It is Pituitary Adenoma or Curable Hormone Imbalance? Or is it a Miracle?

If you are my previous posts:

• Even Saints Miss the Mark Every Now and Then, and
• Even Saints Miss the Mark Every Now and Then [Medication Free Pregnancy]

you know that a few years ago I was diagnosed with pituitary gland adenoma.  My MD, at the time, basically handed me my sentence along with a prescription, told me it was incurable, and was probably too small to operate on [thank God I did not consider that as an option!], and also told me that if I ever wanted to get pregnant I would have to be on the medication to do so, and then at least into my second trimester… and then after I was done breastfeeding as well. What a glorious prognosis, right?

Crazy or Sane?

Well, call me crazy, stubborn, stupid, but I dug my heels in and refused to take that as an answer.  Even though my symptoms aligned with the prognosis: lactation, headaches, etc., I refused to accept that I had a tumor on my pituitary gland.  I also believe in a miracle working God, so, I knew that with His help, even if there was a tumor, it would, one day, be GONE!  I call it faith, and faith does work miracles.

I received my diagnosis in January of 2008, just over 3.5 years ago.  At the time I was already on a vegan diet, and off birth control–two best things I could ever do for my health.

I spent the following 3.5 years researching like a mad woman.  I had contacted an out-of-the-country biochemical specialist, and had gone through a couple of NDs, not to mention MDs as well.  I had tried a few different nutrient/vitamin based protocols [including vitex, etc.], one of which drove me to a near point of the deepest depressions ever, putting my brain out of its normal balance… and then I was DONE trying.

I had not given up my hope, or my research, however.  In between each new discovery that could possibly bring me closer to my cure, I took breaks–I needed to regroup and recollect my thoughts, to grow stronger in my resolve and to cling to my God a bit closer.  It was like mini mental/spiritual vacations for me.

One thing I knew for sure, and I had never given up on it, is that I did not agree with the diagnosis, no mater the supporting evidence, and I was not going to live with it forever. Having taken an MRI, which was inconclusive only further deepened my conviction, much to the disappointment of my MD, who insisted that some tumors are too small to detect, but are still there. I ruled it as a hormone imbalance that could be fixed–the time was going to tell which one of us was right.

Different Point of View

I saw it differently than my doctor, and here is why.  See, I did not always have this issue.  It was not until 2003, when I went on birth control, that my body began to change.  By the end of the year, besides gaining weight, I started to notice a discharge coming out of my breasts, if I applied a little bit of pressure.  I brought up the issue to my OBGYN, but she just shrugged her shoulders and had no clue how to explain it… and neither did she try to help.

Had I been smarter at the time, I would have connected the sequence of events and followed my path back to the beginning of birth control intake (as I told you before–it is truly, purely EVIL!–yes, you get to prevent a pregnancy, but at what cost?!  I will tell you SO much more about that later).  Unfortunately, I was naive.  Even when I changed doctors and changed methods of birth control, going off pills and a patch I went on a ring=dumb idea! Within a couple of days after going on it, one of my breasts painfully doubled in size.  I was scared, but it took a few days to get in to see my doctor [and I thought they were there to help us!].  By then the swelling went down a bit, and he told me not to worry.  Stupid, stupid girl–I listened.  I should not have been only worried, I should have been suing the maker of the medication… Oh, but wait, they would be protected under the American laws, since, apparently, pharmaceutical companies could do no wrong.  But let me get off my soap box for now–I will save it for the Birth Control post.

Untangling the Pain

By the time I did get smarter, the damage was already done.  It seemed that it was irreversible, but I refused to believe it.  When I finally woke up to reality, I thought that if I could only track my steps back to when it all started, I could untangle the ball of mystery and reverse the damage I had done to my body by doing right things this time.

Slowly, I worked my way back.  I went on a vegan diet, got off birth control; I cleansed my body, as much as I knew how, and replenished depleted resources [minerals, vitamins, etc.].  As you know, I did reverse hypothyroidism naturally, with no medication, and the last bastion of poor health in front of me was the mystery of the sudden appearance of the pituitary gland tumor.

I worked hard to figure it out, but all of my research led to nowhere.  I felt so annoyed and lost, and this year took one of those mental breaks to refuel.  It was at that time, when I caved into my desire to have a child and went on Biocriptin–medication that suppresses prolactin production.  It was another big mistake of my life.  When I came to my senses and made the final decision to never make another similar mistake in my life, no matter what I had to give up for it, I got off medication, and was ready to re-approach my research again.  That was the time when I discovered B-12–what a deficiency of it could do, how to treat it, and how to treat infertility with it.  At the time I wrote out all of my symptoms, and 9 out of 10 lined up with B-12 deficiency.  The one that I could not directly connect, but I vowed that one day I would, was the unexplained prolactin production happening in my body. (Can you imagine how freaky it actually is, never having been pregnant of breastfed, yet secreting milk? [See, I told you, that now I am 100% an open book, so I can help more women out there.] It was devastating, in ways that I won’t even bother to describe in this post.)

