Headaches, Now frighten

[Gigson]

first i need to explain my situation. im a 24 year old male working in security buisiness where i need to be in first class health. One problem with this  is that when i need some other health care i need first to talk to doctor that works in our firm. problem is that he is able do decrease my health rating and i automaticly stay withouth job and medical insurance so i need some advice before i take any step further.


first my physical traits. I am 24 year old male, white, 190 cm tall and 110-115 kilo. in wheight almost top condition ex smoker, quit six months ago, ocasional weekend alcohol drinker and ocasional marihuana user. (two or three times / month) frequent stress, living in semi industrial town. I passed medical exam in january.

ok now for symptoms i have mild headaches and it is more discomfort than headache. they are localized on small area on several places on left side of the occipital temporal and parieteal parts. It feal like pain is near surface. in a last two days i  developed mild numbnes in left side of  face  but i have history of facial nerve inflamation. pain comes and goes away. there is no pain after i wake up. pain starts when i start daily activities and it ease up  when resting, no pain when walking also. facial numbnes is only  noticable when i close both my eyes and it does not  make me dificulties when making expresions  like smiling.I need to mention one detail that happened few moths ago that can be connected with theese symptoms. In abaout four or five months ago i had a wierd symptom that made me stop working out. The thing is that while i was dooing exercises i started to have headace. I neeed  to describe situation. I was dooing incline bench press exercise when i felt a sudden sharp pain in back left side where head and neck join. second day pain was more severe and third day it made me completely  quit working out. Pain was trigered ONLY by exercise. Later i didnt had any symptoms apart from short ocasional pains such as one that i described above  untill 3 days ago when i felt discomfort in described place.


in my family there is no history of malignant deseases that i am aware of but there is rich history of strokes in family, great grandfather, and grandfather died from stroke,
one grandmother survived severe stroke while other survived mild stroke. i did some bload, and urine tests. My sedmentation was a bit higher than normal 13/30 and that is only thing that was out of referal values


i also did hormonal panel for: _estradiol = 114, _LH = 1.00, FSH = 1.89, prolactin = 13.20 and test. = 3, 64


i really would apriciate if you could give me your opinion

[echinacea]

I just found out yesterday that I have a intrapulmonary shunt....could be a PVM...I had a TEE test to look for a PFO. I have a history of migraines with aura, where I lose my right upper vision field right before the headache.

All my doctors have always said, it's just a migraine, don't worry about it. Then, I find out by changing doctors that I am at a higher risk for stroke just  because of the migraines!

I have a permanent blind spot in my right eye, in the same field of vision. That happened 3 years ago and at the time the doctors said it couldn't possibly have anything to do with my migraines.

Then, earlier this year I had hearing loss that was migraine-related, but it has come back to normal.

That's why I had the TEE. My neurologist has passed me back to my internist now. Apparently it is a small shunt...don't know much yet. I'm not overly worried, and I don't have migraines frequently, thank goodness. I just don't want to lose any more of my vision or anything else.

I'm on a baby aspirin a day and they took me immediately off birth control pills. I'm not a smoker and don't have high blood pressure. The neurologist said that he has never seen this in an otherwise healthy patient.

[I am WHO.]

You are very welcome.  I am glad to be able to help someone.  I hope everything turns out well for you.  

[Gigson]

thank you for your posts i really apriciate your help and i must admit man feal relived when reading text like this ... thank you

[I am WHO.]

I think you should repost this question on the "Ask a doctor Forum" because I don't know if they get around to reading this one.  Here is what I know.  A headache on one side is usually a migraine (usually.)  I have had migraines my whole life and they just finally discovered a left-right shunt.  There are different types of shunts, the most common is a PFO.  A PFO-patent foramen ovale is a congenital defect in the heart.  It is something that should have sealed when you were born, but often doesn't.  My shunt is a PAVM, much less common.  PFO'S and PAVM's are fixable...not a major surgery.  You'll have to www.ask.com all of this, or you can post back a question.  

What happens is a small amount of blood is able to skip the alveoli of the lungs.  This blood does not get oxygenated or filtered.  CO2, other chemicals, bacteria and blood clots can pass to the brain and other organs, causing problems like migraines, brain lesions and strokes.  Don't get scared.  You haven't had a stroke or anything, I'm pretty sure.  PFO's are very common (1 in 5 people.) They are usually very small and only open when the person bears down ( does some sort of strenuous excercise.)  This may explain your headache with excercise.  It will probably be worse for excercises where your head is lowered, like for the inclined bench press.  That's what I feel might be going on with you.  But I'm not a doctor.  Just a person who has read ALOT and who also has migraines.  

The test is really simple and inexpensive.  It is called a Doppler Bubble study, or a Contrast Echocardiography.  They inject small microbubbles into your vein and a ultrasound sensor on the chest determines whether some of these bubbles enter the left-sided chambers of the heart.  It they appear immediately it is a PFO.  If there is a 3-5 beat lag, then it is a PAVM.  They repeat the test while you are bearing down, because most PFO's are closed at resting.  If the bubbles do not pass through, then the test is negative and you are in the clear.  If the test is positive you are still in the clear because the procedure to fix a PFO is simple and safe.  If it is a PAVM then you are going down a longer road, but it is still treatable.  

If your migraines get severe enough they can affect your health in other ways....like you may not be eating as much or sleeping regularly.  I think these headaches warrant a trip to the neurologist.  I hope that your work will not give you hassle over this.  This is what your insurance is for...to keep you healthy so you can work.  This is not a serious heart condition or something that's going to make you croak when your chasing down a perp.  If you have a PFO you should know and have it treated because you may eventually have a serious complication.  Someone with reocurrent migraines should also have routine CT's and MRI's to rule out other causes, like a brain AVM, lesions, tumors....you know, the works.

In the meantime, try to do more aerobic excercise and avoid as much straining, especially when your head is not upright.  Lifting anything can bring on an immediate migraine for me.  And migraines are vascular...meaning they involve dilation and constriction of the blood vessels in the brain.  Putting your head down while you are straining is really going to affect the blood pressure in the brain whether you have a shunt or not.  So keep your head above your heart for now.  Whew.  That was a lot.  I hope it helps you.  Good luck.