Pituitary News, Issue 8 - Summer 1998.

One of Professor Stewart's patients tells the story of her experience of being diagnosed and treated with Acromegaly.

It was only by chance that I had finished my library book and my colleague suggested that I borrow some women's magazines. These are brought in by patients for the waiting room at the doctor's surgery where I work part time. So I borrowed a few and whilst looking for a crossword to do, chanced upon the health page. "My feet kept growing" jumped out at me from the page. I couldn't believe it. On reading through, I discovered that the lady in the article had symptoms very like my own. My feet had increased by two sizes and had grown much wider too. My hands had become large and puffy and I had to have my rings altered several times to accommodate this. On mentioning to one of the doctors that my hands appeared to be growing, he laughed and said it was due to water retention and a touch of arthritis and advised me to cut out salt. As I had suffered from high blood pressure for many years, this explanation seemed logical. In addition, I had pain and pins and needles in my hands, which had been diagnosed as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and for which I had had an operation in 1991. The tiredness and awful hot sweats I had attributed to my age and the menopause - I am nearly sixty three. Over the years, people who hadn't seen me for a while didn't recognise me, as my facial features had also changed.

The article also mentioned The Pituitary Foundation and I sent off for a booklet, which was very useful. I still held back from seeing a doctor for fear of being thought silly, but I was persuaded to see a different doctor, who didn't laugh and asked to see the cutting from the magazine. He first tested me for thyroid problems and, when these tests returned normal, I was referred to a specialist. After more tests it was confirmed that I had acromegaly; the doctor thought that I must have had it for about nine years! An operation to remove the tumour was performed in June 1996. Unfortunately, not all of the tumour could be removed, so this was followed by a six week course of Radiotherapy. I am now on three injections a day of Octreotide and already feel better. Because the doctors where I work were seeing me each day, I realise that changes in my appearance, especially facial ones, were hard to detect. I therefore feel it was fortunate that I stumbled upon the magazine article when I did. Now I am in the safe hands of the doctors and nurses at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and am very grateful for this.