grrlhavoc

I just got ome from the hospital after a near 2 week stay...my arms look like those of a heroin addict from all the IV's

Thanks for all the well wishes...there were so many I dont know if I can get back to all of you just now. I am still not feeling well.

Here is some info about what is going on...I have been diagnosed with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (aka psudotumor cerebri). Basically the pressure on my brain was getting too high and compressing my ventricles and pituitary gland. So they kept giving me spinal taps to lower my pressure since this usually fixes the problem...but my brain pressure kept going right back up even higher. They put in a lumbo-peritoneal shunt on Wednesday to keep the spinal fluid draining off my head all the time. This is a shunt that goes from my spinal cord area in my lumbar spine to my abdomen...i now have 18 staples in me..10 in my back and 8 in my rt side. They couldn't put a shunt directly in my brain because my ventricles were too compressed and would clog it.

So basically my brain pressure is back to normal but i am having severe low pressure headaches (even though my pressure is not low) because they think my pressure has been so high in my head for so long my brain is used to it and needs time to readjust. They had to to lower my pressure since it was getting way too high lately and was starting to make me blind. I still have not regained any of the vision i have lost.

So here in pain I sit. They gave me the option to stay at the hospital and have them control my pain like they had been doing or i could control my pain at home. I opted for home..2 weeks is too long for me to be laying there. I am hoping i will get better over the next week and before long will be back to normal.