My Biology Story
Where to begin? Ahh, yes...the lovely year of 2009. Well, one day I noticed my vision doing a ton of odd and scary things. I was having double vision; everything was red at one point. Windows and curtains were in different parts of the room.) I went blind for small periods of time, I couldn't see in the dark, even with a small light source illuminating the room. It took FOREVER for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, and when they finally did adjust to the darkness, I had static vision! Static vision! The dark was not pitch black, but it seemed to flicker in and out. I had never been so freaked out in all my life! I kept telling myself it was the migraines causing the visual distortions, but as my symptoms grew in intensity, so did my worry.
I had these horrendous migraines that never stopped. It all seemed to happen so fast, all of these symptoms presented themselves in a matter of days. The muscles in my neck, shoulders, back and pretty much muscle I had, felt like it had expanded and tensed up to full capacity. I frequently described it as being a “stone statue”, my body was so tense and in pain I couldn't move. I felt like I was on fire. Someone had lit a match inside my body and the invisible flames touched every part of me. At this point I had to go to the hospital. The muscles in my back were hurting so bad I could sit or stand for long periods of time. I will never forget waiting in the hospital waiting room. There were no beds so I couldn’t lie down, and sitting in a chair was out of the question, so I had to get up and walk around. This lasted for 6 hours. It would only be a small sample of the horrible things to come.
The hospital visit was futile. They gave me muscle relaxers and pain medication, but as far as figuring out what was causing all of these symptoms, they had no clue. They told me to see me regular doctor and take it from there. I can’t recall the amount of time I spend at doctors and specialist offices. This dance lasted for nearly 9 months before I got anywhere. By this time I lost 40 pounds, because I couldn’t eat. The mere sight of food, made me want to throw up. The only type of nourishment I got, came from Ensure. That was even hard to choke down. I was in a bad way, and getting worse. Because of my prolonged pain exposure, I had become extremely emotional and depressed. I couldn’t see a way out of the pain. All I did was cry uncontrollably. It was in the darkest hour of my life that I finally got an answer as to what I was going through. I saw finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Every inch of my weary body and soul was relieved.
I was referred to a neuroopthamologist and (the only one in town actually) thank God he found something! I Finally I had some sort of answer to my problems! He noticed that my optic nerves were swollen, which obviously wasn't normal. Countless doctor appointments, and too many test later (two of which were spinal taps, two MRI’s, and one CT scan) I finally had a diagnosis, I was suffering from psuedotumor cerebri. An excerpt from the Mayo clinic website defines psuedotumor cerebri as, "The pressure inside your skull (intracranial pressure) increases for no obvious reason. Symptoms mimic those of
a brain tumor, but no tumor is present. "In layman's terms, I had too much fluid on my brain. My poor brain was being squished! It was causing my optic nerves to swell, which in turn caused my visual distortions. Hallelujah! I had some answers! Even though, they were kind of scary ones. However, I felt like I might be able to make it out of the storm. For the first time in a long time, I had hope.
a brain tumor, but no tumor is present. "In layman's terms, I had too much fluid on my brain. My poor brain was being squished! It was causing my optic nerves to swell, which in turn caused my visual distortions. Hallelujah! I had some answers! Even though, they were kind of scary ones. However, I felt like I might be able to make it out of the storm. For the first time in a long time, I had hope.
What's interesting is that the main cause of this condition is obesity. When I was diagnosed with this condition I was at my highest weight of 182 lbs. I was one of those people that thought nothing was ever going to happen to me, and then BAM, my whole life changed. I was put on
Diamox, a diuretic to help relieve the pressure from my brain. With the combined 40 pound weight loss and the Diamox I was almost back to normal...well almost! Fast forward three months after taking the Diamox I was back to my normal self! I couldn't believe how fast I recovered. I was up moving around, eating, and smiling again! I was thankful to be alive. I was happy to not be in pain anymore. This whole ordeal was a real shock to my system, but I have come out of it a stronger and wiser individual.