Pheo

I am doing this post now because a lady that I have talked to on Sparkpeople web site has questioned me on a pheo. She and her family have gone through numerous endocrine tumors and she has lost a son due to one. Also a friend of mine has a son who they are trying to diagnose with an illness and they are considering an adrenal tumor. We live in a very small town in Pa. When I got sick very suddenly one night I ended up going to the emergency room, throwing up, shaking, cold, sweating, pain like I have never felt in my life, etc. they lifelflighted me to UPMC in Pittsburgh. After they put me in a medically induced coma for 7 days with tubes everywhere and test after test they diagnosed a heart attack brought on by pnuemonia. My lungs wre filled with fluid that wasn't actually pneumonia but they weren't sure what else it was. 3 months later in July it all happened again and I was lifeflighted again to UPMC. This was after being on all kind of heart meds, pills for low blood pressure, cholesterol etc. This time i I had a team of the best docs anywhere, the cardiologist ran test after test and kept probing, he told me the first day that it was not pneumonia and he didn't know what it was but I wasn't leaving until he knew..they kept me 23 days. The cardiologist is actually the one who found the tumor. The endocrine doc didn't really believe it aft first because my symptoms weren't right...I had low blood pressure and hypothroidism, usually its high blood pressure and hyperthroid with these tumors. My low blood pressure etc, gave them another set of problems to work out. They stabilized me and got the tumor out after 23 days there. I have to be recehecked every 6 months. So far so good. My tests are scheuduled again for August and I go back to UPMC in Sept. My cardiologist was voted the best in the area and I was on the evening news in Pitts to do an interview for him, that was neat, then they wrote my story up in the upmc health magazine and the medical books. It still all comes back to haunt me sometimes..that first night when I was deathly sick I was home alone, and was sick the entire night before I went to the hospital, they told me that only thing that saved me was that I had taken an aspirin. I still remember that pain and how terrified I was.