/sys-tmpl/frequentquestions/
So I don't have the "severe blood pressure" problems, but I go through these lists and find the following listed symptoms are ones that I do have:
- Headaches (Increasing intensity, sporadic, may last couple minutes to half an hour)
- Nausea (Waves of nausea – worse in evenings)
- Weight loss or gain (Initial significant weight loss and then fluctuates)
- Hypertension (fluctuates - from very good to moderately bad)
- Hyperglycemia (fluctuates – mild levels)
- Palpitations (occasional)
- Vision disturbance (very, very occasional “blurring)
- Orthostatic hypotension (Occasional – mild)
- Bradycardia (occasional, mild)
- Clammy skin / Cold skin (More primarily cold skin, cold intolerance – icy cold feet) / Raynaud's phenomenon symptoms
- Paresthesia - tingling, prickling, numbness or burning sensations(Hands/feet, constant - often very strong - Neurontin helps quite a bit)
- Extremities pain
- Nervousness - Anxiety (severe if not on Xanax) - Panic - Feeling of impending doom
- Tremor (occasional)
- Rapid pulse (fluctuates)
- Flushing
- Highly elevated cortisol levels
- Abdominal pain (more generally a tenderness- sometimes pain)
- Flank pain (more recent symptom, often severe)
- Constipation (Moderate, occasional - more like sluggish bowels)
- Presence of urinary difficultiesAnd all of these came on within a 2 - 3 week period immediately following the onset of severe anxiety that came on in June of 2004.
The only symptom that I have that does NOT have a direct link to a Pheop tumor is the hypogonadism... and highly elevated cortisol can often cause that.
http://www.endocrinology.med.ucla.edu/cushing%27s_syndrome.htm
http://www.gsdl.com/home/assessments/malehormone/appguide/index3.html
http://www.google.com/answers/threadview?id=450553Soooo......
Still waiting on test results.
And hoping that it IS a Pheo... just so something can start getting done with this problem!
__________________________________________________Gee Elroy ..it sounds pretty bad. I sure hope they can find something that is easy to fix.
Just the past 3 or so months I've been getting a few of those symptoms too and I'm suspecting maybe my adrenals are spluttering in starting again ...at least if feels like I'm going high in adrenaline/noradrenaline and cortisol to match occasionally.
http://forums.about.com/ab-thyroid/messages?msg=67206.1 (why I think maybe my adrenals are jumping about, but I've really no idea what is going on or even if my adrenals are jumping in and out ..like a car engine spluttering instead of starting smoothly. It does appear to make my blood pressure jump about though when I try to cut down on fluid intake.I sure don't get the Headache, perspiration or palpitation symptoms, although my blood pressure is jumping all around and has risen about 50 points or so ..but nowhere near the range mentioned.
I don't get the tremor, high blood sugar, nausea, thoracic or abdominal pains either..although back in Febraury I monitored,myself on my Mum's blood sugar tester and my blood sugar kept going up each time..started at 4 , then 6, then 7, then 8, then 9...then I decided I didn't want to know anymore :-)
I was having accupuncture to try to get my adrenals working better, I used to be too low :-) Maybe I overdid it ;-)
I do get the (and it has been happening some for a long time, some only since I went on thyroid meds..like the anxiety and paresthesia)
Cold skin (More primarily cold skin, cold intolerance – icy cold feet) / Raynaud's phenomenon symptomsPalpitations (occasional)
- Vision disturbance (very, very occasional “blurring)
- Orthostatic hypotension (Occasional – mild)
- Bradycardia (occasional, mild)Paresthesia - tingling, prickling, numbness or burning sensations(Hands/feet, constant - often very strong - Neurontin helps quite a bit)
- anxiety..and wake in night sometimes and can't get enough oxygen..hyperventilating in sleep etc- weight loss or gain...but I'm sure its water weight via the ADH stuff
and no headaches any more..used to have really bad migraines
anyway I understand a little so that lets me sympathize better maybe :-)
I guess I need to try to talk someone into cortisol testing again, sigh. I don't fel up to facing that..the docs , not the tests :-)
---------------------------Sooooo.....
Have you got your test results? And did they show anything helpful? (fingers crossed)tea
poster:tealady
thread:452259
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20050414/msgs/495895.html