pituitary microadenoma tumour

Hi MelodyS welcome to the forum and good for you taking the first step in telling people what it is you are worried about or want to know.

You say that you are seeing an Endocrinologist- have they put you on any medication like Bromocriptine or something similar?  Also I suspect that you will be seen by the Opthalmic team on and off over the next few years to measure/monitor your field vision. 

If it is of any re-assurance for you  I was diagnosed with the same when I was 26 and I am now 61 and its still there and with the treatment and the guidance of the Endocrinologist I have kept well.

That feeling of tiredness could be related to the news that you have just had as well as we all react differently to hearing those things said to us.

Sending some very best wishes your way for now. xxxx

Hi Melody, Your headaches sound like the symptoms I had when my pituitary gland ruptured. I was diagnosed with a very small .3 mm pituitary adenoma back in 1997 which was caught by chance on an MRI. I went through the gambit with hormone testing, MRI's and all the typical things dr's look for to see if the pituitary is functioning properly. The Neurologists I dealt with said it would more than likely never cause me any issues and may never increase in size so I shouldn't be alarmed. After over 20 years of tracking it with no real traceable issues although I can say that I do think my tumor was causing some fluctuations in function seeing as how I had episodes of just feeling unwell often. My hands and feet definitely show signs of overgrowth. You don't get a nick name like banana hands without one of these tumors haha. So anyhow I had my last MRI just over a year ago and it appeared the size had not changed. I noticed just within the last 6 months getting episodes of feeling puffy in the face and hands,  unwell, brain foggish, tired. Hard to tell what was up and i figured I would pin it on hard work and getting a little older. I am 44 years old with a wife a seven year old and a fabrication business. My sleeping went out the door too I just couldn't sleep well. Anyhow I was told by the neurologists that a telltale sign of my tumor growing would be vision problems. Ive always had 20/20vision and noticed my near sight had been degrading recently and ended up getting a very entry-level prescription which cleared it up. Again I chalked it up to aging. One day at work I was really feeling tired and earlier that week I was feeling great. That day I had a good handful of headrushes and that wasn't normal but thought maybe I was a little dehydrated. I went about my business and went out to dinner with the family after work and noticed I was having more trouble than usual focusing on the menu. I figured I just needed a good nights sleep since I had a long week with a couple hangovers mixed in. I woke up at about 2 am and thats when my headache began. It was unusual for me to get headaches especially while I'm sleeping. I popped some advil and went back to sleep which took awhile with the headache. It wasnt to intense at that point but definetly not comfortable. I woke up a few more times throgh the night and that damn headache was still there. I woke u that morning with that headache and just felt unwell so stayed in bed all day taking advil then swithching to tylenol. THe headache just got increasingly worse throughout the day and the advil and tylenol didnt do a damn thing. I just tried waiting it out but nothing seemed to be improving only getting worse. That night the headache was getting super intense. I figured I had a migrane headache. I knew something was off and this thing was getting bad ..really bad. I suffered through the night with it and slept propped up only sleeping in short increments waking up with that throbbing searing headache. Ill make a long story short and get to the point. I was a bit stubborn and and after 2 ER trips for this headache over a course of 2 weeks and being diagnosed with migraines first then cluster headaches. I was put on a course of prednisone which only masked my real problem. I was worried my pituitary tumor was the culprit and brought it up to the last dr that prescribed prednisone. He ran a CAT scan to rule out an aneurysm and said I more than likely had cluster headaches. The prednisone made my symptoms bearable for a couple of days but as I tapered off symptom worsened to the point that I could hardly walk, my entire body swelled up face was super swelled, my vision went static, i was dry vomiting, got the hiccups which end up lasting 5 days from that point. I was nauseous and I was in a bit of a daze. i felt like I was dying. My wife drove me to the ER that morning and they ran some blood work. It showed my sodium levels had dropped to 105 which is lethal. They had an ambulance come snatch me and rushed me to the hospital and put me in ICU hooked me up to a drip and the whole shebang. I told them I thought it was my pituitary and all that had transpired through the 2 weeks leading up to then. The next day they ran an MRI and discovered my tumor although small had a little more than doubled size from .4mm to 1.2mm . This was enough to rupture my gland. Basically my gland was trying to get rid of it on its own burst and spit it out,. This created lots of pressure in my head and was causing all the issues. My cortisol level had plummeted and this is what led to my sodium issue. They had to get my sodium levels back up to a normal range at 135-140 and get me stable off the drip for a couple of days then plan was to do surgery to remove the waste and any residual tumor tissue. My nearsighted and farsighted vision was blurry and I had to wear glasses to read things. They had my ramped up on Cortef to control inflammation and supplement my cortisol. After 9 days in the hospital I was ready for surgery. During surgery they fixed a deviated septum and created a spinal leak which they had to patch with some fat from my stomach. I am now at about 3.5 weeks post op. I'm feeling much better and really happy to have that ticking bomb out of my head. Still a bit of a road ahead and my nose is still pretty congested but headaches are now gone. I've been back on my feet and working basically 10 days post opp just slowly building up my stamina. I'm working on my Cortef taper off and bloodwork to monitor the function of my gland and sodium levels which may be back and forth a bit. I'm hopeful it will function properly so I can get back to a normal life. My advise to you is listen to your body. The headaches you are describing sound like my symptoms. A ruptured pituitary isn't very common but certainly happens. Get yourself an MRI and get answers because things can get much worse if you wait. I wound u in the hospital for 25 days and if I had tried to suffer it out 1 more day I don't think I would be here today.