it nearly made me blind (My Experience of Benign Intercranial Hypertension/Pseudotumor Cerebri)

Member Name: laurajane_do

Product:	My Experience of Benign Intercranial Hypertension/Pseudotumor Cerebri
Date:	26/06/03 (640 review reads)
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Advantages: none

Disadvantages: headaches, sightloss, lumbar punctures&drugs

before i got B.I.H i was normal. just like everyone else, i went out at weekends drinking and stuff. now i cant drink alcohol or go to work either, all because of this disease and im only 22.
when it all started id just got a new job and had been working there for about three months. then i started to get headaches. at first i thought they were just migraines so i took painkillers and tried to forget about them, but they got worse so i went to my g.p.
he thought they were migraines and he gave me betablockers and told me if the headaches didnt improve in a month to come back.
after about three weeks the pain wasnt any better so i took a couple of days off work to see if sitting quitely in tthe dark would help, it didnt. i woke up the next day to find i couldnt see.
i could ditinguish between light and dark but that was all. i went to see my g.p again. this time i explained about my vision and he sent me straaight to hospital.
once there i had a CT scan and an MRI scan. then i was transfered to a differant hospital. the news that i had B.I.H was given to me by a neurologist there and he told me i would need a lumber puncture.
since then ive had alot of lumbar punctures about 14 i think, and i also take 6 diamox a day and 40mg of amitryptiline. some of my sight has returned but ill never be able to drive. i have a visual field test every three months to make sure my eyes dont get any worse. i still get headaches on a daily basis but my neurologist is supportive and tries out differant ways to help with the pain. i hope this is useful to someone.

Summary: