How serious is the low sodium thing?
I got diagnosed last week with IIH out of nowhere. Basically I was getting a routine eye exam, they noticed some swelling behind my eyes, told me to get an MRI, got the MRI and was told to go to the ER immediately for a lumbar puncture. Pressure was a 36 and I got diagnosed with IIH. No one at the hospital seemed to understand how it worked, what it meant for me, etc, and I was rushed out of there and told to follow up with primary.
Had a follow up with my doctor and she’s been obsessing about my weight + salt intake. Told me I cannot go out to any restaurants, cannot have processed food, cannot have any fats, and I need to keep my salt intake below 1500mg a day. Did not really explain why. This whole thing feels like I’m being unnecessarily tortured and I just wanted to see if this is actually that serious?
It also doesn’t help that I’m in a small/mid sized town that is over capacity and no one seems to have time to explain anything to me. I tried calling a bigger city hospital about an hour away and they said they only see internal referrals.
Would love any advice because like I said this all happened within the last week and has turned my life completely upside down, especially with the no salt thing. It is really wearing down on me.