Hi, I am 30 years old and was diagnosed with Tolosa Hunt Syndrome last year. I was thirty-five weeks pregnant with twins when I began having severe headaches. I attributed them to pregnancy migraines or my neck being out of place. Then, I began having double vision and loss of vision. I was so sick from the headaches that I didn't give the vision problem much thought. I went to my optometrist who referred me to a neurologist, but I couldn't get an appointment for another couple weeks.
I went to the ER (at my family's insistence) and the OB on call said the babies were fine and gave me some Tylenol with Codeine for the headache. He seemed baffled by the double vision, but didn't do any tests (my regular OB was out of town that weekend).
After a week of these symptoms, I finally contacted my OB who requested that I go to the hospital immediately. I was actually in labor - I had NO idea I was because I'd been having contractions throughout the pregnancy and was in so much pain from the headaches that I didn't realize how often I was having them. My OB did an emergency c-section within a few hours - two weeks earlier than planned.
My blood pressure sky rocketed and they thought I had pre-eclampsia. They ultrasounded my legs and artery in my neck for clots. The next morning they did a CAT Scan and MRI to look for clots. My sons couldn't breathe on their own and were being shipped to a NICU downstate - the doctors decided to ship me too because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me.
When I got to the hospital, they did an MRI, Lumbar Puncture, took 12 vials of blood, EEG, and x-rays. There were 5 neurologists standing around me looking in my eyes and asking me questions. They tentatively diagnosed me with Tolosa Hunt Syndrome, which they admitted they did not know a lot about since it is very rare (1 in a million people get it).
They described it as inflammation of the optic nerves in my left eye. I was treated with massive doses of IV steroids for 5 days. Then, I was given pills to take. Their goal was to taper me off the steroids (I took 7 pills one week, 6 the next, 5 the next, etc.). They were optimistic that my vision would return to normal (I really wasn't).
It did after about 1 month. It was gradual. The neurologists could not tell me what caused the syndrome - they mentioned maybe a compromised immune system from the pregnancy, but could not pinpoint it exactly.
I am hoping maybe someone else with Tolosa Hunt could share their story. I am wondering what the chances of it coming back are - or if it was a sole incident brought on by the twin pregnancy. A year later, I am now having some other problems that may or may not be related to this. There is so little information out there that even the specialists can't help me.
Again, my symptoms were: severe headache, loss of vision, double vision, drooping eyelid, dialated pupil