Hagen Hopkins
Three years ago, when Cushing’s disease sufferer Chyanne Bevan was at the peak of her illness, struggling to walk because the weight of her stomach was crushing her legs, her dream of becoming a parent felt impossible.
But thanks to life-changing surgery to remove her adrenal glands, daily medication and the support of her fiancé Sam Evans, the excited Wellingtonian has recently celebrated her daughter Everleigh’s first birthday.
“I was originally told I probably couldn’t have a baby because of Cushing’s, which messes up your hormones and ovulation,” explains Chyanne, 27, who first spoke to Woman’s Day in 2020, when she tipped the scales at 145kg despite regular exercise.
“We tried for a year and a half, then the week we were meant to go to our first IVF appointment, I found out I was pregnant! There was a high risk I could miscarry, so it wasn’t until seeing her in the 12-week scan that I realised it was really happening. I cried.”
Baby Everleigh arrived on 4 April 2022, a welcome blessing for Chyanne and refrigeration technician Sam, 26, who met eight months before she was diagnosed with the debilitating illness in 2017.
For Chyanne, her Cushing’s disease was caused by a benign tumour on her brain’s pituitary gland, which produces cortisol. This hormone helps to regulate metabolism, blood sugar, blood pressure, immunity and stress.
As well as having a round, moonlike face, a hump on her back and thin, blotchy skin that bruised easily, Chyanne’s symptoms included anxiety, depression, poor bone density, fatigue, hair loss, weight gain and extreme mood swings.
After three unsuccessful operations on her pituitary gland, in August 2019, Chyanne had surgery to remove her adrenal glands, which sit above the kidneys and also affect cortisol. Now her body can no longer release the important hormone, so she’ll take daily hydrocortisone pills for the rest of her life.
While she lost 30kg after her last operation and is now much more mobile, Chyanne is still at risk of adrenal crisis, which is when her body thinks it doesn’t have enough cortisol and goes into shock.
“Having an adrenal crisis is a horrible feeling,” she shares. “I get nauseous and have a racing heart, similar to a major panic attack. It’s like being trapped in a box – I can’t get out. If my pills don’t work, I end up having emergency injections and IV fluids in hospital. If adrenal crisis isn’t treated quickly, you can die.”
During one such episode, Chyanne recalls losing control of her anger and ending up on the floor, rocking and shaking. Luckily, taking extra pills and talking to Sam helped calm her down. In mid-2021, nauseated and vomiting, Chyanne thought she was having yet another adrenal crisis – but it turned out she was simply pregnant!
Apart from the sickness in her first trimester, Chyanne enjoyed her pregnancy and had more energy than she had in years. She even dropped more than 10kg and her mood settled. But due to gestational diabetes, she was induced three weeks early, and when Everleigh flipped and got stuck during labour, it ended with an emergency Caesarean section.
“They had complications because of Chyanne’s old surgeries,” recalls Sam, who watched his fiancée go into adrenal crisis and suffer an anxiety attack on the delivery table. “She lost over a litre and a half of blood. It looked like she was having a seizure because she was shaking so much and she was cold.”
The couple, who got engaged in August 2020, later put her attack down to fear, since specialists had originally told Chyanne a C-section could be dangerous because she might bleed out and any cuts would be hard to heal since her stomach hangs heavily over her midriff.
Putting a ring on it: Sam proposed in 2020.
As a newborn, Everleigh went into the neonatal intensive care unit for help with low blood sugar, then when Chyanne came around, she was finally able to hold her thriving little girl five hours after giving birth.
“Cushing’s isn’t genetic, which is the first thing I checked when I wanted to get pregnant,” smiles Chyanne. “Everleigh’s such a chill baby and she was sleeping through the night within three months. We’re beyond blessed with how relaxed she is and I love being a mum. Our dogs love her too – they’ll go up to give her a little lick.”
It was five hours before Chyanne could hold her newborn.
The couple hopes to buy a house before they start any wedding planning and Chyanne is currently in talks with a specialist about having surgery to remove the excess weight from her stomach. Meanwhile, she’s taking her health day by day.
“My stomach is still causing a lot of pain, so fingers crossed I’ll be able to have surgery,” says Chyanne. “I hope they don’t just look at me and say my body mass is too big because it’s not my fault – it’s because of Cushing’s.”
