Esthers Doll, thanks for coming back and replying on this. I completely agree with you. I don't believe most people have a chronic increase in intracranial pressure as you did or close to the severity you had. I'm sorry you had to deal with it. Although it may be possible for some, so as you said it is worth to bring it up to a neuro. I think basically everyone here wouldn't need a lumbar puncture but maybe a select few. I'm not telling people to go seek lumbar punctures from their doctor (READ BOTH LINKS I HAVE AT BOTTOM TO SEE IF YOU MATCH SYMPTOMS)

ED, I would ask if it was a possibility that you have increased intracranial pressure in your head causing this. No harm in asking. See what he says and describe your symptoms because a lot of them are similar to as if your intracranial pressure was high.

Going back to my theory, I believe that intracranial pressure is increased or can spike a little at situations likely to set them off for those of you complaining of pressure in your head and how it increases when exercising or sleeping. I know a concussion can cause the brain to swell or be inflamed and that would cause intracranial pressure to rise. You can look it up on the Internet.

The condition I believe Esthers Doll had is Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, I could be wrong and this condition can be benign or chronic. Idiopathic also means that it is not caused by another condition meaning that swelling of the brain is not causing an increase in intracranial pressure. There's just a build up of CSF. In your case it sounds like it was benign because it was relieved from the lumbar puncture and didn't come back it sounds like. I have no idea, sorry if I'm making wrong assumptions about your condition, I truly apologize if I did. It's rare for you to have Esthers dolls condition but possible.

Now I don't think any of our brains are severely swollen or anything I think they may be slightly inflamed, or something be it idiopathic or not is causing minor increases in intracranial pressure.

At least for people that fit these symptoms: it feels like their brain is swelling or a pressure feeling that isn't localized in on area of your head, you have tinnitus, you can hear swooshing in your ears, and here is the main reason I believed that I have some spikes of intracranial pressure in my head: my vision problems. I had random episodes of where one of my eyes would move in a different direction for about 2 to 3 seconds. I wake up with my eyes feeling swollen and looking swollen and red (like a temporary papilledema). I also have sleep apnea like problems which increase intracranial pressure and that correlated with vision problems and other intracranial pressure like symptoms.

These symptoms strongly correlate to an increase in intracranial pressure. If you have these symptoms, think about it.

So this is my conclusion, I do not believe most of you have severely built up intracranial pressure that warrants being called a condition or would require a lumbar puncture (although possible so ask neuro as well as about inflammation of the brain, just bring it up), I do however believe there is some relationship no matter how mild or minor between rises of intracranial pressure built up and concussions/TBI for some of us sufferers. This is just my opinion because so many symptoms seem to overlap and they seem to be related from my research. I'm no MD but there seems to be a correlation between the two. Just do some research on it.

As I said most will not need a lumbar puncture and the pressure will go away on it's own, but I think stuff like anti inflammatories and not pushing too hard physically will speed this process up if it will go away on it's own. All I know is anti inflammatory = good for the brain, so it won't hurt. I guess saying "challenge" was too strong of a word but definitely bring it up to your neurologist. HOWEVER, If you have Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension symptoms and/or have a case like estherdoll definitely CHALLENGE your doctor! Here are some links to the IIH. Base IIH off of these links. READ AT LEAST SYMPTOMS FROM FIRST LINK, AND READ ALL OF SECOND LINK (mayoclinic symptoms on second page of first link)