Brain Tumor?

Hi!

I’m a 17 year old boy who:

-Has had headaches for 4 weeks, they started off bad, I went to the chrio and they eased off a bit but there still there, its there when I wake up in the morning till when I go to sleep, the pain ranges from dull, tight, stabby and they change locations from the front of my head to the sides then to the back. The pain isn’t that bad or debilitation. Sometimes it goes away but it’s mostly there.

-I have pain in my neck, lower and mid back. I sometimes get a cracking/popping sound when I move.

-I have tingling in my right hand and foot and occasionally in my left hand and foot. It gets worse when I sit down.

-I have shaky hands but I’ve had that for years.

-My arms feel kinda weak or feel weird in some way but I haven’t lost movement or strength or anything.

-I’m starting to feel tired and yawing a lot but I’m getting a good nights sleep.


I don’t have blurred vision or nausea or anything like that. I’m hoping it’s not serious but it’s so hard not to freak out and think the worst. I’ve got a doctors appointment tomorrow.

[NaniKai]

Ask your doctor to do an MRI and that will help to determine if anything is going on that's really serious and something to worry about. Talk to him about migraines so that you can rule those out also. I'm a migraine suffferer but mine are also being brought on by my cervical problems in my C5, C6 and C7. Those are vertebrae in the neck and they're bulging right now.
If you're feeling tired, it doesn't really matter what time you go to bed. Are you getting a restful eight hours of sleep. If you're tossing and turning (and you aren't really aware of this) then you aren't getting restful sleep. It all depends on how much REM sleep you're getting. If you are slightly waking up and going back to sleep more than a few times during the night, that's a lot of REM sleep. REM is when you're dozing off to sleep, it stand for Rapid Eye Movement. It's how someone can tell when you're fully asleep, you're eyes stop moving under the eyelids once you're in a deep sleep. (We mothers figure this out when we're checking on our children to see if they're really asleep).
Do not worry though and just remember to ask your doctor to do an MRI or refer you to a Neurologist (head specialist) if he says he can't do one, the Neurologist can. Ask for a sleep study to be done too and that will determine if you're really getting enough sleep. You might have sleep apnea and not be aware of this. Sleep apnea is where you have a long pause in your breathing. This can also make you feel sleepy during the day, my own doctor has this and has to sleep with a C-Pap mask on his face and this forces oxygen into your lungs when you're sleeping so that you don't wake up tired.
Good Luck, ask questions and lots of them when you go to your appointment and let us know what happened.

NaniKai