This question needs a bit of setup. I can’t trust what my wife says, for reasons I won’t explain here, because afterall, this is GQ and not The Pit.
She’s been having headaches, and a couple of weeks ago, I took her to a have CA scan. This week, she found out the results. According to her, the doctor said they found a “thickening”, and the name for the condition, which she forgot, sounds like a tumor, but it’s not a tumor.
She also said something about this condition having some kind of indicator in the eyes, and the diagnosing doctor saw that when he saw her this week.
Supposedly, steroid use is a cause, or at least aggravates this condition. She’s been taking Prednisone for years because of SLE.
My bullsh*t detector has been screaming all week. A non-tumor tumor? I know steroids are linked to HTG brain tumors (remember Lyle Alzado?), but I thought it was the androgens that did that, and last I knew, Pred wasn’t considered to be an androgen.
DoctorJ, Qadgop, or anyone else with knowledge about this, please feel free to comment.
I was going to say it sounds like pseudotumor cerebri but apparently it’s the same thing that Karl Gauss suggested
I “got” this when I was 13. Weeks of horrible knock-you-out headaches followed by an alarmed optometrist (I went to him because I was seeing floaters and had blurry vision) who sent me right away to a neurologist who sent me right away to the hospital.
Every doctor in that building, it seemed, came by to look into my eyes. I’m not sure if it was because they wanted to see the detached retina and splintered optical nerve, or if they could see more. One doctor also had me do some weird face contortions to check out the veins in my head.
Anyway, according to the doctor, they suspected that the mix of hormones and antibiotics I was taking at the time caused the excess fluid buildup around my brain. Or hell, maybe I was taking steroids too (I was seeing an endochronologist). Having extra fluid around your brain is no good. There’s just no room.
Luckilly for me, a quick spinal tap cleared it right up and I’ve never gotten symptoms again. I’ve read about other women who weren’t so lucky and a spinal tap didn’t help.
So good luck to your wife. I suspect she has the PTC and hopefully a spinal and a change of meds will do her well.
I read your cite, Zip, and Secondary Cranial Hypertension certainly sounds like it could be the culprit. She’s 40, overweight, and has lupus (SLE).
She’s been refered to a neurologist, and she’ll be pissed if if s/he prescribes a spinal tap. She’s had many of them already, but not for several years, and they’ve been lupus related.
