Carl's Visit to the Endocrinologist

Carl and I went to his appointment this morning with Dr. Asamoah. Awesome doctor. Good news. Here is what the doctor said:

Cause
Dr. Asamoah said they have no explanation as to why anyone’s Prolactin levels increase. Basically what happens is the hormones split, causing each hormone to think it needs to increase to a sufficient level. The brain, for some reason, does not attempt to stop this when it happens. 99.999999% of the time, this is a benign tumor. They know this through years of study. The only case the Endocrinologist has ever proved malignant is in a woman who had breast cancer and the cancer metastasized to her brain.

Diagnosis
Dr. Asamoah believes Carl’s tumor is small enough that it will be treatable by medicine. Carl will have some more lab work done in about four weeks. Two weeks after the lab work, he will revisit with the Endocrinologist to see if the Prolactin levels have decreased and other levels have decreased. He will be scheduled for an MRI in about four months and then another about a year after that.

Medication
He was prescribed 0.5 mg of Cabergoline, which is generic for Dostinex and is to take this twice a week. It is a stronger medication, but the side effects will be less serious and the only real possible side effect the doctor was concerned with was some nausea. Eventually, he will decrease the medication to once a week. If the medication is not proven effective, then we will have to revisit this to see about other options. However, the doctor does feel strongly that the medication will do the trick.

Note
Carl will be on medication for the rest of his life.