"Medically Induced Trauma"

When I was 14 I had a one in a billion case of intracranial hypertentsion as a result of taking tetracycline for acne. They also called it a "pseudo-tumor."

I had a blinding (literally) headache. The fluid on my brain caused my optic nerve to hemorrhage, so one of my eyes drifted to the outer rim. I was seeing double and couldn't walk straight. If I tasted a drop of water I profusely vomited buckets of water, where it came from I don't know. I had a 102. temp. The pain was unbearable. If I talked at all it was to moan, "I want to die, I just want to die."

My family is sick. My stepmother was convinced that this was all psychological and I was making myself sick because I was upset about wanting to leave my mother to come live with them and afraid of telling her. They let me go like this for a month. I was spending the summer with them. Incidentally my stepmother, even though she is a brain washed Jesus freak, is a super holistic fanatic who only goes to naturopaths for anything and accuses me of being a drug addict for taking excedrin and giving my kid liquid tylenol infant's drops when she was teething.

When they brought me back to my mother, she took me to the doctor right away. They did an MRI and rushed me into ER as fast as they could. They told my mother I had a tumor and I was dying.

During that time when I was sick I discovered Excedrin. My dad bought it for me because it worked on my grandma's migraines. Migraines run in the family he said. Excedrin has a lot of caffeine. When I took it I had enough relief to not be in so much pain and to talk to people. It worked well at first, but I went from taking it every 8 hours, to every 6, then every 4, until it only provided the same relief for an hour at a time. The intermittent lucidity only strengthened my step mom's suspicions.

The doctors found out I had excessive cerebral spinal fluid on my brain, and put me on prednisone, and drained me with a spinal tap. The fluid was clear and negative for meningitis. The best answer they came up with was the tetracycline. They told me had I waited another day or two without coming to the hospital I would have been dead or blind forever. My eyes are fine now, there was no lasting damage.

However, after that I suffered with a constant headache and Excedrin is the only thing that works. I tried to get off it when I was pregnant because it has aspirin. My doctors gave me amitriptyline (Elavil), Imitrex and Midrin. None of it worked. The Imitrex locked up my neck and made me feel like I had a vice around my head.

The Elavil actually gave me a TIA (transient ischemic attack) which I had to figure out on my own, because when I told the nurse practitioner about the rapid tingling sensation that ran down my arm and made my entire right arm paralyzed and I couldn't speak right, telling my husband, "I theek umm haafing a theethure," she just said, "Hmm, do you have any neurological problems?" I said, "No," and she shrugged and did nothing.

I went home and reviewed all my meds. Sure enough in reading the side effects of amitriptyline I read, "can cause stroke." So I stopped it. Then all of a sudden I felt okay. I kept getting weird spells throughout the day where I would see lights all around me and lose focus, and feel like my head had an expanding balloon inside it that was going to pop in my skull. I thought it was a side effect of pregnancy.

Within a day of not taking it I felt so much better.

Anyway, when none of those pills worked I decided to try Excedrin Tension Headache, which is only Tylenol and caffeine, without the aspirin. Wow, no more headaches! It was the caffeine all along. I tried one day not taking my Excedrin when I first found out I was pregnant. I couldn't get out of my bed. I felt like I did when I was 14 with the pseudo tumor. I called my doctor, she said, "don't go off it yet, go see a neurologist." (that was before, and the neurologist put me on the migraine stuff).

it was the aspirin intake in my first trimester that caused the concern that made my doctor refer me to a neonatologist for super hi-def ultrasounds to make sure the baby's heart was ok. When I first spoke to the neonatologist and told her about the Excedrin she yelled at me, "What do you think you are doing? You are a nurse, you should know better, you might as well be taking cocaine!" I was shocked because I had done my research and everything I read said aspirin had a minor impact during the first trimester but was absolutely contraindicated in the third trimester.

The hi-def ultrasound showed a perfect heart, but the nazi doctor found aqueductal stenosis in her brain and told us our baby would be hydrocephalic and suggested we consider termination. For the rest of that story, see my blog, "Okay, It's My Turn; Exercising My Right to Choose, Life." To ease any suspense, my daughter was born perfect.

This is only one, well actually three examples of how medicine has interfered in my life and caused unnecessary suffering. I think this is going to be a theme for my next few blogs, thanks to DB, mvenus929, and tolkein3791 and mai on her blog about how stupid people believe in conventional healthcare.