Dizziness brought on by visual movement, headaches

[PetiteMac]

I am a 45 y.o. causasion female. I don't smoke or drink. I recently had some dizziness, especially when seeing quick movements. I also had tingling on top of my head and a headache, usually on the left side of my head in the front. With a feeling like someone has their hand on top of my head. My vision seems a bit off, but not much. Seem to have new floaters in my eyes, but I could just be more aware of them now. This isn't all the time, but comes and goes. I have had mild headaches, but no dizziness or pressure in the past week or so. I also have a twitching in my lower eyelids, and had slight swelling in my left eye and on the left side of my face but just for 1 day. The swelling was obvious, but had gone down by time I saw the neuro 3 hours later. I have no ear or sinus problems, no nausea.
I have a strong family history of intracranial aneurysm (mother and aunt had them rupture). I have been hypothyroid since I was 13 and take armour thyroid. A year ago I was in a car accident and have 2 herniated disks in my neck/back. Between C4 and 5, and 7 and 8, I believe. I go to a chiro who really helps with the pain.
I have always been very healthy and this is really scaring me. Neurologist did all the in-office test and said I check out very well, but he wants an MRI and MRA with the dye thing done just to be safe becuase of my family history. I had a slight temp at 99.6. Any ideas of what is going on? I go for the mri/mra today. Can anyone give me some idea of what may be happening to me? Thanks so much!
Scared In Georgia

[mtchina]

I'm having really strange symptoms, and very similar to yours. I'll post the following. Sorry it's so long, with the strange symbols due to the cutting and pasting. I've been posting this everywhere trying to get some help. Am scheduled for an MRA next week. Condition getting worse:-(

Please help! 30 year old male, US born, currently living in China. It has been almost two months since these strange, almost unbearable, symptoms suddenly appeared. They are testing my career, my marriage, and my sanity.

In early October I woke up one day (regular night's sleep) with a really stiff neck. Didn't think much of it, except that maybe I slept on it wrong. Tried to shake it off and get through the day. Following morning woke up with a mild headache (over the eyes and into the right side above the ear), and even worse neck pain. The pain was more pressure than throbbing. This continued, non-stop! A few days later, sick of feeling, well...sick, I decided to go out with friends. Had a few beers, nothing out of the ordinary, and woke up the next morning with a horrible migraine (I'm not a chronic migraine sufferer). I began vomiting for the next few hours, finally could take took a short nap and awoke with that same mild pressure headache and neck pain, but no more vomiting. Went to the doctor the following day and explained everything. Told him I have bad sinuses and he prescribed an antibiotic for a sinus infection?? This didn't help at all! Then, the lightheadedness began!! Ugh, this was even worse than the damn headache. Kind of like a floating, on a ship, foggy head feeling

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-PW]

MRA or angiograms to screen for aneurysms is a controversial subject and no clear answer exists. In patients with a strong family history(like you have) or certain conditions that perdispose to aneurysms like polycystic kidney disease, it may be reasonable to do a screening MRA or angiogram. Depending on the size of the aneyurysm, it may just be left alone rather than intervened on if small (usually less than about 7mm)

I cannot confirm if your symptoms are due to an aneurysm or something else - there is no clear statement in yoru history thatindicates so. Like wise I cannot benmore specific on the fever as this is more commonly due to non-neurological reasons like an infection. However, fever can beassocaited with neurological diease.

Symptoms to be wary of are, theworst headache of your life, a stiff neck, weakness or tingling of one side of thebody, or a lapse consciousness

The MRI/MRA will hopefully answer some of your questions

Good luck

[sombok]

i have been feeling very dizzy and imbalanced lately. have not idea what is causing this. this has been going on for more the 2 months. i also have severe pains in the upper part of my neck as well as headaches. i have done an MRI and blood tests and they all came out negative>where sould i go to have this diagnosed?

[PetiteMac]

I just got back from the neurologist. My mri came back normal, as did my bloodwork. I don't have the results from the mra yet but the dr said he fully expects it to be normal, too! All this makes me feel great, except it does not explain why I was dizzy or the other symptoms I was having. And I can tell you now, I am not one of those people who look for something to be wrong. I try and explain away everything. On that note, I asked him if the problems could have come from the 2 herniated disks in my neck and he said yes, it could very well be from that. So, I am waiting on the call about the mra. I hate it that anyone else is having problems, so I hope you are better and nothing serious is wrong. It is so scary when things happen you can't explain.

[bassadict69]

I have been having some of the same symptoms. What did your tests show?

[jan]

"I am a 45 y.o. causasion female. I don't smoke or drink. I recently had some dizziness, especially when seeing quick movements. I also had tingling on top of my head and a headache, usually on the left side of my head in the front. With a feeling like someone has their hand on top of my head."

This is me, except I am soon to be 49.  I actually fell into my husband and didn't even know I was falling!  I am glad he was there and I didn't hit the deck.

I told my eye dr. and he said to tell my neuro.  I, too, have herniated discs in my neck (stenosis, nerve damage, etc).  I had an MRI and there were 3 lesions, but I don't think that they are related at all.  I've known about them for 7 yrs.  (I was once misdiag. with MS).

I was thinking maybe my head feelings, which are the same as you described (except the tingling can be anywhere and travel around head), are atypical migraines.  I will ask my neuro about this possibility.  At one time she wanted to keep me on seiz. med due to this.

I am going to wait until my reg. 6 mos. check up to tell neuro.  I will be interested to see the dr's response here.