I am not meaning this to in any way be sacrilegious or in any way disrespectful and I hope I do not offend.

My son loves to be told Bible stories (“Tell me about God.”) and his favorite account and most requested is the creation account (“Tell me about when God made everything.”) So in retelling this again and again, it is never far from my mind and I can breathe the details of the story.

When I was diagnosed with Cushing’s Disease, I didn’t know anything about it. I started researching it before my surgery, but with the lack of material on it, and with the poor condition I was in, I still had not scratched the surface when I was wheeled through those OR doors.

My research after the surgery became more desperate. The cortisol crash was worse than I could have ever been prepared for. I could not sleep at all for two weeks. These things launched me into a desperate search for answers to how long this would last. During my quest for information I unearthed more and more information on all the terrible things cortisol does to the body. Thing after thing after thing was just so terrible and bad, and it seemed that the reaches were to nearly every organ and system of the body.

In my mind, this was in such contrast to creation, where each new day brought more order, perfection and completeness. Each day ended with God looking over His creation and saying, “It is good.” I kept discovering new cortisol issues and ending each day with, “This is bad.” So that is where my little Cushing’s creation story comes from. I wrote this during my darkest and bleakest days following my surgery.

The Creation of Cushing’s Disease

On a particularly vile week, Satan created Cushing’s Disease. And he said, let them have high blood pressure. And he said, this is good. And that was the first day,

And he said, let their growth hormone be suppressed so that their bones become weak and brittle. And he said, this really is getting good. And that was the second day.

And he said, let their skin be dry, and fill it with scars, stretch marks and discolorations. Make it lumpy and uneven. And he snickered and said, this is getting really good. And that was the third day.

And he said, let them be tired and weak all day and unable to sleep at night. He laughed and said, this is better than good.

And he said, let their muscles from head to toe be full of holes so that they are weak and easily injured. He let out a big laugh and said, this just gets better and better.

And he said, let them be insulin resistant and develop diabetes. Then he thought, a person with this will need companionship and support. With a shout he said, Let them be FAT, so people will find them ugly or even repulsive and they will be blamed for the symptoms because of their laziness and lack of control. And he held his middle and laughed and laughed and said, this is so good I can’t stand it.

And on the seventh day Satan looked at what he created and just laughed all day.