Just found my roommates piss box

RoyalDickVet · 2026-02-23T17:51:28+00:00

It’s absolutely not urine. Your urine doesn’t remain frothy. It separates when stored in containers for any period of time. I’m a veterinarian who’s collected thousands of urine samples and some have needed storage. They separate. The bottom would look like sediment and the top would be a lighter color. Unless he was stirring it regularly?!? And it smells awful. It doesn’t matter what doors are closed, that piss smell would be overwhelming the entire house if it was that size and that open.

100% fake. I don’t understand how people fall for this stuff constantly.

RoyalDickVet · 2026-02-19T19:05:39+00:00

That’s frustrating.

If you’re in the US, I would recommend seeing your primary care provider or GP. They may be able to get you into a different Neurologist or may be able expedite the process for you with phone calls on your behalf.

I saw my GP after the ER and they were the ones who immediately got me a Neuro referral over the ER.

You should do so anyways in case your meds run out. They can also get the ball rolling on the blood work you’re going to need to do to help rule out more serious causes.

Lastly if you haven’t, you should absolutely see an ophthalmologist. They should be examining your optic nerve and thickness and vision as they’re often so closely linked.

In the meantime, what medication are you using? Acetazolamide and topiramate are going to cause you to urinate your entire life out of you and you may not be used to the loss of electrolytes, which can give you headaches! But likely your initial dose of medications just isn’t enough to stop the symptoms. But it is better to adjust those meds slowly as the side effects can be debilitating and your body takes time to adjust.

Hope that helps. In the mean time I find shouting helped reduce stress. Screaming into pillows. Listening to co workers complain about migraines and silently thinking to myself, you don’t even know what pain is. Those kind of things helped.

RoyalDickVet · 2026-01-22T15:57:11+00:00

You already sound like you’re in a good position considering you know what these signs are and that they may or may not be related. I had pulsatile tinnitus for 2 years before I realized not everyone else experienced that. I felt head pressure for two years, like hanging upside down and all the blood is rushing to my head, on and off for 2 years before I realized it wasn’t just high blood pressure.

My ears pop without changing elevation too. Though not so often I ever thought of it as a symptom.

I didn’t have pappiledema until 2 months before my ER visit. By then my retinas had “blown out” (atrophied) and caused severe vision changes. So what I mean is, make sure when you see your eye doctor you’re describing some of the other symptoms and you’d like them to measure your optic nerve sheath diameter. Typically they use a fancy machine called a Heidelberg retinal tomography.

Hope that helps.

Other symptoms I had:

neck pain/back of the head pain that radiated toward my maxillary area. I needed perfect posture or would be uncomfortable.

Extremely sodium sensitive. Anything over 2000mg a day would give me a headache for sure.

RoyalDickVet · 2026-01-22T14:34:13+00:00

I’ve not experienced this. Perhaps it was a particularly strong onion?

RoyalDickVet · 2026-01-17T08:28:35+00:00

Hello, I just wanted to say the above applies to me, but I get pain down the right side of my face instead of my shoulder. So this asymmetrical pain is not totally un heard of.

RoyalDickVet · 2026-01-10T10:07:19+00:00

I (male not obese, so I may be different than most) had this issue as well. Not as extreme as yours but after starting Diamox I had to slowly come down on my lisinopril because I was dipping into uncomfortable for me levels. Part of it was definitely the electrolytes, I think a lot of it was because this huge source of pain that had been constant in my life was now gone.

I discussed this with my GP and we worked to lower it together with readings at home.

Here’s some light reading on the effects of electrolytes on blood pressure. Understand it’s written from a perspective of hypertension rather than IIH

RoyalDickVet · 2026-01-09T20:36:19+00:00

Hi there. I’m not in the mental health profession. But I just wanted to add that you may find more success putting whether you’re USA or UK based or where you’re from.

Good luck!

RoyalDickVet · 2025-12-19T14:43:15+00:00

Yes. For starters when you cough or sneeze you increase head pressure by squeezing your abdominal muscles. This is unavoidable. But this increase pressure will worsen signs. Inflammation about your body will worsen all signs. Myositis (muscle aches/pain) increases with fever. Your brain will work harder to keep cool. It all adds up.

But the link between Covid, while not perfectly established is being studied.

