Ten months ago I found myself in an ophthalmologist’s office and literally nothing could have adequately prepared me for this visit. I had been feeling particularly awful and my eyes were generally killing me to top it all off at this point I couldn’t even remember when last I didn’t have a headache.

The consultation began and I explained my symptoms, most worryingly that I noticed I couldn’t see properly from my left eye, the doctor checked my eyes and started to ask me more questions:

Dr: How long have you been suffering from migraines? Me: A couple of years

Dr: How long has your vision been blurring? Me: A few months now that I think of it

Me: Also my face has been tingling lately Dr: The tingling is your body telling your brain something is wrong

She moves her machine and finally says there is something very wrong here, there is a lot of swelling in your eyes there is something pressing against your eyes from the back. Something such as what? , I ask, she says I don’t know it might be a tumour you need to get a CT scan, still nonchalant I ask how soon I should do the scan? its at this point she realised I am not grasping the gravity of my situation. As she began to explain to me why this was concerning and that I should head straight to the nearest hospital where she would make sure I get the scan done immediately. This was the beginning of my nightmare I headed for the hospital in tears frantically calling my sister to tell her I’m seeing my arse here and am entirely unable to deal with life at this point. Little did I know I was yet to shed more tears and yet to understand what being petrified was. This was my introduction to Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension a condition I would have to learn to live with.

As a part of my journey of learning to live with IIH I will be sharing my experiences to date in a series of blog posts. The aim is to increase awareness on this condition and what life is like for people living with invisible illness. I hope my posts can help people living with illness and helps those with loved ones living with illness understand our world somewhat.