Idiopathic cerebral hypertension/benign intracranial hypertension

So that's my diagnosis. Reason for it...... because I'm fat! Ha, as if I didn't already know that! It's something that I want to deal with and haven't been able to because exercising is a feat in and of itself because of the rectal fistula. When I try to exercise = sweating = increased infection rate.

So when I saw my surgeon the last time I asked about gastric bypass and was told that I wasn't fat ENOUGH! Geeze. I was told that I would be if I had secondary conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiac or renal disease.... so I was excluded. So I wonder if having hypertension in your head counts?!

I had the LP done yesterday and it showed that my opening pressure was 28 => less than the 36 it was before but more than it certainly should be (normal = 10-20). It was weird having it done under fluroscopy because they do it in the supine position and then once close to/in position then they turn you to the lateral position to obtain the opening pressure and take the samples. They also took off some CSF (I was told between 35 & 40).

I instantly felt some relief from the fluid being removed which I was thankful for. Unfortunately it didn't help the hazy vision issues.

Because we now know the diagnosis, I was restarted on the med that caused my sodium to drop the last time I was on it so I'm in the hospital still to ensure that we monitor it. Well I had my blood work done today and while my sodium was fine my CO2 (I think that's the one that the Dr said was abnormal) wasn't and had dropped from 25 to 21 (normal 23-29) so while it's not in the danger range it''s stil something that we have to watch. I was told that the reason for the drop is that my kidneys coould be having difficulty coping with the medication and that if  it dropped any more then I may have to stop the medication. Don't quite know the repercussions of that one. Also, I dont know if ppl feel any different when they first start this medication but I certainly haven't.

This morning I woke up because of a nasty headache. Ugh. Then the dilaudid didn't even help and required toradol above that. Together they seemed to take away the brunt of it and I was able to go back to sleep. Today has been rough when it comes to headaches.

I also went to the opthamology appointment and had them check my eyes and then they dilated them. Oh boy was that interesting. Geeze were things blurry! But I was told that my eyes look healthy so we still have no real reason for the continueed bluriness. The Dr wants me to have a follow up appointment with an opthamologist but don't know with whom. Also - he said that if I lose just 5% of my weight that things will be drastically different - ya we'll see!

So ya, I feel so great about myself. Yes I know I'm fat. Thank you for throwing that fact in my face time and time again.