Ways to help with an aching head

Imagine waking up with a headache so strong you can’t think, a neck pain so severe you can’t move and your eyesight suddenly turning blurry.

It could be an issue with spinal cord fluid.

In cases like this, doctors are finding ways to relieve the symptoms and give patients their lives back.

“Instantly, my neck started hurting,” said Partice Cooper. Then, “I would see dark spots look like bugs were crawling up the walls; sounds still bothered me. Lights still bothered me.”

Steroid injections to relieve the pain made things worse.

“My headaches have been absolutely astronomical,” Cooper said.

A CT scan and an MRI revealed Patrice was also suffering from pseudotumor cerebri, or PTC.

“It’s a condition where there’s elevated cerebral spinal fluid pressure in the brain that causes headache and loss of vision,” said Dr. Jon McIver, a neurosurgeon at Brain and Spine Center at Mercy Baltimore.

Diagnosed usually by the eye doctor who sees swelling of the optic nerve, PTC is treated in several ways. Recently, researchers have learned that losing weight helps some patients.

“We think that this has something to do with the hormones produced by the fat cells, so decreased activity or volume of the fat cells can indirectly influence spinal fluid production in some people,” McIver said.

Neurosurgeons also can perform a lumbar puncture, where a needle is inserted into the back to withdraw spinal fluid.

Although Cooper has not had surgery yet, she is ready to make the move to be pain-free and bring the fun back into her life.

As to the underlying cause of a PTC, doctors aren’t sure.

It seems to most impact women of childbearing age, and hormonal changes might play a role.