Pheochromocytoma

[thegrammalady]

ever heard of it??? it's a tumor on or in the adrenal gland. i have high pth. had one parathyroid removed years ago before kidney disease. now on sensipar it is still high and bounces up and down from month to month. the neph has refered me to an endocrinologist who wants to rule out the pheochromocytoma before removing any of the remaining parathyroids. it involves blood work. apparently however whenever you get stuck for a blood draw your adrenal glands react, which will give a false positive on the test. so since i have a catheter they will use that. the test requires 3 vials, on drawn at 5:30 when i start dialysis. one around 11am and the 3rd around 4pm. i get to spend the entire day going back and forth to the clinic. a transportation nightmare. UGH! wish me luck.



EDITED:Changed subject line to lower case - Sluff/ Admin

[Sluff]

I was diagnosed with pheochromocytoma back in 2002. This also relates to my post in the thread about hot ears. My symptoms were these hot flashes which my face and ears would get real hot almost to the point of nausea. Physically they would sometimes turn red and other times not. I would get a metallic/ blood taste in my mouth during the hot flashes. After an episode I would get completely drained and tired out. They wanted to do surgery so they gave me an expensive prescription and wanted me to take it 2 weeks before surgery, the cost was ($2400.00) There was no way i could afford the medication so I asked for a second opinion.

The second opinion required  two weeks of scans and radioactive dye, in the end they said I did not have Pheochromocytoma. I will always wonder what they found to make the original diagnosis of pheochromocytoma, but so far so good.