Please help Grace find relief and live through this extremely painful brain disorder.

Hi my name is Abi Clare im 43 live in rotorua and I also have intracranial hypertension so I really related alot to your story. Iabout 13 yrs ago I started experiencing severe headaches and nausea and my eyesight became very blurry.I didn't go to the dr at first but then one night I was driving along a main Rd and suddenly my vision went completely bizarre.my right eye was completely blind but the left was seeing things like the road signs as though they were crooked zig zaps. It was terrifying.finally I went to Dr who looked at the back of my eyes and was horrified by what he saw. He sent me directly to the optometrist who then sent me straight to emergency at rot hospital.. they performed a lumarket puncture and we're amazed to find the csf pressure was above 65.immediately following LP the headache was gone but my eyesight was going to take a lot longer for the optical nerves to reduce swelying and unfortunately the retina on right eye was permanently scarred. So I was sent home with appointments with all the specialists and ended up being put on diamox. This worked for verythromycin short time and then I was needing regular lp"so just to keep pressure at bearable and safe level.soon it was clear I would need more drastic treatment and was referred to neurosurgeon. He explained that I needed a vp shunt and portrayed the procedure as well as recover your as very minimal compared to what it actually was.I was teaching secondary school English and drama at time and was told would be back teaching in 3 weeks tops.unfortunately this was the start of a very long series of shunt revisions and suffering.to date I have had 13 shunts as well as various ops using icp bolts etc.it has been awfulike and I have not even come close to getting back to teaching. I guess I just wanted to reach out to you and let you know you are not alone .in feel sometimes it takes another person going through the same pain and anguish to really understand.please feel free to contact me

Hi Christine,

I'm a journalist at the New Zealand Herald.

I saw the page you've set up for Grace and am hoping to speak to you about it in more detail and about possibly writing a story, but I wasn't sure how best to contact you.

If you'd like to get in touch with your contact details so that we can discuss this further, you can reach me at brittany.keogh@nzherald.co.nz

Yours sincerely,

Brittany Keogh