How did a headache alter my life?

I’d love for you to take the time to read my story to know how IMPORTANT it is to know your body !!

November of 2022, I started experiencing headaches. This threw me off bc I’ve hardly ever gotten headaches. Due to midterms I brushed it off as “stress”. Until I noticed my blurred vision.

I figured I needed a new contact/glasses prescription. Since I’m away in school, I didn’t go until December for Christmas break. Long story short, the eye dr noticed swelling in my optic nerve & sent me to testing & the neurologist. Neuro tells me it sounds like a tumor. Scared as HECK, I get multiple MRI’s & there’s no tumor (thank God!). Neuro says there’s a LOT of fluid around my brain & swelling in my optic nerve. However, this gives no answers & idk what’s going on w my body. Then he says I need a spinal tap asap & cannot return to school. This freaked me (& my mom!) out & we wanted a second opinion before anything.

Being in a remote area, neurologists aren’t necessarily on hand. W worsening symptoms, my mom said “screw it” & drove me to the ER. After six hours neuro comes in & agreed w the other neurologist. However, he told me to go back to school w caution & see a neuro-ophthalmologist asap. In the meantime, he put me on a medication to help my symptoms. These meds made me feel worse. My limbs went almost completely numb & I was unable to walk to class. After two long weeks, my original neurologist let me off of them. The ER neuro also referred me to another place for testing & UVA’s neuro-ophthalmologist. Testing comes back okay & the neuro-ophthalmologist at UVA schedules a spinal tap—at soonest, February.

The day for my spinal tap comes & passes. They took extra fluid during the procedure to relieve pressure. This actually helped for about a week or so, until the headaches & blurred vision returned.

I know this is a LONG post, so I’ll post a “part 2” soon! Thank you SO much for reading !! :)