🎤 Surgical Management of Cushing’s Disease

Presented By:

Russell Lonser, MD, FAANS
Professor and Chair
Department of Neurological Surgery
Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center


After registering you will receive a confirmation email with details about joining the webinar.

Contact us at webinar@pituitary.org with any questions or suggestions.

Date: April 10, 2018
Time: 10:00 AM-11:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Learning Objectives:

  1. To define clinical features of Cushing’s disease.
  2. To describe management paradigms for Cushing’s disease.
  3. To understand the evaluation of Cushing’s disease patients.

Presenter Bio:

LonserRussell R. Lonser graduated with a B.A. in economics from Andrews University in 1990 and received his M.D. from Loma Linda University in 1994. He completed his neurosurgical training at the University of Utah in 2001. During his residency, he performed a 2-year research fellowship under the mentorship of Edward H. Oldfield, M.D., in the Surgical Neurology Branch at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Upon completion of his residency, he joined the staff of the Surgical Neurology Branch at the NIH. He was Chief of the Surgical Neurology Branch at NIH before becoming Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at Ohio State University in 2012. He holds the Dardinger Family Chair in Neurosurgical Oncology.

Dr. Lonser’s research interests include development of drug delivery paradigms for the central nervous system pathology, as well as investigation of tumor pathogenesis and biology. Specifically, his scientific efforts are directed toward studying convective delivery and neoplasia pathogenesis/propagation in familial tumor suppressor syndromes, including von Hippel-Lindau disease. His clinical and surgical interests are centered on the treatment of brain, temporal bone and spinal cord tumors. He is an author on over 300 scientific and clinical publications. He received the Tumor Young Investigator Award from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Section on Tumors in 2001 and Mahaley Clinical Research Award from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Section on Tumors in 2013. He was the 2017 American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Section on Tumors Bittner Lecturer. He is a co-inventor on a patent for methods for convection-enhanced delivery of therapeutic agents.

His contributions to organized neurosurgery include membership on the Executive Committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. He was the Treasurer of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and is President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. He also served on the Executive Committee for the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Section on Tumors. He has served on a number national committees for organizations involved in neurosurgical research. He is head of the Research Subcommittee in Head, Neck and Spine Injury Committee for the National Football League. He has been actively involved in the mentoring and training of over 40 neurosurgical fellows. He is on the Editorial Boards for NEUROSURGERY, World Neurosurgery and Journal of Neurosurgery. He is an Academic Editor for PLoS One and Science Reports. He is Consulting Editor for Neurosurgery Clinics of North America.

Dr. Lonser is married to Carolyn. They have 3 daughters, Hannah (born 2001), Sarah (2004) and Alicia (2007).

🎤 Interview Archive with Alicia, a patient who is still testing

 

Interview with Alicia, a Cushing’s Message Board member who is still testing. Alicia writes “Around the end of my Junior year, probably one of the worst things that could have happened during my 8 years of illness happened, I had severe psychiatric symptoms at school, including psychosis, and was put on a “students in crisis” plan and sent home for a little while. Being diagnosed as a “psych patient” would delay my diagnosis for years, most doctors just considered me “crazy.”

Listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cushingshelp/2008/02/08/alicia-a-patient-who-is-still-testing

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🦓 From a Past Blogging Challenge: Cushing’s Awareness Challenge – Day 5

From Danielle’s Cushing’s Awareness Challenge Blog

Social media dominates most people’s lives these days. You see what everyone you know is up to, but the problem is, most people only post about the highlights of their lives.

You don’t get to see the low points, the every day struggles. You don’t see what keeps them up at night with worry.

Read more at http://www.lifewithcushings.com/2017/04/cushings-awareness-challenge-day-5.html

Day 5: Cushing’s Awareness Challenge 2018

 

Sleep.  Naps.  Fatigue, Exhaustion.  I still have them all.  I wrote on my bio in 1987 after my pituitary surgery “I am still and always tired and need a nap most days. I do not, however, still need to take whole days off just to sleep.

That seems to be changing back, at least on the weekends.  A recent weekend, both days, I took 7-hour naps each day and I still woke up tired. That’s awfully close to taking a whole day off to sleep again.

In 2006, I flew to Chicago, IL for a Cushing’s weekend in Rockford.  Someone else drove us to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for the day.  Too much travel, too Cushie, whatever, I was too tired to stay awake.  I actually had put my head down on the dining room table and fallen asleep but our hostess suggested the sofa instead.  Amazing that I traveled that whole distance – and missed the main event 🙁

Sleeping in Rockford

This sleeping thing really impacts my life.  Between piano lessons, I take a nap.  I sleep as late as possible in the mornings and afternoons are pretty much taken up by naps.  I nod off at night during TV. One time I came home between church services and missed the third service because I fell asleep.

I only TiVo old tv shows that I can watch and fall asleep to since I already know the ending.

At the beginning of last year, I was doing physical therapy twice a week for 2 hours at a time for a knee injury (read more about that in Bees Knees).  I come home from that exhausted – and in more pain than I went.  I know it worked some and my knee is getting better, but it’s such a time and energy sapper.  Neither of which I can really spare.

Now that I’m nearly 12  years out from my kidney cancer (May 9, 2006) I have gone back on Growth Hormone again.  My kidney surgeon says he “thinks” it’s ok.  I’ve asked my endo about it and he finally gave it an ok last summer.  Considering the GH wasn’t supposed to contribute to my cancer, it’s interesting that these doctors prefer me not to be on it.  I want to feel better and get the benefits of the GH again but I don’t want any type of cancer again and I certainly can’t afford to lose another kidney.

I’m not sure how long I will stay on the Gh this time since I have a very high co-pay and I’m not seeing any benefit.

I’ll probably just muddle through without it.  I always laugh when I see that commercial online for something called Serovital.  I saw it in Costco the other day and it mentions pituitary right on the package.  I wish I could take the people buying this, sit them down and tell them not to mess with their pituitary glands.  But I won’t.  I’ll take a nap instead because I’m feeling so old and weary today, and yesterday.

And tomorrow…