Does this sound like I have a brain tumor?

Hi, I'm hoping to get some answers on what this could possibly be based on my symptoms and what my chances of survival are if it is a brain tumor. I'm really scared.

I'm 22/female now. When I was 14 or 15, I went to bite into my lunch one day and noticed that I couldn't taste anything. Then at 17, I started having random dizzy spells, which weren't really "dizzy" spells, but I didn't really know how to describe them. I'd just feel really off-balanced all of a sudden. Then, over the next 5 years, more alarming symptoms started showing up. I have a really bad stabbing pain in my head almost 24/7, and it almost always occurs around the same spot on the right side of my head. I feel off-balanced most of the time, have trouble concentrating (usually when under fluorescent lighting, I think), have memory problems (mostly short-term, but long-term as well), have had a few episodes where I smelled things other people didn't smell, have trouble remembering words and often will type the wrong word, have pressure or pain in my chest a lot, sometimes have shaky hands (this used to happen a lot more often, now it only happens once in a blue moon or when I get really scared about something), sometimes bright lighting makes my eyes hurt and sometimes it makes them feel unfocused (that's the best I know how to describe it), etc.

I know these symptoms all sound neurological in origin, but are they almost entirely certain to point toward a brain tumor? :/ I've had people suggest epilepsy, but I never had even a hint of issues with epilepsy as a child or throughout most of my teens.

Thanks.

[Christopher R Newey, DO]

Thanks for using the forum. I am happy to address your questions, and my answer will be based on the information you provided here. Please make sure you recognize that this forum is for educational purposes only, and it does not substitute for a formal office visit with a doctor.

Without the ability to examine and obtain a history, I can not tell you what the exact cause of the symptoms is. However I will try to provide you with some useful information.

Without further information about your headache, it is difficult to provide you with adequate information. There are multiple headache types and each has a specific treatment. For example, a variant of migraine called basilar migraine presents with several hours of vertigo (or dizziness) associated with nausea, light-sensitivity, and sometimes other symptoms. Headache may or may not be present. The treatment in this case is a type of medication called calcium channel blocker, such as verapamil, which is actually used to treat blood pressure but works in type of basilar migraine as well.

It is important for you to understand that if you have not experienced headaches in the past and you are now having new head pains, seeing a neurologist is a good idea, just to make sure there is nothing serious causing this pain. I would suggest that you obtain an MRI of the brain with and without contrast. This would answer your question about a brain tumor, but would also allow for evaluation of other neurological illnesses (such as multiple sclerosis).

Lastly, anxiety can have many of the same symptoms you describe. For this, I would suggest you follow up with a primary care physician to discuss your symptoms and also have a basic metabolic workup including blood chemistry, blood counts, and thyroid function panel.

Thank you for this opportunity to answer your questions, I hope you find the information I have provided useful, good luck.

[Wondermum]

Have you ever considered this could be a form of migraine you are getting ... Does any family member suffer from them?

I get migraines on a fairly regular basis, and believe me they can present themselves in the most weird and wonderful ways, mimicking all sorts of horrible neurological diseases.

[superduper89]

I have sort of considered it. I used to tell people the head pain was caused by migraines when it first started happening, but I really doubt that all of these problems are symptomatic of migraines. They're just too frequent, as in, some are always present and the rest are almost always present. Everyone I know who has migraines gets them and then they eventually go away; my problems never really go away. The off-balancedness, for instance, is always present. It's sometimes worse, but I always feel like I just can't balance my weight as I used to be able to. The same is true with the difficulty concentrating; I haven't been able to fully concentrate on and comprehend something for years. I've developed strategies around it, like I've perfected my skimming abilities when taking tests in school so that I can recognize keywords and figure out an answer without really understanding the question. Or, in film classes, since I know I'm not going to be able to pay attention and follow the plot of the movie, I read summaries of it online so I can participate in class discussion. When in conversation with people, I've kind of learned to nod along and laugh based on social/body language cues even if I'm not really following what they're saying. It's hard to explain how my brain works these days. I just know that I've developed a lot of strategies around the cognitive issues I now have.

It also literally just feels like there's something in my skull. As I said, the pain is in a very specific spot on the side of my head (above my ear..kind of). I don't know.