Blurry Vision, Headache , and Foggy Brain

Hello and welcome! congrats on your baby!

I had exactly the same symptoms with pni. I'm not medically qualified in any shape or form but for me pni started essentially with problems with my eyes (pressure behind one of my eyes, sensitivitiy to light, eyesight worsened). This was followed by feeling really spaced out - I guess this is the foggy feeling you've described - and headaches as well as other strange and inexplicable symptoms. No one could tell me what it was. I visited several eye clinics, a neurologist, had countless blood tests, a ct scan of my sinuses - all came back ok.

It sounds as if you drs have been very thorough and of course it's reassuring that all is ok.

How are you feeling in yourself? I imagine having preeclampsia was a very stressful time - this kind of thing can be a trigger for pni.

With regards to treatments, I found that actually a lot of my symptoms were anxiety related. Perhaps relaxation techniques would help you. Often even if we consciously don't realise we are stressed we breathe quicker (fight or flight response) - something to get that down can help.

Talking therapies can be very useful to offload stresses and strains and learning techniques to manage symptoms.

RE: fogginess the best thing I found was actually exercise. The endorphins helped hugely and would clear this symptom. A nurse told me that this is a depression symptom.

Meds are also an option. I took antidepressants as I suffered for about 4 months dreadfully (I was hugely anxious). However there are cons to this for instance you shoudl take them for a mininmum of 6 months after you feel better, they can have unpleasant symptoms initially, sometimes it can take a go or to to find meds that work. This was defintately the right course of action for me but perhaps try other options first? Of course this is your decision.

Please keep talking. I hope this has reassured youx

so to this day do you still have the symptoms ?

No I dont. I got pni about 11 years ago - after 4 months of not feeling any better but also of not getting any treatment , I took antids. most of the symptoms like headaches , tingling , eye issues lifted quite quickly after the antids took effect. The pressure behind the eye took longer. The fogginess woukd return intermittently sometimes due to tiredness , other times pmt or on occasions sermingly without a cause. I do find that now when I'm very tired I occasionally get the foggy feeling.

Do you find variations in how you feel during the day?

well for me I got these symptoms right after I gave birth to my daughter so I went back to the doctors thinking I had postpartum preeclampsia but they said I didn't so I went back again and they told me it was a migraine and gave me all these meds that did nothing , all day everyday since my delivery I have the symptoms the vision will get worse if I go to the store because of the light and some days I feel better than others but the symptoms are still very much there ..ive researched a lot before coming on this site and I had found a site where women that had preeclampsia were having the same thing and that 10 or 15 years later they were still having it which scares me because feeling this way is just so ugh ! who determined that u had pni?

hi

My gp diagnosed me but on the basis of my mental state. The longer the physical symptoms lingered the worse my anxiety got to the point where I couldn't sleep, eat, go out and I used to cry all the time. However, the gp I saw for the antids did actually take my physical symptoms seriously in that she tried various tests referral to specialists to ascertain a cause. As they all came back negative she said she'd have to put it down to pni.

Try not to think too far ahead in the future - of course it's a frightening prospect that these symptoms do linger for some. But there are still many courses of action you can take.

Perhaps try exercise? I see you are 5 weeks postpartum so I imagine don't do anything too strenuous, but even a brisk walk that gets your heart racing just might help. Also keep a diary - write down how you feel emotionally and physically. At the same time try to give yourself a break from worrying about this. I know this is easier said than done but make a start by incorporating distraction techniques. So do puzzles, meet a friend ..anything that stops you thinking. Sometimes you get stressed even if you dont' realise it and this causes weird symptoms. Try relaxation techniques too. I can give you a few ideas on those if you like.

lookign after a baby is very hard work - do you have anyone who can give you a breather? Do make a little bit of time just for you if you can. Sometimes this will just give you a lift.

As you only had baby 5 weeks ago perhaps it is your body getting back to normal or a reaction to changes in hormones? The main thing is not to panic and get yourself in a spriral of anxiety (which is what I did). I'm not dismissing what you're going through at all as I know what's it's like.x