The student that I chose for” Student Spotlight” is Victoria E (out of all the people throughout the school including most of my friends). She is one of my really good friends. Victoria is very smart, and she loves to do crafts such as making duct-tape flowers and rubber band bracelets. She also enjoys playing the violin and hanging out with friends. She has been through so much since when she was about 10 years old. Victoria has Cushing’s disease.

What is Cushing‘s disease? According to www.cush.org,  it is caused by an excess amount of cortical or other steroids that have a similar use. It’s caused by too much ACTH production in the pituitary gland which is under the brain. ACTH is called adrenocorticotropic hormone.

I asked Victoria, “Did you look at your life differently after you were diagnosed?”                         

  “Yes, because I felt very overweight .I could not fit into certain clothes that I had before everything started changing.”

  If she would see certain clothes, she would be sullen because she would never have been able to fit into them. She would have panic attacks, and she was on a lot of different medications because they were trying to figure out what was wrong for a few years.

Has the illness changed you?

“In the beginning, I was frustrated and angry. The fear of the unknown. I have overcome two surgeries. The Doctors removed three tumors and a portion of my pituitary gland in Boston.”

What have you learned?

  “Cushing’s disease is very rare in children, approximately 1 in 10 million kids has it. The pituitary gland is the size of a pea, and it controls all your hormones. The diagnosis took about 6 long months and lots of blood work, MRI’s and cat scans. After surgery I was in the hospital for about a week."

Victoria’s life will be full of changes and good times. She has had a lot of changes starting already. Not just that but she has had a lot of support from friends and family. She would like to take this time to thank all of her school family for all the support and thoughts. For more information on Cushing’s disease; go to www.cush.org .