Medical

As I said before, I got a job. I started in January at a local newspaper. I was a reporter. After about a month I started having strange symptoms. Dizziness on standing, visual and aural disturbances, severe headaches, back pain.
After many trips to the doctor, several different prescriptions, 2 CAT scans, an MRI (and a partridge in a pear tree).
It was finally discovered through a spinal tap in the ER that I had pseudotumor cerebri, a very rare disorder. The new name for the disorder is Ideopathic Intracranial Hypertension. What all that jargon means is that your body has a cycle of producing and absorbing cerebrospinal fluid (the fluid around your brain and spinal cord). In my body for some reason, either I produce too much, or I do not absorb enough. Either way, there is too much CSF, and this causes pressure on the spinal cord, brain, and optic nerves. It can cause blindness, among other things, and last ditch treatment is a shunt in the spinal cord to drain the fluid into your peritoneal cavity (stomach area).

I have since had to have 2 more lumbar punctures, and am currently trying to get approved for bariatric surgery, which although doctors don't know why it works, seems to cure many cases of IIH.
The main problem with the disorder is that there is no way to know how high the pressure is until it's really out there. Then, I'm unable to work, because hearing ringing phones and looking at computer screens is painful.
I take medication designed to keep the fluid from building up in my eyes, called Diamox. Which of course, comes with it's own host of side effects.
Nausea, heartburn (terrible... finally had to start taking prilosec every day), and strangely, it affects your sense of taste. I can't drink carbonated sodas now. They taste really poo-ey.
Also, since the medication is a diuretic, I spend lots of time drinking water and going to the bathroom. I drink around 2.5 to 3 gallons per day. (plus more at night).
so... there's the medical history...
stay tuned for marital situation....