Help

[tirihashi]

My girlfriend has recently told me she occasionally "blanks out" for a few minutes and after words she feels horrible. She is tired and has massive headaches and back aches. She tells me they don't happen as often anymore but she thinks they are getting greater in intensity. Pain medicine doesn't even help the pain so all i can do is distract her from it until it goes away.

She has gone to the doctor before but they dismissed it as nothing and it's never been looked at again. I'm worried about her and want to do all I can to help her. Please help me,I am very worried about her and only wish that she didn't have to suffer like this no matter how often it happens.

[tirihashi]

After I posted this she told me that a doctor told her it was low iron and not to worry so we are trying it out just upping the iron in her diet and see if it helps..I just have issues with the doctors in the town where she lives since lately they don't seem to be doing their job as well as they probably should...But if her new diet doesn't stop them I will try and get her into a doctor to get it checked out further.
Being an ex-epileptic myself and having looked into epilepsy further it was my immediate thought as well.
Thank you both very much

[Dr Sharma]

Hi there. These could be absence or petit mal seizures with a post ictal confusion and headache. Consult a neurologist at the earliest who would investigate with EEG. These headaches could be due to stress, anxiety, migraines or tension headaches, sinus headaches radiating to the ear, headache usually front of head, on one or both  the sides of temples along with nausea, vomiting, irritability, low blood pressure, sensitivity to lights, sound, etc. aura associated with migraines could include blind spots, blindness in half of your visual field, paresthesia, weakness or visual hallucinations. Your vision needs detailed testing by an ophthalmologist. Hypertension and hypotension need to be checked. An MRI brain is warranted to rule out any intracranial lesion particularly aneurysm and MRI spine for ruling out cervical spondylosis and degenerative disc disease.  Temporal tendinitis mimics migraines including TMJ pain temporal headaches, tooth sensitivity, neck and shoulder pain. Treatment includes injecting local anesthetics and other medicines, moist heat muscle relaxants and NSAIDs along with physiotherapy. Multiple sclerosis would also need to be excluded. Treatment for migraines include drugs that prevent the attack like anti convulsants and drugs which treat an attack like triptans, ergots etc your queries should pertain to all these possible differential diagnoses. Trigeminal neuralgia needs to be considered. If the neurologist and radiologist are suspecting a cerebral aneurysm, they can confirm with cerebral angiography and clipping of the aneurysm could be done. Hope this helps. Take care.

[caregiver222]

Assuming she is not on any medication that could cause this problem, what you describe could be what are called "petit mal" seizures.

I find it hard to believe a physician dismissed her complaints. Clearly she needs a neurological evaluation by another physician, a specialist, to include MRI/MRA to rule out structural issues and EEG.

The biggest problem is her falling down on a train platform or losing consciousness while driving or on a bicycle.Usually such episodes are preceded by an "aura" usually a sensation on the tongue.

Sometimes they are triggered by flickering lights and polarized eyeglasses help solve the problem.

The next time this happens a visit to an emergency room would be in order.