Putting it down for posterity...

I thought maybe I should write out all that we've been going through the last month, at least next time someone asks me about it, I can cut and paste from here. I've been super sick for almost a month now. It all started with a normal, yearly eye appointment. They found out that my optic nerve was swollen in both eyes. The eye doc that I saw did not have the best bedside manner and began to tell me that there were many things that it could be....one being a brain tumor. Well, that's all I heard and I completely freaked out. I was sent to a Optho-neurologist, who assured me that I most likely if NOT have a tumor. However, to diagnose what exactly was creating all this extra pressure in my head, we needed to do some test.

Tests #1 & #2: MRI and MRI-V
Good times. We had to go at 8pm on a Thursday night, so we put Will to bed and out awesome neighbors just came and hung out over here. They gave me Ativan to chill out before the MRI, but yeah, apparently I need something a tad stronger?? I've never had an MRI and it drove me crazy!! I really had to focus on staying relaxing. The MRI-V was to check the veins and arteries in the head since I have Factor V Leiden. They had a small concern that there might have been a blood clot. There wasn't. Nor was there anything else. Thank God.

Tests #2 & #3: CSF pressure and LP
So now that my brain was clear, it was time to check the actual pressure in my head. They suspected that it would be higher than normal. To do this, they have to do a Lumbar Puncture. This didn't really phase me much since I had an epidural with Will. It wasn't any big deal then, so why would it be now? Yeah, famous last words. The Neuro guy that did the LP had a really hard time with it for whatever reason and it took him three tries to get the catheter situated correctly in my back, and it was terribly painful....I'm not a wimp. And this guy made me cry. Seriously.

So, the pressure of the CSF came back just a little higher than normal. This means that I have something called pseudotumor cerebri. Definitely not the end of the world. It is treated with diruretics and losing weight. The weight thing is definitely something I have to work for.

But here's the problem. Remember how the LP didn't go so well? The guy who mistook me for a pincushion put so many holes in my spinal cord that I developed a horrible spinal headache. I know that migraines are bad and headaches suck, but this is in a whole other league. I literally could not lift my head from the pillow, it was that severe. It scared the crap out me. The Rex Pain clinic had me come in on Thursday morning for a blood patch. Basically, it's another LP where they inject your own blood to help clot up the little holes. It was easy and almost painless, compared to the original LP. For some people this heals their spinal headache completely. Not me. It brought down the pain by about 50%, which allowed me to actually sit up for about 30 minutes at a time. It was something at least! Everyday I got a little better, and after a week I was feeling like a human again. In the midst of all this, my dad was able to drive down early (mom and dad had a trip here planned for this week). It was my saving grace, as I couldn't lift Will, or clean, or drive.

So, Pseudotumor Cerebri is what I have. We'll be checking my eyes every 3 months, and that's about it. I'm lucky that it's not giving me any physical symptoms. Man, am I glad that's over!

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