I went to my eye doctor yesterday for a routine check-up and to get a new prescription for my contacts and glasses. When he was checking the back of my eyes, he found out that my optic nerves were swollen and began the process of freaking me out. Apparently, this can be a symptom of anything to a small infection to MS to a brain tumor. With my eyes still dilated and unable to see, I cried all the way home.
I was referred to the WVU Hospital ER. I saw four different doctors... two general, an optomologist, and a neurologist, and got a CT scan as well as several tests done. My eyes were dilated again (a fun process) and I learned I might have had to stay overnight. After staying for a week in a horrible hosital visit when I was 19, overnight hospital stays are one of the worst things ever.
Turns out I didn't have to stay, as I didn't have a brain tumor or MS. I had something called pseudotumor cerebi, which has many symptoms of a tumor without actually being one. It causes extra fluid to collect around the brain, in result swelling my optic nerves, blurring my vision, and giving me migraines. It can lead to blindness if untreated, but isn't terribly serious.
Of course, it wouldn't be a hospital visit without a terribly painful procedure done on me. They wanted to check the pressure in my brain as well as relieve some of the fluid, so they decided to do a spinal tap. I've lived in fear of having a spinal tap done for quite some time and figured I'd never have to get one, but what do you know, that's exactly what they wanted to do.
I was so nervous beforehand I was visibly shaking and silently crying uncontrollably, and the doctor told me she would give me some strong anti-anxieties to help me relax. Even though I had two (maybe a third during? I was too busy screaming in pain), it did nothing. They numbed the skin where they would poke me and then began putting a huge needle into my spine. I cursed the pirate ship tattooed on my back, as it was throwing her off and causing her to poke the nerve bundles.
I can't even describe the feeling, as it's just way too weird. It feels like someone reaching into your back and pulling a long needle through your spinal fluid and nerve bundles. I cried like a huge baby and held my mom's hand through the procedure. She's a nurse, but she almost passed out and had to leave because she said it's terrible seeing it done to your own kid.
Right now my back's killing me and my head hurts since the spinal tap causes your brain to float on cerebal fluid. I'm having an MRI done in two weeks to make absolute sure it's not a tumor.
So, yeah. Fun stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment