A Little Bit About Me

Most of my regular visitors will know that I suffer with kidneys problems which causes me a lot of pain and time off work. A few months ago I was given some extra antibiotics (I take regular ones everyday) to get rid of a particular bad kidney ingfection I was having. A rare side effect of these antibiotcs is that it can cause intracranial hypertension. I suffered with this for over five years during my teenage years but thankfully it went away never to return again ... until I took these antibiotics that is.

I ended up in A&E with bloodshot eyes, blurred vision, severe headaches and nausea. I was admitted to the medical admissions unit and given pain-killers. I had a CT scan to rule out brain tumours and sent home waiting for a Neurology appoinment with the diagnosis given that my Benign Intracrainial Hypertension (BIH) had returned query due to the antibiotics.

BIH affects one in 100,000 people, usually females around my age range. There is no known cause but it basically causes the pressure in the brain and spine to go up. One theory is that the body is making too much of the cerebrospinal fluid (the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord) and this means that the pressure increases. The only way to effectively get this pressure down is to have it drained off via inserting a needle into the spine (a lumbar puncture) and getting some of the fluid drained off. BIH itself causes severe headaches and visual distrubances - this being the most serious; it can lead to blindness if not corrected.

I have my Neurology appointment today and I am hoping that they can sort something out for me. I am guessing that I will need another lumbar puncture and I am crossing all my fingers and toes that it will work and my BIH will go away again.

I am sharing this information with you as some of you lovely people are so caring and loyal and I wanted you to know. If I am not around for a little while you know why but hopefully I will be.

**UPDATED** I have been for my appointment and I will be going into hospital for the day on Tuesday for a lumbar puncture and to see the opthalmologists. It's not at my local hospital but one in London where they have a specialist unit for Neurosciences, at least I should be in good hands! Thank you for the support messages, they are so so appreciated :0) xxx

Best wishes to you all,