Frustrated

Long post incoming! Feeling deflated but not surprised. Had my follow-up with my endocrinologist today after regular late night salivary, 24 hour urine, and dexamethasone suppression. When I asked her about the possibility of cyclical Cushing’s before the second test, she said there would at least be physical signs which she told me I don’t have, including bruising and upper lip hair growth. I get rid of the hair on my upper lip but let it grow for this appointment.
She started the appointment by telling me we had ruled out Cushing’s and when I asked about cyclical, she said it would have shown in one of the tests we had done, even if it was cyclical. I asked what if it hadn’t been during a flare up/period of high cortisol and she said that wouldn’t matter and that people don’t understand what cyclical Cushing’s is. She hadn’t read any of the info about my two ER visits or any of the visits with my primary care doctor in which I had gone over my symptoms. When I told her I was having a lot of symptoms, she said “oh, just the nausea,” which I had mentioned when she asked about food intake. I told her I had a list and she sat there looking like she wasn’t really listening after telling me I could list them if I wanted to. Then told me none of that sounded like Cushing’s. She said “have your arms or legs gotten smaller? Do you suddenly developed purple stretch marks?”
I asked if she wanted to see the bruising on my legs and after looking she said “are you sure that’s not just from your spin class?” When I asked her for the second time if she wanted to look at the hair growth on my upper lip she said “that doesn’t mean anything”.
I asked if all of my symptoms could be something else hormonal and she just said “like what? There are a lot of hormones. What specifically do you think it could be?”. I told her I wasn’t sure and that cyclical Cushing’s seemed to be what fit from an endocrine standpoint. She told me that I don’t have it but she could do an ACTH test, then made a few more condescending comments. I asked if I needed to figure out when I’m in a flare up of symptoms in order to get an accurate test and was told it doesn’t work that way, just go get it done at 8am.
Luckily my primary care doctor is a lot more helpful and when I asked in my appointment last week about possibly getting a second opinion from another endo that might have more experience with Cushing’s/pituitary conditions, she said that would be a good idea and referred me to Dr. Odelia Cooper in LA.
This may not be cyclical Cushing’s, but I have had a number of doctors dismiss me in the past for all sorts of things, usually telling me that if I “just lost weight” I would feel better, not having any answers as to why I couldn’t lose weight, just to do it. This felt similarly dismissive and demeaning. I’m tired and sad and confused, but I appreciate the folks in this group.