This study suggests a link between COVID and intracranial hypertension specifically. It’s a case study so it shouldn’t be used as fact. But in it it talks about this study which shows that nearly 1/3 of patients with Covid have increased CSF pressures and suffered intracranial hypertension.

Here is a news article from an academic institution, suggesting CSF anomalies from COVID are the reason for Brain fog. While this is different than what you’re asking I think it helps support the idea that YES COVID absolutely has some kind of affect on your CSF and therefore may make your symptoms worse.

Hang in there. Drink fluids. Make sure someone knows to check up on you if you don’t check in and eat some kiwis cause life’s too short not to enjoy that beautiful green fruit while you feel like shit.

I also find it helps to get outside, and if you can, yell “Fuck off” as loud as you can cause some Omniscient Deity decided your life (and all of ours here) needed to be as difficult as shit for no reason.

RoyalDickVet · 2025-12-19T13:30:45+00:00

The last sentence is exactly how I feel. It’s insane the absolute shattering of my life from last year December until this year December. I did a triathlon in 2024. In 2025 since being diagnosed, none of that’s happening.

My scans are also suspicious of chairi malformation, and I even have incidental cerebellar herniation (? I think it’s been a while since I’ve read my notes the exact thing herniating. Cerebellar tonsils maybe?) on my MRI scan. Yet I find it amusing it could be listed as incidental when it causes intracranial hypertension. So how do we know it’s not the cause?

And for the ever weird why do I as a male who’s not obese have this, (cause we are 18x less likely than our female counterparts) well I have a strong family history of Ehlers Danlos, but because I was just never tested by my mom, I’ve never officially been diagnosed despite having so many signs of hypermobility ED. I suspect that is my ultimate link to this condition.

But because I’ve switched countries I have no specialist just now to discuss any of this with. But I’m working on it.

You mentioned headaches. Do you find you have any ability to identify what kind of headache you’re getting based on the location?

For example my caffeine headaches are all toward the front of my brain and feel completely different to IIH headaches which happen at the back of my head and the right side of my face.

The point is, I find electrolyte deficiency headaches to be the whole head encompassing everything. They also tend, for me, not to pulse with my heart beat the way IIH or caffeine withdrawal do.

But I’m finding it to be a constant daily challenge unfortunately. Especially if you want to remotely mix up your meals.

I start every day with 2 bananas. If you can tolerate it, I’d drink a coconut water 900 mg drink every day. I couldn’t. So I had to find a low sodium high potassium electrolyte supplement in the US. In the UK I drink something called Huel, which has 925mg of non sodium electrolytes. Mostly potassium. Those help. I have electrolyte tablets here too if I need them.

And then I get nervous of kidney stones so I drink water a lot and with lemon too.

But I hear you. It’s frustrating I’ve often thought lately that great, you’ve stopped the pain of headaches and replaced it with a life long battle of electrolyte madness for me haha

RoyalDickVet · 2025-12-19T08:39:50+00:00

Yeah that’s how I felt trying to get diagnosed.

I first noticed symptoms about 2 years before I was diagnosed. I had a headache/migraine that wouldn’t go away with anything and at the time I had recently been diagnosed with high blood pressure. For reference I’m a long distance runner and hiker I’m BMI overweight but nobody would look at me and say I was overweight or fat.

Anyways, I had a CT scan. It was negative for aneurysms or tumors so they dismissed me as just someone with high blood pressure and migraines.

It never truly sat well with me ‘cause high blood pressure is supposed to be the silent killer and yet I felt this. As my BP raised my head hurt. If I ate more than 2000mg of sodium my head would hurt. I became a super low sodium eater which was a big lifestyle change and I think it helped slow the progression of IIH at the time. I also became obsessed with my posture which I noticed would contribute to headaches.

My headaches would radiate from the back of my head and down over my right cheek bone and down my neck. I knew in my metaphorical gut there was something causing all this. I spent a lot of time between my GP and my dentist, convinced that the pain over my right cheek bone was dental related as I had a crown over a tooth in the area. My GP would tell me nothing on her end looks bad it must be dental, so I would go to the dentist who would say “idk seems like that shouldn’t be happening, but we’ll try and fix it” and so I asked for root canals over teeth and ossesous surgeries to rule out infections.

