DaVita Garfield was a young mother with a great job, a strong faith, and was living a happy life when her health began to fail.
She had a number of symptoms and went to her primary doctor who said she probably had fibromyalgia and gave her medication to treat it.
Next came the anti-depressants. Her fatigue was getting worse, and her pain was unrelenting.
Back at the doctor’s office, Garfield insisted something was wrong with her and she wanted answers. Her next stop was a visit to a rheumatologist who took her medical history, and prescribed even more medications. She gained 40 pounds over a short period of time and began to notice her face had become rounded. She also developed a severe case of acne.
Garfield felt like giving up. She didn’t have the energy to keep going, but she knew she had to, for the sake of her daughter.
One of her symptoms manifested by turning her once thick, shiny hair into a stringy mess, so deciding she was really going to FIGHT, she cut her hair off.
That’s when she noticed a hump between her shoulders just below the base of her skull.
That was the clue her rheumatologist needed. Putting all of her symptoms together, he tested her for Cushing’s disease, and sure enough, test results showed a tumor on Garfield’s pituitary gland. It was causing her adrenal glands to overload her system with the hormone cortisol.
One year after brain surgery to remove the tumor, Garfield says she is the healthiest she’s ever been.
She shares her story of her life with Cushing’s disease in this inspiring YouTube video (see below).
Garfield hopes to encourage others to keep fighting for their health, and to continue to have faith.
