So let's start at September 07...I was barely 21 and had just been promoted to a sales rep. and had to move to Bryan/College Station but I had to start there immediately so I was staying in a hotel some and then commuting the other days which was kind of rough cuz round trip it was about 5hours. It was my 2nd week there and I had to be there early so I left my house in Whitney around 4am and as I was driving out of Hearne it was crazy foggy and I was only going about 50 in 65 zone and this car in front of me changes lanes real quick and I didn't know why well I found out as I was hitting a big road maintainer...it looked like a tractor to me. I flipped my 4mo. old 2008 Ford Escape 2 1/2 times, landed upside down, and then slide a while down the highway. Once it stopped I was scared to death cuz I had just seen a movie where a father/son wrecked and they were alive but then they got hit by another car afterwards and it killed the dad...so even though I was still alive then I thought that a car was going to hit me. Crazy I know! But then I heard people getting out of there cars coming to help me and I stuck my hand out my car window to signal hey get me out of here, so people helped me crawl out of my car. Oh I'm making this long...I'll try to shorten it up. lol. So the ambulance took me to B/CS and I got alot of CT's done and pain meds and by the time my parents got there we knew I was OK at the time and I was released. We went to get whatever we could save out of my car at the wrecking yard and take pictures. I was really sore the next day but I just woke up very sore, bumps/bruises, and a burn mark from my seatbelt. Oh BTW state trooper and EMT's say my side curtain air bags are wait saved my life...when I bought that car that was something new to me but lil did I know those would end up saving my life.
Ok so fast forward 4 months...I had been having horrible migraines since my wreck so in January 08 I went to the doctor and I told him about my wreck and said I was concerned maybe there was damage done to my head. He kind of blew off the wreck and said I had migraines and gave me steroids and topamax. I completed the steroids but after 2-3weeks on the topamax I stopped it because it was making me sick and I was always upset to my stomach. So after that I just learned to deal with the headaches and some days were better than others.
So in May 08 I was approached by my manager and was told there was a position in Dallas open and asked if I wanted it because it would be a great career move in order to get promoted. So of coarse I said YES! At the time I had just gotten out of a 3year relationship and I was 100% focused on my career, nothing else! So off to Dallas I go...
I moved to Frisco in July 08 and couldn't wait to get to work and hopefully get a promotion. Ya I was far from it...I felt horrible everyday and it showed in my work performance which hurt even more because work was the only reason I had moved and to be failing at it was heart breaking. I just kept dealing with the pain taking over the counter pain meds as much as the lil label says you can.
So the holidays are here and I decided I would join my sister an hour and a half away from me with her in laws for Thanksgiving. It was my oldest nephews first Thanksgiving and I wanted to be there with them. So I went and I felt so bad my head felt like I had a lil guy inside of my head pounding to come out. I spent half the day in one of her in laws bedrooms sleeping. I wasn't planning on spending the night but it was so bad I was scared I'd wreck if I tried to drive. At this point my eyes were getting blurry too but I woke up and drove home Friday afternoon.
So this is when the fun begins! So my dad was telling my grandmother about my headaches and vision and luckily she's the smart one and said I should go to the eye dr. I probably just needed glasses. Well Friday night I didn't sleep at all and I had to go to work a couple of hours on Saturday so I made an appointment at an eye doctor inside the mall. I went and I had never been to the eye dr. before but I found out I do in fact still have 20/20 vision but they told me to leave immediately and go straight to the ER because something was wrong with my brain!!! I didn't know where a hospital was and I was scared to death. They didn't really explain or tell me anything. I called my parents/sister and they were on their way to meet me and somehow both of my uncles and their families were in Dallas so they headed there as well. Oh and unlike my many fellow IHers I didn't suspect anything wrong with me besides needing a simple pair of glasses.
Ok so first things first they had to do a CT to rule out a brain tumor. Thankfully it was normal so the 2nd step was to do a spinal tap aka lumbar puncture and find out my pressure in my brain. Again this was all foreign to me...I guess I had prolly heard of spinal fluid before but it wasn't an everyday thing to me. So I had my LP and it wasn't that bad, I was terrified before but it just really wasn't that bad. Immediately after sticking the needle in he was able to confirm I had pseudotumor cerebri aka intracranial hypertension. My opening pressure was 50, which really it was higher than 50 but the thing only measures to 50. Which is crazy because some doctors have told me normal is 8-12 but I've also heard all the way up to 18-20 is normal...which it really didn't matter because mine was sky high!
So on Monday I scheduled my appointment with my neurologist and at my first appointment he put me on Diamox aka the devil pill. It was horrible...it made me nauseous all day long every day plus my hands/feet were tingly/prickly and it made my Dr. Peppers taste like crap. Oh and like a week later he added lasix to my mix!
So 3 weeks later my head was right back to where I started. So back to getting another lumbar puncture which by the way was scheduled for Christmas Eve 08 and I was stuck in bed all day Christmas Eve and Day. This was only the beginning of this awful disease turning my world upside down! This time my pressure was i believe 38. Which was crazy because I was on meds that was suppose to lower my pressure. So my doctor said we'd hope it goes away but if the pressure doesn't lower and the side affects from the meds doesn't go away then we'd talk about a shunt.
Okay so at this point I had been suggested to go on short term disability at work because I was missing so much work and when I was there I was so sick I couldn't perform to standard. Oh and I almost forgot but my wreck is more than likely the cause...there's no way to know for sure but my MRI's show massive brain trauma and brain trauma can cause IH and my wreck is the only thing crazy that's ever happened to my head. So i'm sticking with the wreck story rather if it's right or not since there's no way to know...and it helps me get thru things considering I could've easily died in that car but didn't.
So it's Jan 09 and 3 weeks after my last LP my headaches were back and I couldn't take it any longer so they scheduled another LP. (which atleast they were on time, 3 weeks apart again) I was hoping and praying for a good number but then again I didn't care because if it was high then we could head to a neurosurgeon and get a shunt and get back to living...or so I thought! So you guessed it the number was high...it was 30! On to the surgeon I go...(this is where a lil bit of the fun begins)
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