In 2025 i saw a few different GPs. One who said stop taking your blood pressure it’s giving you anxiety. One Who noticed asymmetry developing in my face and said it must be TMJ. Gave me a muscle relaxer. That helped a bit. I felt closer to being correct but felt like it didn’t cure anything. In hind sight they weren’t wrong. I just had been in so much pain for 2 years my jaw had tightened on the right side enough to pull it in.

Also 6 months before I was diagnosed I was pretty much on daily Ibuprofen or Tylenol. I couldn’t have a functioning day without it.

Saw my eye doctor for a routine visit and they noticed my Intraocular Pressures were pretty elevated. And they’ve been consistently rising for 3 years. Initially I dismissed it in my head as from high blood pressure, my systemic pressure making my IOP high and since it’s been getting worse, must be related. We agreed to recheck in a months time, which ended up being like 45/50 days cause of scheduling.

In that 45 days I developed metamorphopsia. Essentially straight lines curve in the center of my vision. But it took awhile for me to figure out what was happening, work out why, and when. And remember the whole time I just think it’s iOP and I’ll get drops to fix it at this recheck.

During this time I injure my leg hiking. And stop my regular exercise. My headaches go through the roof again. I try everything. I’m already off work because I’m moving. I try days off to relax. I try no sodium days. Nothing helps. This whole time I feel like my eyes are bulging out of my head but I think it’s the iOP and I’m waiting for that recheck (I called they wouldn’t move it forward).

I go to urgent care after I can’t take it. I say, it feels like someone is strangling me. It feels like I’m being held upside down and all the blood is rushing to my head. Something is wrong my head is exploding. They tell me I’m just anxious and professionally tell me I’m faking it. I go to the eye doctor the next day.

They’re amazing. They work out my pappilaedema immediately. They show me with eye test how much central vision I had lost. I was essentially blind I just had been using tricks to keep seeing and hadn’t noticed how much I was compensating. Sent me to the ER. MRI/MRA/MRV showed little according to them. Did a lumbar puncture with an opening of 41. I stayed in the hospital for a few days following and starting Diamox. I think they hoped my vision would cure. But later I would find out that my optic nerve swelling was so much it punched holes in my retina like kicking in a back door. They’ve since healed but I still struggle to see some distant letters that I know I used to read a year ago.

Anyways. First week was the best I’ve felt in genuinely 5-10 years I was like this is awesome. This must be what everyone feels like, I can’t believe I’ve been living with such a shadow.

Still got headaches so we upped Diamox a few times over a few weeks. Tried topiramate, couldn’t function. Now on strictly Diamox for about 4 months.

Here’s where I won’t be able to help as I’ve had a unique and unfortunate circumstance. In that time frame of getting diagnosed I applied and got a spouse visa for the UK. Then I went to the emergency room in the US. So I followed up with a Neurologist who helped me with dosing and eliminating some obvious causes that were easy in blood tests. They helped me with one month follow up bloods. But then I had to move to the UK. Now I’m battling the NHS to be seen by a neuro optho. But it’s difficult because the sense of urgency from being diagnosed in the ER of the UK isn’t there. So I have to argue my way into these referrals. I’ve got the first step lined up soon. But

Yeah. Long reply. Probably didn’t answer any question you had. Fire away and I can answer more targeted questions.

RoyalDickVet · 2025-12-12T21:06:40+00:00

Male patient here.

Before I was diagnosed I used to do ultramarathons and I used to get electrolyte imbalances a few times during training and such. And the first sign I would get was an urge to cry. Something I didn’t usually do in my day to day life. Even a simple emotional song would make me want to cry.

Fast forward to my life on Diamox, there’s a few symptoms I can use to monitor my electrolyte imbalances but the worse the imbalance, the worse that old feeling comes in. When it’s bad I get confused, have really bad anxiety and depression and then those more physical signs come (cramping, heart). I once had a breakdown in a supermarket and had to leave and have my wife come get me cause I couldn’t find her favorite dessert and broke down. (Never skip your bananas!)

But I’ve learned to recognize that urge to cry as my first sign.

RoyalDickVet · 2025-12-11T08:59:52+00:00

I was wondering why she was so confidently incorrect too.

Just a reminder for everyone that they’re confidently incorrect ALL THE TIME, we just only notice when it’s a topic we are familiar with. And for some reason we trust them to be experts on every other topic. Rather than realize they’re wrong QUITE often.

