LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 2, 2026) \u2014\u00a0For more than a year, Jennifer Highland lived her life in halves.<\/p>\n
Each morning, she went to work, teaching preschool and kindergarten as she had for decades. By early afternoon, she was home \u2014 not by choice, but because the pain had become unbearable. What began as ringing in her ears slowly progressed into daily headaches and migraines that worsened the longer she stayed upright.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could work until noon, and that was it,\u201d Highland said. \u201cAfter that, I\u2019d come home with a migraine and have to lie down. That was my whole life for 14 months.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she lay flat, the pain eased. When she stood up, it surged back \u2014 a hallmark sign of a rare and often underdiagnosed condition called intracranial hypotension, caused by low pressure in the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are headaches that get significantly worse when patients go from lying down to standing,\u201d said\u00a0David Dornbos III, M.D.,<\/a>\u00a0a neurosurgeon at\u00a0UK HealthCare\u2019s Kentucky Neuroscience Institute<\/a>. \u201cThey\u2019re debilitating, and because the symptoms can be vague, patients often struggle for months or even years before getting answers.\u201d<\/p>\n In Highland\u2019s case, the cause was especially elusive. Her spinal fluid wasn\u2019t leaking into surrounding tissue, as is more common. Instead, it was being siphoned directly into a vein through an abnormal connection known as a cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF, venous fistula.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an abnormal connection where the spinal fluid essentially gets sucked into the venous system,\u201d Dornbos said. \u201cSo instead of staying where it belongs, patients are constantly losing spinal fluid, which causes their symptoms.\u201d<\/p>\n Finding that connection can be difficult. Patients often undergo multiple MRIs, CT scans and specialized imaging studies before the fistula is identified \u2014 if it\u2019s identified at all.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause this diagnosis is relatively new, it\u2019s frequently missed,\u201d Dornbos said. \u201cMany patients start to feel like they\u2019re crazy because all their tests come back negative, but they\u2019re incredibly uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n That uncertainty weighed heavily on Highland.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen no one can find what\u2019s wrong, you start to doubt yourself,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I knew this wasn\u2019t normal.\u201d<\/p>\n Historically, patients with CSF-venous fistulas were either left untreated or referred out of state for major surgery \u2014 often to specialty centers like the Mayo Clinic or Duke University. Surgery typically required an open incision and, in some cases, sacrificing a nerve root.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a really tough trade-off,\u201d Dornbos said. \u201cPatients were often faced with choosing between living with the headache or risking permanent weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, that\u2019s no longer the only option.<\/p>\n UK HealthCare has launched a revamped care pathway for patients with low spinal fluid pressure headaches, bringing together neurology, radiology, pain management and neurosurgery. As part of that effort, Dornbos and his team now offer a minimally invasive, catheter-based procedure to treat CSF-venous fistulas \u2014 a treatment available at only a small number of hospitals nationwide and the only one of its kind in Kentucky.<\/p>\n Using a catheter inserted through a small puncture in the leg, Dornbos navigates to the site of the fistula and seals the abnormal connection with medical adhesive.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no incision, no spinal surgery,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s essentially a pinprick in the leg \u2014 like a glorified IV \u2014 and we can cure the underlying problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Highland underwent the procedure in October. Within days, her symptoms began to resolve.<\/p>\n \u201cBy about three days, I realized something had changed,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I started getting up and moving around, the pain just wasn\u2019t there anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Dornbos said that timeline is typical.<\/p>\n \u201cFor patients we\u2019re able to treat successfully, symptoms improve dramatically within 72 hours,\u201d he said. \u201cBy the two-week follow-up, most are essentially back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, Highland says she feels like herself again \u2014 something she once feared might never happen.<\/p>\n \u201cI went out to see live music for the first time in more than a year,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople asked where I\u2019d been. They had no idea I\u2019d spent so much of that time at home, in bed.\u201d<\/p>\n For Dornbos, stories like Highland\u2019s underscore why expanding access to this care matters.<\/p>\n \u201cThese patients often come to us exhausted \u2014 physically and emotionally,\u201d he said. \u201cEven before we fix the problem, just finding the cause gives them hope again.\u201d<\/p>\n Highland agrees. She hopes sharing her experience will help others recognize the signs \u2014 and seek care sooner.<\/p>\n \u201cIf your headaches get better when you lie down and worse when you stand up, that matters,\u201d she said. \u201cListen to your body and keep pushing for answers.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, those answers \u2014 and treatment \u2014 are available closer to home.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople no longer have to travel halfway across the country for this care,\u201d Dornbos said. \u201cWe can do it here, and we\u2019re seeing lives change because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 2, 2026) \u2014\u00a0For more than a year, Jennifer Highland lived her life in halves. Each…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":["post-270611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}