There are many days that I spend at least a half hour in pain. It’s the unfortunate reality that I live in. Sit back, relax, and let me explain my brain and eyes to you.
About a year and a half ago, I went to the optometrist to get new glasses. I’d been having headaches, but my main purpose what because it was time. So I booked an appointment about two weeks before my planned birthday trip to Disney World (which is a family tradition that I’ll go into in another post).
The day of the appointment, I get there and all seems to be OK to start.One thing this optometrist did that was new was that they took photos of my optic nerve and the area behind my eyes. It had been an elective process before, but now it was standard at the place I went to.
When the nurse gave the pictures to the optometrist, she made me retake them. Then tested my glasses. Then take the photos one more time.
If you haven’t caught on yet, this isn’t normal. At all.
She gave me two options. Go immediately to this specialist or go to the emergency room for a MRI on my brain. I’d need one regardless, but the former would also give me answers that I would need fast.
I took the former option.
At this point, all I knew was that something was wrong with my head. I called my boss in tears, because I was scared. As a gamer, movie lover, reader, and all around internet lover, my eyes were everything. Something that could jeopardize it was terrifying. My boss understood, as there was no way I’d make it in to work, even if I got out of whatever I was getting myself into in time.
The next call was to my Mom.
Now, let me explain something. Mom has received “that” call before. The “we have a problem” call. It’s never a good feeling, and I’d promised I’d never do that to her unless it was a massive emergency.
Mom beat me to the specialist. We went in together, and after a number of tests that didn’t illuminate what was wrong and what set off my optometrist. Finally the specialist sat us down.
I was officially diagnosed with Pseudotumor Cerebri, now more commonly known as Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (iih). Go ahead. Google it. I could lay money on no one knowing what it is.
In very loose layman’s terms, the fluid in my brain doesn’t drain properly, which puts pressure on my optical nerve. Basically, it presents symptoms of a brain tumor, without actually having one. The two symptoms that I had were the headaches and eye strain, both symptoms of iih.
It’s not very common, and there is no absolute cure. Losing weight is the best thing to help “cure” iih. There is also the medication Diamox, which I used to have to take, though I don’t anymore since it stopped being effective. (Fun fact, I lost weight on Diamox, simply because it made Pepsi and Coke taste like battery acid.)
It’s been about twenty months since my diagnosis. As I said, I’m off the Diamox, as it stopped helping. Instead, I’ve changed my diet, which seems to be helping. I’ve been attempting to lose weight so that I can be considered cured, but it’s been hard since I’ve started a new job and I’ve been stressing out about it.
I don’t make excuses for my eye issues. I just make bad jokes about it.
So. Yes I have a serious condition. No, it doesn’t define me.
I just get headaches. A lot. It’s a thing. Now I’m going to get back to Lego DC Super-Villains before I get ready for work tomorrow. But that’s a story for another day.
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