My Sister-in-law has been diagnosed with Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension.
According to her neurologist she needs a shunt put into her skull. If she doesn’t get this operation she will go blind. Not as in “Someday you will lose some vision”, but more like “Sometime next month you will permanently lose all use of your eyes”. Eventually, without the proper treatment she could eventually die.
Fortunately she is in better shape than a lot of people who have serious medical problems. She has a supporting family, she and her husband have well paying jobs, and most importantly she has good health insurance.
Unfortunately what she does not have is a neurosurgeon. Every single time she finds one she is immediately informed they “don’t deal with pseudotumor patients”.
She literally can’t get a doctor to save her life.
No one will go into details, but we’re pretty sure that the qualified surgeons are skittish because any brain operation is risky. And Americans have become a very litigious people. Medical lawsuits have gotten to be so bad that in my state there are no more practicing neurosurgeons. All of my friends with kids have problems getting pediatricians, because people really get lawsuit crazy when their kids are involved.
So anyhow according to Google ads, lots and lots of people read my blog. Do any of you happen to be neurosurgeons? Do any of you know one that isn’t a giant pansy?
Heck I’d be willing to settle for incriminating photographs at this point.
There isn’t a punch line today. This is an inherently unfunny situation, and I could really use some help locating some medical help for this.
Later this weekend I’ll make up for this by writing about inflatable sheep or something.
Update: We found a doctor. Thanks for all of the leads.
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