Back Online... What a Journey!

Well, life threw us another curve ball. And this one was a doozy! Kathi (my youngest) was struck in mid-September with a severe headache that just wouldn't go away. We thought at first that it was a migraine, but it wasn't. It was accompanied by dizziness, nausea, vision problems, and too many times of her just randomly toppling over. Talk about scary! This went on for weeks, without a single headache-free moment for my girl. They ran every test in the book (some of them more than once), and everything kept coming up normal. This was a GOOD thing, but it was frustrating because we couldn't treat her if we didn't know what she had.

She went into the ER twice in November, and while she was in the hospital the second time they ran even more tests. One was a spinal tap. And guess what -- after the spinal tap, her headache went away for a few hours! Eureka! Her doctors determined that what she has is an excess of cerebral fluid, which causes too much pressure on her brain. The fancy technical name for it is Pseudotumor Cerebri. They gave her a medicine that decreases the fluid, and now she has headaches only once in a while! The headaches she does have these days seem to be stress related (I guess increased stress equals increased pressure for EVERYONE, so this is normal). Whew!! Praise be to God for Kat's doctors and medical team!

She still has vision issues and some tingling, but we're dealing with those with her doctors. The main thing is that her big headache has been relieved!

So, all of this has taken me away from my blogging and stamping and pretty much everything that didn't have to do with Kat's health and my day job (gotta be able to pay for all of this medical stuff, yes?). Sorry for the extended absence. I hope to be back more regularly as things begin to settle down at home. And maybe if I can get Internet at home that would make it even easier. :)

Here's a photo of my Kat, feeling better at long last!


Peace,
Pia