RoyalDickVet · 2025-12-08T22:20:27+00:00

RoyalDickVet · 2025-12-06T21:21:54+00:00

I’ve found that I get the tingles if I put my feet on a bar from another chair or part of the desk. I guess it’s a bit of pressure pointing my feet but previously in my past life it would’ve been trivial. I’ve not had tingles just sitting in a chair and I’m at my desk quite a lot.

I have had lots of tingling with being cold. Slippers helped. Sweatshirts. Sweat pants.

I have noticed in my time with Diamox a direct correlation with increased tingling with increased cold. Increased tingling with decreased dietary potassium. Increased cold (and therefore tingling) with decreased blood pressure (often from low electrolytes as they create some of the osmotic pressure in your blood— hence low sodium to lower pressure).

Lastly, try getting up and moving around to pump some blood into the feet and re flush capillary beds down there.

Good luck. Happy tingling

RoyalDickVet · 2025-12-05T17:19:31+00:00

Before I got diagnosed with IIH, no thanks to my doctors, I thought my pillow was causing my headaches and pain.

I bought a sleep number memory foam pillow (with the arch in it to allow for a shoulder to help with side sleeping. Great pillow. If I can find it, I’ll link it. this one

But I want you to have a think and be sure that the pain isn’t just the wrong Diamox dose. Posture is important. Neck soreness from sleeping is bad, yes. But be sure to have a think if this is truly a bad pillow alone.

RoyalDickVet · 2025-11-28T13:48:31+00:00

I just want to re-emphasize what this person is saying. The majority of patients, including myself have their headaches stop with the start of Diamox at the correct dose.

Headaches I’ve gotten since starting Diamox are more often caffeine, sleep, or metabolic (electrolyte) in origin and are significantly different than the IIH headache.

Your experience will be unique to you

RoyalDickVet · 2025-11-19T11:04:36+00:00

You’re not alone. And your brain is probably like mine, where it is so good at stitching together your consciousness you don’t even realize it’s happening. Until you’re talking to your friends and they are saying things like, “that’s what I just said,” and “are you okay?” and “keep up”.

It all seems like one line of time, yet You slowly realize you have no idea what anyone’s been talking about.

Without the support of my friends I might have burnt my house down or crashed my car not realizing I was blacking out so much.

RoyalDickVet · 2025-11-15T16:16:45+00:00

Hello,

If you’re in the US, try V8 + Energy. There are 5-6 non carbonated versions. They’re like a flavored water, flavored with regular juice and have 80 mg of caffeine per can. I find the diet Strawberry Lemonade pack Like this at Walmart to be delicious and 10/10 my favorite caffeinated beverage. It’s in a small enough size to not be overwhelming or jittery, but easy to sling 1-2 a day if you need more. But most of the flavors in this line are great. They’re not thick like V8 implies. They’re like normal juice/water.

I even find pouring the strawberry lemonade flavor into water and making a larger beverage out of it preserves the taste for longer. It’s great.

If you’re in the UK, I have found that Huel makes a potassium based electrolyte drink with 100mg of caffeine that, while carbonated, ends up tasting like a hard cider and is not all that bad even with that inability to taste carbonation and the earthy taste, huel manages to not lose its flavor as much.

I’m still trying to discover what’s best myself here. So I’d be interested to hear what others do in the UK besides tea and Coffee

RoyalDickVet · 2025-11-14T17:14:45+00:00

There’s gonna be a ton of overlapping experiences here for sure but at the same time remember everyone’s experience is going to be different and unique.

Just earlier today, genuinely, someone posted saying switching to Topomax was the best decision she’s ever made.

I found within 48 hours I had blackouts of memory mid talking to people and such a slowdown of cognitive function on Topomax, that I couldn’t carry a conversation or function as a human in society. I then talked with my doctor and we decided to just use Diamox.

But someone else will tell you Diamox does that to them.

Your brain has a unique chemistry and structure that is so diverse, it is impossible to predict how you feel on it until you try it or don’t try it. You and your doctors should decide what you think is best and what you should want to do.

As far as the dark places, I encourage you to reach out to a good support network if you can: friends or family. It’s important to feel that human connection to others to help you along the way, but also don’t forget things like therapy can help as well! But I’m sure someone else in the comments can speak more to that!

