That Time My Brain Exploded

ok, my brain didn't really explode, but it sure did feel like it.

Two years ago my husband and I were on our honeymoon in Italy and I began to have I pain right where my neck meets my head. I figured I slept on my neck wrong and it would be gone soon enough. By the next day I had a pounding headache, sunlight bothered me, the fish market smell near our air bnb in Venice made me want to barf. I tried everything to make it go away, a nap, a warm compress, food, water....everything i could think of. Finally I assumed it must be sinus pressure because that's the only time I've had a headache this bad before so I went to a local pharmacy and got some meds.

I did what I could to enjoy the last two days of our trip even though I felt awful. The day we left the pain was really bad, I threw up before we left and then after the boat ride to the airport, figured I was just sea sick. All I had to do was make it the 9 hour flight home. By time time we made it back to the States my eyes were blurry but I once again falsely assumed, thinking it was just because I was tired.

The next day I had made an appointment for my dog's yearly check up and i realized driving I could barely see straight, luckily it was only about a mile. At that point I realized I needed help.

First I went to a walk in because my doctor had no appointments that day. The doctor there said it sounded like a really bad tension headache caused by stress, give me muscle relaxers and pain killers and sent me home. I took those and slept for almost a full week. The pain was not getting better and I realized I was seeing double unless I covered one eye.

I finally went to my doctor where they referred me over to an eye doctor. The eye doctor said that there were only two possible causes diabetes or idiopathic intracrainial hypertension (IIH). Because I am overweight she was convinced it was diabetes and sent me back over to the doctor for blood work.

That night I couldn't even lay down without being in immense pain and started throwing up again. I called the doctor and they send me straight to the emergency room.

July 3, 2018 - I spent the full day in the ER, after hours waiting I finally got an MRI and a CT Scan. I didn't have a tumor or a stroke but they could see massive amounts of pressure behind my eyes causing the vision problems. They were pretty sure I had a psuedotumor ceribri (which is the same thing as IIH). Basically for some reason my skull had filled up with spinal fluid causing pressure on my eyes and brain. My brain was tricked into thinking I had a brain tumor and was acting accordingly. The only way to confirm and relieve it was to get a lumbar puncture so they were admitting me to get one of those the next day.

July 4, 2018 - Because of the short staffing because of the holiday, they forgot to my lumbar puncture, my doctor was pissed. I did get to see an occupational therapist who put tape on my glasses to act as an eye patch until my eyes got better.

July 5, 2018 - I FINALLY got a lumbar puncture, my spinal fluid pressure was so high that it overflowed the device measuring the pressure. They also put me on diamox to help prevent my body from making so much fluid. The doctor explained that this could have happened for many reasons, or no reason at all. Some people get them once a month, some once every few years, or just once in their life. It was really just a trial and error type thing, but if I had waited much longer to come in I could have lost my vision.

About two weeks later I started to feel like myself again and about a month later my eye sight was almost back to normal. I was not allowed to drive until my eye sight was back so my husband and my best teacher friend drove me places like I was a little baby (thanks guys!). When I started seeing a neurologist he told me he thought this was caused by my weight but would also check to see if I had a blood clot caused by birth control. Another CT Scan later, no sign of a blood clot. As the doctor realized it was going away without me having to lose any weight he confirmed it wasn't my weight either.

As far as we can tell it was idiopathic (or just kind of a freak of nature occurrence). 6 months later I was weened off the diamox and graduated from seeing the neurologist, with the warnings of how to tell if it happened again.

2 years later now I still check my peripheral vision every time I get a headache ( the doctor said this would be the first thing to go and to call him right away). I *knock on wood* have not had another occurrence and hopefully never will. I did find a class action suit linking the birth control implant nexplanon (which I did have in from 2013-2016) and psuedotumors but my OB/GYN said he didn't know about a connection but that's my only guess as to why this happened. I will always affectionately call it "the time my brain exploded"