reverendannie.myfreeforum.org :: Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension

Rev/Scout · Site Admin

I have had many people ask me why I was in the hospital from mid-day Monday to late Thursday night this past week. I have been experiencing severe headaches for over a month now. They are not the same as a regular headache, nor are they similar to a migraine, although they are far more intense. I have had migraines before years ago. This is not the same.

I have/had Idiopathic (unknown cause) Intracranial (inside the head) Hypertension (fluid that is under high pressure) . It is also known as Pseudotumor Cerebri because there are some of the signs and symptoms of a brain tumor without a brain tumor being present (pseudo meaning false).

The pain manifests in a band like pattern around the eye part of the head. It is not felt near the surface, nor in the blood vessels. It is felt behind the eyes. That is because the origin of this painful disease is the spinal fluid, which our bodies normally circulate and get rid of (by absorbing it into the body)and make more of.

Well, twice now my body decided that, although it was still functioning normally in producing more spinal fluid, it would not get rid of the old stuff. The spinal fluid cushions the brain from the skull. It also has contact with the back of the eyes.

Picture blowing a balloon up inside a cup. The air in the balloon will represent the spinal fluid. Eventually you reach the limit of the cup (skull/brain/eyes). Picture continuing to blow air into that balloon.

The first time I had this they found that I had almost 4 times what a normal person has in. This time it was a little less.

Now, understand this, there is only one for sure way to diagnose IIH in time to fix it. You can guess at things if there is Papilledema (where the eyes have so much pressure at the back that they turn from convex to concave and one can go blind for the rest of their lives), but one hopes that it is caught before it hits that stage. The best way (though extremely painful) is by doing a spinal tap. The pain from a spinal tap has been likened to that of child birth. Ladies, need I say more?

This past week, Wednesday to be exact, I had two (yes, count 'em, two) spinal taps. That had to happen the first time I had IIH too. You see, the first spinal tap is mostly to tell how much pressure is actually there. They do take some fluid out during the first procedure, but never nearly enough.

(Side Note: Remember that I had already suffered for more than a month with this. They had me on Morphine followed up by Gravol, all in IV, plus they tried other drugs intermittently as well, all to keep the pain down, and I did tons of Reiki (even in my groggy state) from Monday to Wednesday when the spinal taps were done, then I lessened the amount myself by not asking for it until bedtime unless it was extremely needed), and did more Reiki when I could.

They followed up with 2 CT Scans, the last one with dye in my circulatory system, so that they could see if there was any excess pressure still left in my head/eyes. I will talk about the procedure itself later in the testimonials section, as I did Reiki through all of both Spinal Taps, lessening the pain, relaxing me, and calming me.

"The symptoms most commonly reported by IIH patients followed by their frequency are:

headache (94%)

transient visual obscurations or blurring (68%)

pulse synchronous tinnitus or "wooshing noise" in the ear (58%)

pain behind the eye (44%)

double vision (38%)

visual loss (30%)

pain with eye movement (22%)"

This quote was from:

http://webeye.ophth.uiowa.edu/ips/IIH/PSEUDOTU.HTM

Oh and one more thing...what I thought was a one time thing, some of the material that I have read about it tells me that it is a life long thing from now (or actually my first bout of it) on.

I thank the Peter Lougheed Hospital in Calgary for their help and especially the nurses for their caring.

Please see Health/Alternative Healing Modalities/Testimonials later when I post my testimonial.

I also thank all those whose prayers and energy helped me through.

Thank God/dess!

Rev/Scout