Benign Intracranial Hypertension and me.

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Hi I am Pam, I am from Wales in the UK.  Back in 1984 I gave birth to my first child, a 9lb6oz son called James.  After about 3 months I started to get headaches, I originally thought they were just due to tiredness and being a new mother, but i was wrong.  I left it a further month before going to my GP, he told me it was the stress of being a new mum, but I felt it had to be more. I went home and tried to rest whenever I could but the headaches got worse.  I went back and forth to my GP but each time was dismissed as being an overly tired new mother.  After 5 months I woke one morning and my vision just seemed different, I covered one eye and realised that I had lost some vision in my other, I did the same with the other eye and again there was loss of vision. My head felt like it was going to explode.  I went back to my GP who this time around called in one of his colleagues who then closed the curtains and examined my eyes a lot closer.  He then told the GP to call an ambulance as the pressure behind my eyes was dangerously high. I didnt want to go into hospital so insisted on going home where I could talk to my husband first, afterall, I had a new baby at home. I went into hospital the following day....I underwent an Lumbarpuncture and was told that the normal pressure was 15, my pressure was at 46! they took the fluid off, but within weeks it was back. Over the following year I underwent 12 lumbarpunctures.  I will say at this point that I am a big gal! and they told me I needed to lose weight which I did but it didnt make any difference, the pressure remained volatile. I have lived with this condition now for 31 years and recently its become worse again, but they cant do a lumbar puncture because I also have spinal problems. My only option is a shunt which I dont want to have so I am trying to just take things a bit quieter for a while in the hope that the headaches settle down. I lay down and within an hour my head is pounding and I can hear this constant swoosh swoosh swoosh and high pitch noise in my head, its noisy and frustrating, so I sit upright again to try to get it to calm down. I do take a lot of meds for my spinal condition but I also take bendroflumethiazide which is a water tablet to try to ease the fluid in my body. I find that if I take Panadol Extra this helps and sometimes I take Imigran combined with panadol extra.  I am fighting this illness right now and as I dont want a shunt I am just praying that it subsides.  Thanks for reading my story.