Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Idaho
phyxius,
I was watching a lecture recently where they explained that the brain has a system of regulating blood pressure to just the brain. This system is often damaged from a head injury. Second Impact Syndrome is a result of this system being damaged and another impact occurring before this self-regulating system heals. The resulting over-pressure in the brain can cause quick coma and even death.
Taking your blood pressure on your arm is not necessarily related to the BP to your brain. The body will shut down blood flow to all but the brain in an attempt to survive an injury. This same system can malfunction. Other than a Doppler UltraSound of the carotid and vertebral arteries, I don't think there is a way to check this system.
btw, a Doppler UltraSound of the carotid and vertebral arteries is simple and painless. I had one done to check for vertebral arterial insufficiency. About $300 full price.
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Thanks for the suggestion Mark. I saw my PMR doc yesterday and she didn't want to discuss any possibility except that it was a shunt problem with the original hydrocephalus. She wants me to go see the neurosurgeon.
This is obviously something I don't want to think about because that's how I ended up with the brain injury in the 1st place(having shunt revision surgery).
The last time I had surgery I ended up spending 4 months in rehab and leaving in a wheelchair.
These headaches aren't anything like the hydrocephalus pressure headaches. They are there whether you are lying down, sitting up, or hanging from a flag pole.
I'm just so upset today and don't know what to do. My options are to go to this doctor that I have no faith in, and honestly more than a little disdain for. I can do nothing and hope that it just goes away on it's own. So far that's not working, it has been almost 3 weeks now.
My PMR doc, who I had been seeing every 3 months, doesn't want to see me until the end of April. She said that I need to decide if I'm going to take care of the brain pressure thing with the neurosurgeon on my own. She is frustrated that I don't want to go to the neurosurgeon.
Sorry I ranted. I'm just so confused as to what to do and upset. I got wrangled into a surgery that I didn't want before. Now I just feel like if you don't bend to the will of doctors then they will not work with you.
Obviously we're all morons and know absolutely nothing-- even about how an illness that we've had for 18 years feels to our bodies. When we say a hydrocephalus headache feels different, we don't know what we're talking about.