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My grandad Peter Kilding, or Dardoo as I like to call him has decided to shave his beloved whiskers for charity, he has been growing them all year round and before giving them the chop earlier in the summer he decided not to and would like to raise money for IIH by holding the big shave off on Christmas this year. He has also said in the mean time, after he has shaved he has decided to now not to touch his hair or beard to Christmas Day 2014 and repeat the process to raise more money for IIH, which is a neurological condition that only affects 1 in 100,000 people and unfortunate I'm one of then!

Here's my story for those of you who don't know, my name is Jessica and I'm 22 years old, ever since being pregnant with my beautiful son Zachary I had the worst headaches imaginable, I was sent back and forth to the midwife and dr during pregnancy and eventually have birth to my son early via emergency c-section due to severe pre-eclampsia and I have never been right since, my headaches built up from having the worse ones possible from a few a week to every single day all day long until I was took to hospital on Zachary's first birthday and had Bells Palsy which was temporary facial paralysis.  However the Bells palsy had nothing to do with my headaches but finally the drs were listening to me when I talked about the headaches (that to me were worse than a migraine and hangover combined), since April I have had three MRI scans and a lumbar puncture on my spine which gave me the diagnosis of Idiopathic intracranial hypertension, which means increased pressure on the brain with no known cause. I basically have way too much spinal fluid with no where for it to go, and after seven more lumbar punctures, medication that failed for my self, I had my first shunt fitted in October to drain fluid from my spine to my stomach, after it failed I had my second shunt fitted two weeks later, and had another operation for a shunt revision Boxing Day 2014 after being  admitted on Christmas Day an personally missing the big shave!

Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH) is a neurological condition of unknown cause defined by increased intracranial pressure (ICP) around the brain without the presence of tumour or disease.

The space around the brain is filled with water like fluid (Cerebrospinal Fluid - CSF). If, due to a variety of factors, the pressure around the brain rises then the space containing the fluid cannot expand. It is this excessively high CSF pressure that produces the symptoms of IIH.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story up to now. 

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