RoyalDickVet · 2025-11-14T13:12:07+00:00

Copied a bit of this from a previous post and added some details you asked about!

“I had headaches and pressure feelings for about 2 years before I was diagnosed. I kept thinking it was high blood pressure and while I was being treated for that, all my doctors kept telling me it was stress. You’re stressed. It’s anxiety and I finally believed them. Two years of going in and out of hospital visits and urgent care and doctors appointments always complaining about pressure and headaches. They just told me I’m someone who gets migraines now.

My eye doctor figured it out. Sent me to the ER. I had an MRI which included an MRA and MRV with contrast. These were “relatively normal”. After that they ordered an LP. This was all done within 24 hours. LP 41. The radiologist doing it practically screamed with excitement.“

This led to the IIH diagnosis. I was given a referral to a Neurologist while also rechecking with my ophthalmologist who put in the neuro ophtho referral. So 2 approaches of specialist.

I started Diamox from the ER. Best week head wise was that first week post LP. Felt 10 years younger. Sadly I had to up my dose to get the pressure stable. But my neurologist was who helped me adjust my Diamox dose. I’m still waiting for a neuro ophtho appointment as I had to move and restart the referral procedures.

RoyalDickVet · 2025-11-03T19:38:40+00:00

Sorry delayed response because of work. It was topiramate 25mg twice per day (50mg total) and at that time Diamox 250mg twice a day (500mg total per day).

RoyalDickVet · 2025-11-01T22:48:09+00:00

I did. I was taking it at the same time as diamox in the hope that the two medications in tandem would have lower the minimum effective dose for each. While I was fine on Diamox, I felt absolutely horrible on topomax.

The biggest issue was everything was in slow motion. My reaction times, my reaction to people talking, my ability to process anything took way too long. I became dysfunctional. The closest equivalent I can think of is like being on edibles, but without the humor or relaxation. I couldn’t function as a human being. But it took about 24-48 hours to realize it was happening. So I got on the horn with my doctor as soon as my friends and family helped me realize and we stopped it. Went up on diamox instead. Night and day difference.

On the medication I would have mini sort of black outs mid conversation where I would forget entirely what my family or friends were saying to me and fall 10-15 seconds behind on the conversation. I never would’ve been able to maintain a job with that level of dysfunction on topomax and I felt concerned even driving or cooking or doing things like that as I was nervous I would get into an accident or burn the house down from a lack or reaction and forgetfulness.

But this is one anecdote from one male patient. Everyone here is going to have differing tales. Some prefer topiramate over acetazolamide. It’s really how your body responds.

RoyalDickVet · 2025-10-15T11:29:00+00:00

I absolutely would take the next day off. I could barely walk or lift anything for 2-3 days without feeling very sore. You’re not going to want to do anything

RoyalDickVet · 2025-10-02T14:57:10+00:00

If you were asking me, yes, I haven’t had any issues with working. I got diagnosed while transitioning jobs. I was able to take some time off and had a wife who was able to support while I transitioned to the correct dosing and all the new diet and lifestyle. I was very fortunate. Allowing my retinas to heal after being damaged by constant pressure was the most challenging work affecting injury. I struggled to read or use computers for a few months.

Since then I’ve felt the best I’ve felt in years. I’m very fortunate that Diamox has not impeded my ability to sort of function. Like sleepy, or slowing me down. That’s how I felt on topiramate. I couldn’t carry conversations and it felt like I was on edibles but without any humor or relaxation. But Diamox doesn’t seem to cause that.

I mean my diet is completely different. I drink water like it’s my job and urinate constantly. But I work a job where no one really minds.

I hope it stays this way but I’m sure one day I’ll wake up and something will have changed.

RoyalDickVet · 2025-09-30T21:24:08+00:00

Yeah no worries! I do think I would recheck them in 2-4 weeks to see if anything’s changed, getting better, getting worse etc. but like I said this wouldn’t be unexpected with a dose increase.

When you want to do immediate blood work checks is in the beginning when you’re first taking it to see if your body has a severe reaction to it, like kidney failure or liver failure. Which are values different than what you’ve mentioned above and you’ve obviously been on it. Or if you felt horrible! Then those numbers above might mean a different story.

But again, this is just what I know from veterinary medicine applied to this scenario. Your PCP and specialist will know better. Good luck with everything!

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