Jul2

I do sometimes worry that the heart problems may become bad again, but for now they feel great! Surely I must have died and gone to heaven!

I only take a quarter pill twice a week, which raised the heart beat from the low 50's to the low 80's. Had I not taken this medicine, I likely would've ended up fainting in the streets and with a pacemaker like my mother. Blood pressure is higher too. Used to be about 110 and is now 140 but it feels great! Now if I get tired from it beating a bit too fast, I just lie down for a few minutes and then can go again after the motor is revved up. Gradually I'm getting more energy.

My eyes had become bad too, snapping out of sync constantly and going double in each eye. Every time this happened I was nearly blind for the next hour or two. Still have double vision but mostly only in one eye now and they don't snap out of sync anymore. Fantastic!!!!!!!

This medicine also stopped two daily headaches (which often occurred at the same time), a mild one side to side and a severe migraine from left eye to the back of the head. Within a short time on this pill (maybe one week?) the headaches were reduced by about 50%, and within maybe two or three weeks, by about 90%. Pretty well never get them anymore and if I do there is only one barely noticeable.

No longer does it feel as if fluid is running from one side of the head to the other when lie down either.

Sneezing 25 times a day has also been reduced to about 10 times. That nearly drove me crazy too.

This medicine is supposed to be gradually increased, but instead,mine has been decreased. I have no idea if I should increase it in the future or not. I started out at 1/4 pill the first week and then increased it to about 3/4 around the second and third weeks, but that was way way too powerful.
So now it's only 1/2 of a 1/2 pill twice a week. (In other words, 125 a week instead of 250)

When the dose is higher, the heartbeats jump to the low 90's. It's fun staying awake like a teenager for 40 to 50 hours at a time with the higher dose, but it's extremely hard on the body at the end of that period which was why it the dose was cut down.

The now low 80's heartbeat is about 98% stabilized and feels fantastic! Two weeks before starting these pills I was so sure I was going to die that I had sold a number of personal possessions and discussed financial arrangements with the bank. It was that bad!

Another huge change was a shock to the muscles, because when you're in a near-coma-like state for so many years you lose all of them. I couldn't even climb on a chair with my feet or get up from sitting without grabbing on to something. After just three months or so I can now do both with ease.

In just a few years my weight from this tumour had jumped from 125 (5'4" height) to close to 270 pounds and most of that was because I just couldn't stop sleeping! Most of my body parts had grown tremendously and the spacing in my teeth had become a bad problem too. I also bit my lip repeatedly by accident when chewing (still do often but it appears a tiny bit better), and feared lip cancer from drawing blood so many times.

I didn't want to do anything and didn't want to go anywhere because I needed sleep so badly! It was terrifying! Haven't lost more than 10 pounds since starting the pills about 3 months ago but look better anyway because of gradually increasing muscle strength.

According to Dr. Charles Clevenger who did a study with the University of Pennsylvania a years ago and had won awards for it, prolonged high prolactin causes breast cancer to spread to the lymph nodes not just willy nilly, but with direct purpose, so this too was a major major concern after developing cancer a couple of years ago (which is another disease caused by pituitary tumours, as are respiratory problems, lung cancers and seemingly also melanomas, from what I have read).

However, since starting on Dostinex, (Cabergoline) my prolactin very quickly jumped from somewhere around 123 to just 7!

This pill also corrected an extremely severe bowel problem that continued for many years too -- very severe, and now I'm a once-a-day person like I should be.

There were a couple of downsides though. The main one is violent sweating one minute and freezing cold the next (although the day sweating seems to be stabilizing a little after three months). The night is worst. Even at 61F I sometimes get out of bed and stand on the snowy deck for a few minutes, but the positive part is that it saves a whole lot of money on fuel bills.

Summer heat could be scary to deal with but with melasma and multilple skin problems I hate sun anyway.

Sometimes this pill causes stomach upset too if it's taken once a week in a larger dose instead of twice in smaller doses

Oh, and it also raised my thyroid to about 4.5, but I started taking iodine and I think that will fix it. My hair has also stopped falling out. Wow, wow, wow!

The only other problem is that it's hard to know how long to take it for. Clearly doctors can't send patients for MRI's every 2 months and patients wouldn't want that either, by any means! Hate gadolinium, especially with so many bad skin problems already including very large patches on my face! That stuff can cause deadly problems!

So after a year I will get another MRI. (Kind of a pity in a way, because judging by the astounding and unbelievable changes in such a short time I could well be cured next month and will still be taking it for another 8 unnecessarily. Kind of hate that part, wondering if it could indeed make the heart worse again by then). Since the heart was never tested though, even when the arrhythmias were serious, I won't be able to tell if problems have developed after the pill.

This disease (or something) caused about 50 more medical problems, respiratory problems, numerous skin growths of all shapes and sizes, stenosis, osteoarthritis, and a spine so severely curled it's probably the worst in the world, as well as really badly deformed and painful overgrown feet and foot tumours, so I'm not exaggerating when I say I wish I had taken Dostinex years ago.

Dostinex is the best drug in the world (and this is coming from the world's greatest drug-hater so it has to mean something!)

Again, if you even "suspect" you may have a pituitary, "RUN," don't walk to your doctor, and get at least a blood prolactin test. Ask for the copy of your lab sheet so you can see how high your level is compared to the levels of other people.