Having started B-12 injection therapy, I also wrote to the doctor in UK, who treats a lot of his patience with B-12 for various reasons/symptoms, asking if he knew of any connection between B-12 deficiency and prolactin production.  An awesome, highly educated man, who oversees the B12 Deficiency Patient Support Group, Hugo, responded and told me the following:

“B12 has other functions. Hormones (including prolactin) are produced in cells and secreted by special intucking of the membrane. The amount produced is regulated, the cells look out for the hormone and say if more is needed (also using the membrane). If the membrane is dysfunctional, then you could either get a problem with balancing the amount of prolactin (if the body doesn’t know how much there is, it could make too much) or get a problem producing prolactin (and a problem could be too much, just as easily as too little). [The problem you described, however, is] non-specific to B12 and could easily be caused by any number of other problems.” 

All I Need is Hope

Well, the only thing that I needed at that time was hope–and that was enough.  If there was a possibility, there was a way for me to dig deeper.  When I brought this information to my medical appointment with me, I knew that my doctor would be more than skeptical–c’mon! my symptoms were directly pointing to pituitary gland adenoma, and there was not way that a vitamin could cure it.  I asked him to bear with me–I knew it was a long shot, but it was worth taking.

When I saw him the next time, at my “I am really pregnant?” appointment, I told him that my prolactin levels did go up-I am honest to a fault , after going off medication, but I still had hope, although, knowing that prolactin levels go up during pregnancy, especially in the second trimester and thereafter, I thought that I might have to wait until I am done breastfeeding to find out if there was truly a hope for me in treating this last issue.  For him it was more than a stretch, but we left it at that.  He already had the proof he needed to see that B12 did not work for this issue, although he was surprised that it helped us conceive.  I, however, had a gut feeling [I call it the GOD feeling ], that given time, something could still come out of it.  Having gone through the pain long enough, I already knew not to get overly excited over new discoveries, but hope was enough to carry me through.

The Big Surprise

So, imagine my HUGE surprise, when I nearly fell done on my knees to thank my Lord for yet another miracle, when about two weeks ago [2 months into B-12 therapy] I applied pressure on my breasts and… NOTHING came out!  No more liquid, no more lactation. I had to press long and hard to get one tiny droplet out of one of the breast–a much better result that even with medication [I was still producing enough prolactin on meds to secrete some liquid].

I think I was nearly pale in my face when I called for Hubby and told him the news–EVERYTHING, yes, EVERYTHING that I speculated on, hoped and prayed for, was true–the GOD feeling was right, and I did not have to wait until my baby is born and I was done breastfeeding to find out that there indeed is a connection between B-12 levels and prolactin production/suppression in out bodies.  It was the culmination of the last 10 years of pain, 5 years of hard work, and 4 years of agony, research, prayers and tears.  All at once I felt liberated… and so right!  Right to have believed in the impossible, right to have doubted the “professionals”, right to have taken my health into my own hands, and right to believe in the God of miracles, right to accept Supernatural Answers through Natural Means.  And I live to tell yet of another miracle to those of you who need to hear it.

Yesterday I called my doctor and told him about my findings, having indulged in the glow for the last two weeks myself.  He simply could not believe it! But I told him that I would come in to take labs to prove it on paper.  See, if I were him, I would have paid me to come in, to probe my brain and would have paid for the labs to see it for myself… but that’s just me.

I had also written to the wonderful contact in the UK, to tell them of even more hope for their patients.  He was just as amazed as me, but in a good way–he will be sharing my information with others looking for answers on their web-site, at www.B12D.org.

Thankful

Meanwhile, I am thankful–thankful for supernatural miracles, for medicine free living, for my amazing God, and for the ability to give hope to those of you who are going through same issues.  I am simply thankful!

And, to answer the question of this post: It is Pituitary Adenoma or Curable Hormone Imbalance? Or is it a Miracle?–I will never know, and neither do I need to, whether there was an actual tumor on my gland.  But what I know is this–what happened to me is a miracle! It was curable! And the impossible is possible!

PS: To read more about the topic of B-12, how to detect a deficiency and how to treat it, visit these posts:

1. Part 1: Update: B-12 Deficiency and Cookbook
2. Part 2: B-12 Deficiency–A Road To Recovery
3. Part 3: What is Vitamin B-12 and How it Works?
4. Part 4: Can Vitamin B-12 be a Cure for Infertility and stop Miscarriages?
5. Part 5: Vitamin B-12 Deficiency Can Cause Hair Loss/B-12 Deficiency-the Great Mimicker
6. Part 6: Vitamin B-12 Deficiency–Who is at Risk?
7. Part 7: B-12 Deficiency–Diagnosis
8. Part 8: Purely Happy {B-12 Deficiency Diagnosis}–my tests
9. Part 9: B-12 Deficiency–Treatment Options
10. Part 10: B-12 Deficiency–Dangers of Deficiency and Resources
11. Part 11: Cobalt Red–Miracle in a Bottle
12. Part 12: Vitamin B-12 Treatment Update {B12 Deficiency Can Cause Jaw Clinching}
13. Part 13: B-12 Deficiency Update {Benefits of Treatment}
14. Part 14: A Happy Interlude {Vitamin B-12 Natural Infertility Treatment}

Complete B12 Research

To get the entire report of my B12 research either:

1. subscribe and download the 180-page report, which had an entire Appendix dedicate to the topic (the entire research, and how the findings helped me), or
2. go through B-12 category on this site, starting from the earliest post.

Related posts:

1. Cobalt Red–Miracle in a Bottle {B12 Injections}
2. Cancer is Curable!