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Subject: Re: Fibromyalgia, migraine, seizures
Forum: The Neurology and Neurosurgery Forum
Topic Area:
Posted by CCF Neuro MD *!* on December 16, 1997 at 21:34:28:
In Reply to: Fibromyalgia, migraine, seizures posted by Joan Fisher on November 11, 1997 at 00:29:00:

: Here is our 15 year old daughter's medical history for the past year. Please
let us know if we have exhausted all possibilities to get her back 100%.

Fall 1996 - Chronic throat infection

December 1996 - period which lasted 4 weeks. Docotor put her on birth control
3 pills per day for one week, then two months after

January 1997 - tonsils and adenoids removed. Never bounced back after surgery.
Migraine, fatigue, numbness, loss of vision, stumbling, all-over body spasm
and pain.


After 6 weeks of our persistence, she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. She attended
school about 3 weeks from Janury to June. After trial and error, she responded well to
Zoloft and physical therapy.

When school began this fall, she seemed to be doing beautifully. She never feels 100%
but was excited that first week of school and happy to be "back to normal".
Labor Day weekend she began having what we would described as "seizures". This lasted
for about three weeks. A telemetry was done, and the diagnosis was stress.
She has not had any more episodes, but is back on birth control because of excessive
bleeding. Now she is experiencing migarine headaches prior to her period which do not
to Imitrex. She has now missed more school and is becoming increasingly
disgusted with her ordeal.

Her goal is to get off medication, be able to play sports and enjoy life as
it was one year ago. This was a vibrant, happy, 14 year old one year ago and we
feel she's aged 10 years.

Today she is the best she's been in weeks, and each day is a gift. We pray
that we may be seeing the end of her ordeal, but fear there may be recurrences
which are getting more and more difficult to deal with.

If there are any suggestions you can give us, we would truly appreciate it.
She is also meeting with a neuropsychiatrist weekly, but we all feel this
really is not helping.

=
It sound as though your daughter has a number of separate problems which appear
to be feeding into each other. The problem with heavy periods I will
leave aside as being outside the expertise of a neurologist, have you sen
a gynaecologist ? It would be ideal if this could be dealt with without
medication and you should have all possible options reviewed with a
specialist.
The pattern of headaches occurring before period does sound like a variant
of migrane but the poor response to Imitrex is disappointing, could this
also be a manifestation of stress.
Stress appears to be a major underlying problem in many of your
daughters problems and should not be underestimated,. Stress is a major
contributing factor in people who carry a diagnosis of fibromyalgia
and is particularly evident in patient with seizures of non-epileptic origon
The diagnosis of these "seizures" is very suggestive of enormous stress
levels or deep seated psychological distress. For this reason I feel
that you should stress the neuropsychological side of your approach
to this situation as stress seems in the end to underly many of the problems.
I am unsure as to its influence on menstrual abnormalities but this would be a
question for a gynaecologist. In summary therefore do not lose faith in
your neuropsychologist as this may lead you to the root of the problem.
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