As if you needed a reason to watch House?

Aside from Hugh Laurie being beautiful (and yes, I loved him as Stewart Little's dad too), there will be a disease that's very close to me as a guest star. Chiari Malformation is often a genetic disorder, neural tube defect I think, that happens in babies. But a person can acquire Chiari, and it is this form that affects many people I know.

As I've mentioned before I have Intracranial Hypertension.... too much spinal fluid. Like hydrocepahalus, this can cause chronic headache, back pain, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, and in it's worst form, blindness. Pain meds don't take care of neurological pain, and there are no meds available to make the body produce less/metabolize more spinal fluid. Two of the invasive ways they can deal with it is mulitple spinal taps for treatment, and two kinds of shunt, one kinds starts in the brain and the other in the spine, to take away the excess spinal fluid. A Chiari Malformation can be caused from removing too much fluid. Imagine the hole in your skull that your spinal column comes out of. Chiari is where the brain gets sucked over/down into that hole, which means not enough fluid in the spine, but too much in the brain because it has no where to go. So, if you are over producing to begin with, you are in a world of hurt when it has less room to go. (I hope I explained that right).

I'm fairly lucky in that my sight is doing okay still, I've only had two spinal taps (where others can have one a week), and I'm working very hard to prevent surgery. So, watch House, Monday May 3rd, and help raise a little awareness.

And keep your eyes out... I'll hopefully be asking for some creative assistance in the very near future!

I applaud you for working your face painting while also dealing w/ an illness. Thank you for the awareness. I love/hate House(I hate him so much I love him). I especially like when Hugh Laurie talks & you realize he has his accent.

I liked him as the Prince Regent on Blackadder the Third! Still hard to take him seriously.

House is good though... they mentioned the disease my brother had once - Tuberous Scleroisis (as in the patient DIDN'T have it)...

They wrongly diagnosed someone with what I have too, and called it by it's old name.

They do a lot of wrong diagnosing... but that's the exciting part, if you are NOT the patient.

I love House!!! I will watch for this!