Cushing’s disease is caused by a tumor on the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland is at the bottom of the brain and controls the body’s production of cortisol, the body’s stress hormone.

In Mrs. Lambert’s case, her body was making almost 50 times the normal amount of cortisol and it was ravaging her body. Her tumor was about the size of an eraser on the end of a pencil.

Mrs. Lambert tore her tendon in November 2007, had surgery and was off her feet for a number of weeks. A hump, her sons called a tennis ball, appeared between her shoulders early in the disease process. However, over a relatively short period of time, Mrs. Lambert, a small woman with a small build, had gained a lot of weight in her face, neck and around her abdomen.

In an effort to lose the unwanted pounds, she walked up and down the hill in front of her home in Pendleton for at least an hour and a half each day. She ate salads with no dressing and chicken, lots of chicken. It didn’t help.

After surgery on her tendon, the problems escalated.

She experienced confusion, describing some experiences as déjà vu moments.

“It’s the only way I know how to describe it … It was very scary,” she said.

A task that felt like it took hours, in reality took minutes.

Mrs. Lambert had kept journals all of her life, but she began having trouble writing and spelling.

A sore that wouldn’t heal came up on the top of her hand, but nothing would grow when it was cultured. Her skin turned bright red and she received a diagnosis of rosacea.

The first neurologist Mrs. Lambert saw diagnosed her with epilepsy.

She had an MRI and an EEG. The EEG showed no unusual brain activity. However, the MRI did show a tumor on the pituitary, but the physician didn’t seem all that concerned.

“Her hands were swollen and her skin looked like that of 90-year-old women,” said Dwayne Lambert, her husband. “It looked like rice paper. She was aging before my eyes.”

Mrs. Lambert lost a lot of hair on her head, but developed hair on her face and on her arms. The pupil of one eye was larger than the pupil in the other eye.

“I was very emotional and at one point I felt certain I would die,” she said.

What happened next was something akin to divine intervention, according to the Lamberts.

They met Dr. Vasilios Zerris, director of minimally invasive neurosurgery at Scott & White Memorial Hospital.

Zerris made the diagnosis of Cushing’s disease, which would require brain surgery.

“There’s no question that God played a role,” Dwayne Lambert said. “Debbie has Cushing’s disease and Dr. Zerris, someone trained to do this complicated neurosurgery, is in Temple.”

The surgeons

Zerris teamed up with Dr. Reginald Baugh, director of the otolarynology division at Scott & White, to get to the tumor through the nasal cavity.

Baugh was responsible for getting an endoscope through the nose to the brain and then Zerris took over.

“I had to find a way for him to get to the brain and then find a way out without leaving any damage,” Baugh said, meaning no openings for brain fluid to leak out or infections to enter.

The two have successfully removed tumors from patients who had been turned away by other surgeons, Baugh said.

The surgeons use image-guided computer technology and an endoscope, Zerris said.

Scott & White is one of the few medical centers that offer this type of surgery, he said.

“We use this for all types of brain tumors, but more importantly we use it for all kinds of spine cases,” Zerris said. “We can very effectively treat back pain now.”

The big positives of this type of surgery are minimal scarring, improved patient comfort and improved outcomes.

Laproscopic surgery has been going on for years, but only recently has the technology advanced to where it can be used in neurosurgery, where the area is so narrow, Zerris said.

Zerris sees patients from all over Central Texas, with many coming from the Temple Veterans Administration and Austin VA clinic.

After a lot of prayer and encouragement by Zerris, Mrs. Lambert said she had hope.

“He made me feel confident,” she said. “For something that started out as being the worst thing to happen to me, it has turned out to be one of the most wonderful events in my life because I’ve been able to share my story with others. I feel like I’m a miracle.”

Feeling like her old self

Mrs. Lambert had the surgery on May 5, and in a couple of months clarity began to emerge.

“Food tasted good again … I feel more like myself,” she said.

Since surgery she has been on drugs that mimic Cushing’s disease and is now being slowly weaned off the medications.

“There is a chance that a tumor could grow back … but it’s slim,” Mrs. Lambert said. “If it happens it will be dealt with.”

The ravages of the disease are abating. Her skin has cleared up - no more age spots. The hair on her head is growing back and the unwanted hair has disappeared.

She’s lost a lot of weight and when she returns for doctor’s appointments, the nurses don’t recognize her.

Before the surgery there were many tests, including one to determine what side of the pituitary gland the tumor was on.

It was a specialized test that entailed wires being run from both sides of her body through the heart and into the brain, Lambert said. It could determine where the cortisol was being secreted.

“I had one nurse tell me she had worked at Scott & White for 20 years and she had never seen that test performed,” Mrs. Lambert said.

Mrs. Lambert said if she had had the more invasive surgery … where the face is peeled back or the incision is through the lip, it would have been much more difficult to handle.

“I know there are many who have suffered more, but there is a compelling urge to share,” she said. “I was prepared to die at age 53.”

On Halloween, Mrs. Lambert will turn 54 and is forever thankful she’ll have another birthday and will have years to enjoy life with her family.

A scrapbook she made during her time before and after the surgery includes pictures, drawings, messages, a page full of business cards from the doctors she came in contact with and the medical bills.

The photos tell the story - in many Mrs. Lambert is unrecognizable. She wore caps to cover her thinning hair and she looks two times bigger.

“I feel like me now,” she said.