Psuedopapilledema - or what I like to call "An Outie"

You ever hear of a particular medical anomaly and wonder "What the.. ?" Well I have.. and Psuedopapilledema is one of them. I call it an 'outie', you know.. like a belly button? innie vs. outie?

Let me give you a link:

Medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/pseudopapilledema

There are many definitions listed there from many different medical dictionaries, but the most common definition is : anomalous elevation of the optic disk. Typically the back of the eye has a valley in it, that looks somewhat like a drain. That is where all the nerves come together and exit the back of the eye. Sometimes, usually if there is something pushing on the back of the eye, this valley turns into a mountain

A few years ago we switched eye doctors for my daughter. I was a bit grumpy about it because I liked the one we were using, but this new one (we'll call him Dr. I) was covered by her father's insurance. The first visit was very thorough. They even did a scan of the back of the eye. That's where the fun started. The tech did the scan, but when the doctor looked at it he said it was inverted and needed to be redone. So they re-did it. When he viewed the correct scan, the questions started, and my fear increased. The main question was about headaches. Did she have a lot of them? Did they not like to go away? Thankfully, the answer was no. Headaches are very rare, and are usually fully explainable (like when she was hit in the head with a rifle).

So Dr. I was majorly intrigued and excited. You ever see a doctor get excited about something? It's kinda fun.. and scary all at the same time. He said he had heard about this but had never seen it in real life. He also said that for the next few years we would run a new test each year and monitor it to see if there was a change, but that for the time being, there was nothing to worry about. If persistent and frequent headaches started to call him IMMEDIATELY. We have done five different tests and the full scan twice now, and nothing has changed. Not the shape or size.

THIS is what got him so excited:

This 'mountain' is normally a 'valley'.

We talked a lot with the doctor as to why this happened, what causes it, and what we can do about it. Since she is not showing any signs of a brain tumor (the typical thing that pushes on the nerve), he figures it is a genetic condition. More than likely, her optic nerve is longer than normal and ran out of room behind the eye, so it's pushing into the eye.

To put is simply... my daughter has a lot of nerve.