I Don’t Like Saltines or Coca-Cola, Thanks Though

On the evening of Monday, April 20, 2009 I was officially diagnosed with Pseudotumor Cerebri and put on medication. A diuretic called Diamox – it is essentially a water pill that is supposed to dilute the CSF building in my head and relieve the pressure it is putting on my brain and more importantly on my optic nerves. I started taking it on Tuesday morning – One pill 2 times a day.

Wednesday morning I was at work. For the first 3 days of that week, I had been working in a separate area in the office because my eyes were becoming very sensitive to the harsh fluorescent lights over my desk. The headaches were so bad and my neck was in so much pain that I could barely read my computer screen. And for some reason I felt sick to my stomach. Needless to say, I was a mess.

At this point I had given my boss a heads up as to what was going with me so that he would not be concerned with me leaving the office all the time. Wednesday morning I felt so horrible that I had my sister Amanda (thankfully we work together) drive me home – because I was no longer driving at this point. I went home and went to bed. Little did I know that this would be the last time I would be at work for two and a half months.

By Thursday morning everything I put in my body came back up – this is not something that happens to me. So my mother decided I needed to go to the hospital and to the hospital we went. I was given an IV and stayed overnight. I saw my neurologist’s partner in the morning – I told him my vision was worsening and he explained that I needed to stay on the medication.

The hospital was ready to get rid of me, but I told them I had a splitting headache and still hadn’t been able to keep any food down. The nurse and the neurologist both suggested I drink some Diet Coke (caffeine helps with headaches) and try some saltine crackers. I explained to them that I have not had caffeine in years but sure, let’s give it a try! Why not add heart palpitations to my list of systems – which is what happened the last time I had caffeine.

Now, for most of Friday morning there was some douchbag standing outside of my little area (short term emergency room “rooms” are not really rooms but areas with curtains – at least they are at Beaumont) who was talking extremely loudly on his phone. So I had no problem making the loudest most obnoxious barking noises while I was hurling the saltine crackers and Diet Coke everyone insisted I ingest. My mom was slightly embarrassed. The nurse laughed. My job here was done – at least for now.

So on the afternoon of Friday, April 24, 2009, I went home with a slew of anti nausea pills and worsening headaches and vision. My mom insisted I take the following week off of work to concentrate on getting better. This was not something I wanted to do. I mean, if I was going to take a week off of work it was going to be to go to California or Colorado not to sit on my couch and concentrate on not puking every time I hate or drank something! But we can’t always get what we want, can we?

So on Sunday evening April 26, 2009, I called my boss, explained the situation and then dictated an email to Amanda about the status of all of my projects at work. At this point, I could barely see – let alone type a letter. 2 days later I would end up in the hospital facing the scariest challenge of my life and here I was worrying about the SMS component for a promotion launching in 2 weeks.