Back in January I went to the dr. because I was having some wierd spells where I would turn and feel almost dizzy. They couldn't find anything really wrong a little fluid in my ear and so sent me with amoxicillian for a sinus/ear infection. By the end of January I wasn't better. Things had changed. There were times when it seemed like one eye would be dimmer then the other. Then it started that it would take my eyes longer to adjust even to slight changes of light. Worried that something was wrong with my vision I made an appointment with the eye dr. I paid the extra $35 for the retina scan and it is good that I did. The scan showed the reason for my problems, my optic nerves were swollen.
Now optic nerves swelling is a sign of increased pressure in the head for some reason. So I was sent for an mri to look for a tumor or an abcess. Thankfully the mri came out completly normal. My primary dr.'s office wasn't going to do anything from there just follow up with my eye dr., unless I had headaches. I said I had headaches, which I didn't but I needed to figure this out. By this time my eyes had gotten worse and there were times that I almost couldn't see at all until they adjusted and this is just under slight changes of light.
Of course the dr I was refered to couldn't get me in for a month. So I had to deal with it and with my eyes getting worse and worse. There was times I stepped on the cats because I couldn't see a thing and they were in front of me. I would walk out of the bedroom and have to stop until I could see. It was scary.
Once I finally made it to the dr. I knew what I had and just needed a confirmation and treatment. The dr. agreed with me that I had pseudotumor cerebri, increased pressure caused by buildup of spinal fluid in the head. For some reason it wasn't draining properly and building up pressure. The dr. took a look at my optic nerves and was worried that we needed to move quickly on this because he was worried I could lose my vision. So he started me on meds right away and set up for a spinal tap on good friday to drain fluid off right away. Plus another mri and a whole host of bloodwork.
So I saw this dr on tuesday before easter. Wednesday I had to have an mri, Thursday morning the lady took about 6 vials of blood, and Friday morning I had to be at the hospital by 9 for more bloodwork and the spinal. I was so scared and nervous, my blood pressure was through the roof.
After the spinal I had to lay on my back for 5 hours to help avoid a spinal headache. Well I should have just packed it up and went home because I got the headache anyway. It was horrible, I couldn't be upright without my head hurting. The pain started to make me nauseous and I was throwing up on easter. I couldn't keep anything down. My parents were even so nice to bring us easter dinner because there was no way I was going to make it to their house. I ate a bit before the nausea set in and waited until they left before I was sick.
My mom came up Monday to help me because Eric had to work. I got a dr. appointment with my primary and she sent me to the ER after talking to the neuro on call who agreed that I needed a blood patch. I didn't know what it was but if it was going to help me I was ready. We actually got into triage in about an hour and to a room in a hour and a half. They tried twice to start an IV before they got this little light to shine on my arm to help them. The nurse got it right in so no more pokes. They got me some fluid which I needed as I was so nauseous I wasn't eating or drinking much and they gave me some anti-nausea meds. They called the anestigologist to do the patch and when he came down he said I didnt need it I needed caffiene and rest which I had been doing. I left with some pain meds and whateven pain med they put in the IV made me feel great.
Mom spent then night so we could try again Tuesday. I called the number I was given in the ER of a dr who was going to do the patch but then they weren't in my network and I can't afford it. So I was just crying and called the neuro dr. office back to see what to do that no one could help me, they had me call my primary again and I was on the phone forever trying to get someone to do something to help me. They finally got a hold of the neuro dr and he said he didn't want me to have the patch. It was good that I had a leak since the point was to get fluid off. It didn't help though because I had a headache and was stuck in bed or on the couch. I ended up not going to work all week. I got so bored too.
But now I have been back to work and back to packing, hard to believe a week ago I was stuck on the couch. We are going to start moving to our new place next week but that is another post.
catherine
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