Maniac eye twitch!

[090308health]

Hi, thanks for answering my previous questions and I hope you can help me w/ this one. I`d also like to say I recently visited the Cleveland clinic (neurosurgery dept.) about the vascular malformation I was recently diagnosed with. After coming to the clinic, Dr. Woo diagnosed me with having a cavernous & venous malformation in the left frontal lobe. Your doctors there didn`t feel I needed surgery yet, because it was too small to get to. They said watch & wait and come back in a year w/ another MRI for comparison. They also didn`t feel that a lot of the sensory symptoms I`ve had are related to the angiomas.

But anyway, 2 weeks ago, I developed an eye twitch that I`m beginning to get concerned about. I was under some stress then, and my right lower eye lid started to twitch. I thought nothing of it at first, but it has now been twitching 2 weeks straight non-stop! I mean 24/7, I haven`t gotten a break. It`s there when I go to bed, and wake up. It feels like a pulsing under my eye lid. It is a back and forth movement, and it`s coming from the inner corner of my eye. It is steady and rythmic. I also had a crick in my neck that was kind of painful around the time the twitching started, and have also noticed it slightly this morning. I don`t know if they`re connected though. I seen my PCP and local neurologist about this, but they said it was anxiety and would go away. They didn`t even look at my eyes! So anyway, could this be myokymia, hemifacial spasm, or something possibly caused by the angiomas?! I recently started Paxil for anxiety. Thanks....

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

I cannot be certain, but I do not believe this is connected to the angiomas. The facial twitching could be related to stress. Without seeing the movement I cannot determine if it is myokymia. I assume your electrolytes are normal. If the problem persists it may need to be evaluated. Good luck.

[090308health]

I also just wanted to say that the twitching has eased off slightly since first beginning - but is still there. It only involves the eyelid, and is not causing my eye to close. I also had an EEG that was normal recently. Also, the crick like sensation I`ve had in my neck is on the same said as the twitch. Thanks again, sorry so long....

[Sovereign57]

I know how frustrating those eye twitches can be. I am dealing with metastatic adenocarcinoma of my right upper lung since Nov 2001. I have had 13 tumors spread to my brain and another spread to my thoracic spine T-6 thru T-9. I have had 3 open brain operations and that's enough. I think I have had somewhere between 3 or 5 gamma knife procedures as the tumors pop up. After the last two gamma knife's I developed an eye twitch which I could trace back to where the doctor put one of the forehead screws when securing the head frame. The mucle there would go into a spasm even after the hole healed up and my eyelid would twitch. I sometimes get a muscle spasm in the muscle just above my ear. Massaging the muscle sometimes hurts but as I get it to relax, both the pain and the eye twitch go away.

You might want to see if you can trace the twich along a nerve to your neck.

I get a spasm from the thoracic mass which causes a travelling spasm into my abdomen and it sometimes travels up to my neck. Good thing it is on my right side or I would fear my heart getting caught up in the spasm. I use a deep heating rub called theragesic and/or a bath in epsom salts which helps stop these intense spasms.

I had a sister who had kung cancer with brain metastasis and like her one of the presenting symptoms was what we call squiggly lines. Sort of how the outer limits used to start there broadcast, their is noting wrong with your television, we have taken control .... The first metastasis for me was singular, left cerebellum. The headaches from that were like a really bad pounding hangover. The 4th ventrical was blocked by the mass pushing my brain. The resulting brain edema was causing the feeling of throbbing pressure in my head. I had a recurrance in that area last year by a cyst like tumor. The neurosurgeons removed it because it was fluid and the pathology was the same adenocarcinoma. I had the last 5 masses treated in may, two of which were fluid. I just had another brain MRI and it looks to me as though I may have 3 new lesions, two of which are black like the fluid one from last year. I don't know why they come up black when they are fluid rather than white with solid masses. It seems the contrast does not affect the fluid tumors. I now have all types of aphasia, poor concentration and memory problems. I am one of the lucky ones with sensitive hair follicles so it feels like my head is sunburned where they direct the gamma beams plus the doc says I have sensitive hair follicles so I lose my hair where they zap my brain. It grows back in time, good thing I am not vain LOL. The contrast also indicates some edema so I am having some headaches. One of the new cystic lesions is right cerebellum so I am having some symptoms like the left one caused and that is staggering as if I were drunk and occasionally bouncing off the walls LOL. My 3 kids are between 6 & 12 so they laugh at my lack of coordination sometimes. It's ok as I can laugh with them. They also let me know they are concerned and I would rather have them laugh than be afraid. They are really good about letting me rest after I have gamma knife. If you ever have to go through the proceedure, it isn't all that bad and you will have to take naps weeks afterwards. These are not voluntary naps, you brain just says I need to rest and you have to comply as you really don't have a choice. Resistance is futile, you'll find yourself falling asleep sitting in your chair, much better to just take a nap for about an hour.

I don't really have a question, I have just read a lot of the posts and seem to have put a response to some of the concerns I have read both here and in the archives. I know we are all different but if you have squiggly line visual disturbances, please don't ignore it. Some of the other visual disturbances I have read about on this site remind me of both regular and silent migraines. In the past I dealt with silent migrains and would loose my peripheral vision temporarily or it would just present as peripheral blackness. This was many years before developing cancer and one is not related to the other. Some of the headaches I have read about can be attributed to neck problems, having the axis bone your head rests on be out of line, that you can feel by running your finger along the base of your scull from the spine to the ear. It will feel very tender. Others can be muscles spasms in the scalp muscles. I think the docs call those tension headaches. I alternate between using a small towl saoked in either hot water or ice water as sometimes either can help or make the pain worse. Over all my opinion is that hydrotherapy works well for some types of headaches, especially those coming from the cervical spine and sinus headaches.

I enjoy reading everyones posts and I hope some of what I have posted helps some of you.

God Bless,
Eileen

[090308health]

Hi thanks for your reply. I`m sorry to hear about your problems, sounds like you`ve been through a lot. I`m not sure where the twitching I`m having is coming from, but I`m still having it, and just wish it would go away. I have had visual disturbances w/ all of my problems too, but I had an MRI in May and all it showed was the angiomas that I have. They arn`t cancerous lesions, just abnormal cluster of blood vessels that have a small tendency to bleed. But what you`ve went through is far worse than me. How old are you? Male or female? I`m a 24 yr old female, married, mother, and college student. I hope you start to feel better soon. Take care...

[090308health]

Hi! Just wanted to let you know my eye stopped twitching yesterday! I`m glad. I guess it may have been stress related. If it starts back, I`ll go see an eye doctor. Thanks!

[TJL08]

A related discussion, EYE TWITCHING PAIN IN NECK AND HEAD was started.