it is important to know what your pressure is. most LPs are no big deal. I have never had a problem. it's possible that you will feel better and realize that you didn't know you felt bad until you didn't anymore. well for a day or so. it is like a miracle for my son who also has autism. he asked me if other people feel that way all the time, when he was 7. you are very lucky. most people feel like death. if your ICP isn't that high, then I would be asking the question of whether obstructive sleep apnea is causing your papilledema. apneas can cause papilledema by spiking ICP during sleep only. in which case yes weight loss should help but OSA needs to be addressed. it's better to deal with it now than wait and then get hit with a ton of bricks when things worsen. think of this as an early warning sign, an opportunity to try to avert a nightmare.

I am basically like you. My eye doctor found my swollen optic nerves and sent me to a neuro opthomologist. Who ordered MRI's that came back clear, and I was sent to a neurologist who ordered the spinal tap. My procedure went very well and I had no headaches or anything afterwords. The only symptom that I have is the pulsatile tinnitus, but I'm on acetazolamide now and it seems to help that.

But it is definitely a good thing to have done. It will lower your spinal fluid pressure and they will test for spinal infections, which could contribute to the iih as well. And it definitely could help you feel better in general.

I'd say definitely have the spinal tap done, and continue to see your neuro opthomologist. They will keep an eye on your nerve swelling and keep taking the pictures and tests of your eyes. You don't want the swelling to get worse. It could damage your vision.

Hello there so I I'm going to tell you my recent experience with a lumbar puncture. I am 286 lb female and I went in for a lumbar puncture and it was supposed to be done under fluoroscopy and they decided to try it without fluoroscopy which is x-ray. They put in a numbing agent and the gentleman tried eight times and was unsuccessful finally I could not deal with the amount of pain and told him to stop and we were unsuccessful at the spinal tap the very next day we were going to do a spinal tap with a different doctor under fluoroscopy as the original order was and we were successful at it it is not the most comfortable thing in the world and I was actually pretty terrified. There was a few moments while he was doing the spinal tap that made me jump a little because you do get a feeling down your legs like an electric volt if he hits a nerve and that can scare you and it's a different feeling it's not really painful but it's it's just different and extremely uncomfortable when you're supposed to be holding still. Self to be completely honest, being overweight you need to wreck you need to get the one under x-ray even though you'll be exposed to radiation you need to go that route because the other way was a complete nightmare I have never been in so much pain in my entire life and I would never ever ever recommend that to anyone if you're overweight you need to do the one under fluoroscopy and the pain is less than 1 on a scale of 1 to 10 it's just extremely uncomfortable and like I said if he hits the nerve it can cause that feeling down your leg like like an electrocution but it's not painful it's just extremely uncomfortable.

Doctors are going to tell you to lose weight and be on a low sodium diet no caffeine no sodas you need to start really dedicating yourself and focusing on your diet and exercise and losing a significant amount of weight so you don't get to the point of irreversible vision loss it sounds to me like you're in the very early stages of it and luckily I was able to catch mine within the first month of having symptoms I went to the ER and had everything done within a week and I have been seeing improvements and I've changed my entire diet and everything because later on in life if you don't take care of this and you don't lose weight you could experience blindness or permanent vision loss or damage to your swelling of the optic disc of your nerves.