Please Advice: meningitis? leptospirosis? Acute sinusitis?

[FunnyMoth]

Hi,

I am writing in the hope of getting some answers,direction and opinions/comments on my health problems. I have passed from being very healthly to a progressive deterioration in my health in the past 6-7 years, currently investigating for right hemi-cranial hypoestesia and headaches.

* Body: I'm a 40 y.o. femal. on thyroxine 100 mcg,  24 bodymass indx, athletic complexion,  knee surgical operation (menics+ligam) 18 yrs ago, no other accidents/trauma/operations, occasional migraines linked to menstrual cycle, occasional-often sinusitis (swimmer) -instead of flu which I seldom get-. No history of brain tumors/problems in close family. Occurences of cancer in close family.

* Sympthoms: A)  For the last 5-6 years I had headaches ranging from my old known migraines to very strong lasting a couple of days to mild but almost constant; Lately the last ones. 6 months ago I started to notice my righ side of the face had lost sensing tactile stimulus mainly in the temple, righ half forehead and around the jaw joint and bones; I'd describe it similar to weaker sensoring of stimulus due to to thicker skin or dumb area      B) Occassional punctual pain in the right ear , and permanet but mild in the right jaw joint. Headache sensitivity to noise  but gut feeling of lossing hearing C) Pain in the head nuchal area, right shoulder join and spine at mid-shoulder blade level (known as Bermuda's triangle for my own sanity)   D)  Light/Wind/Cold sensitivity in eyes (star crying) and nose (start dripping watery fluids)  E) Fragmented sleep.

* Test Results: 1)  Brain MRI (Sagital, Axial, Coronal, T1, T2 & Flair): Sagital & T1 sequences: posterior fossa shows an image in retro-cerebellar midline which seems thickened meninges -en plaque meningioma?- and vermix slightly shifted towards the front, with 4th ventricule cerebral trunk normal. Rest of sequences this image is not visible, therefor e a contrast enhaced study could clarify this. Cerebral convexity shows no anomalies. Frontal ethmoid sinusitis, mainly in right side   2) Contrast Enhaced Brain MRI (Sagital Set1, Axial SE double Eco -Dp & T2-, Coronal Flair): No findings of space occupying lesions in the cerebral parenchyma, neither supra nor infratentorial. Diffuse mucosal hyperplasis affecting the right frontal sinus, ethmoid cells and possible right maxillary sinus mucus retention cyst. Findings related to inflamatory changes. Rest of exploration without significative findings.  3) Neck X-ray: cervical vertebra aligned too straight, not following the typical c-shaped curve.

* Notes:   X) Contrast Enhaced brain MRI [2] done without the feedback of [1], as it was in different centres (therefore different machines) and for different doctors and purposes, so I am not sure if they looked for the meningioma suggested in [1].      Y) I have just started to cleanse my nose with salty water in the morning once per week in the morning, as well as applying massage to the nose, eyes and sinus areas: helps me, as well as strangely enough my spine pain amelioriates as well.

* Questions:  I have requested to see a Otorrino in order to confirm cyst and get the righ medication/surgery to treat the findings of MRI [2]. I want to confirm diagnosis of MRI 1 meingioma, but I have a stage 1-2 chronic kidney disease, so I would prefer to avoid having contrast again. Any alternative methods to confirm this? Else, shall I go for a powerful MRI device (3Teslas?) to avoid having contrast injected?Would a Neck MRI instead help to confirm this -my traumatologist has requested this for my shoulder-neck-spine triangular pain-?  What is your opinion on what I am going on? Any advice? Anyone living/lived a similar situation? My gut feeling is that I am going through a meningitis (viral, fungal, parasital?), or a leptospirosis (due to trip to tropics in 2002=>water), or a medulloblastoma  or a badly cured sinusitis passing dirt to some parts of my brain/spine(?) causing the inflamated meninges, so what test should I do to confirm/reject this?


I will really appreciate help/comments. Wishing you all a healthy day,
Mar

ps- Below a chronological account of symptoms and factors I consider could be relevant:


2001-2002  Acute Lumbalgia, recovered in 10 days of acute pain. Regular ongoing pain in lumbar area for the following 18 months, but thereafter always a shadow of disconfort in that area.
2002          Off the road holidays in a tropical country ===> Blood test taken straight after if showed abnormaly raised Eosinophile levels...this is omething I am bugged about since then.
2002-2003  Tiredeness, restless sleep, right hand trembling, intense headaches (felt like scalp being detached from skull), pain in base of skull at the back (felt like something was dripping inside my head, at the crossing of the planes: horizontal-top of the neck, vertical- jaw joint), cognotive changes: forgetting appointments, concentration problems, unable to simultaneously read and process information read, creating a lot of anxiety and stress at work.
2003         Right shoulder Bursitis(very frozen: unable to dress, comb hair, as normally), only respondent to ultrasound, Neck pain (felt like constant flow on the neck spina of "micro-things" -antibodies,viruse,bacterias,fungis...I've no clue but I visualized it as some of these little fellows- , enlargement of righ breast of about 1-2 sizes, Light&Wind&Cold sensitivity in Eyes/Nose (crying/dripping water) , Drieness of mucoses and eyes -sandy, itchy, painful, with red spider veins-
2004          Increasing letargy, slow speech, slow thinking, high sensitivity in legs and body to cold temperatures. Lost conscience once at getting up from bed, falling down and loosing control of breath, muscles and sphincter - attributed to food poisoning from dinner.  
2005         First thyroid tests showing subclinical hypothyroidism. Increase in lumbar pain. Started on thyroxine. Headaches and sensitivity to noises
2006        Slowly started to have clearer head by increasin thyroxine dosage progresively, some of the tiredeness went away slowly. Mamography and ecography of mama showed no worrying features.
2007        Sensitivity to cold in my back increased, as well as of my eyes to light and wind and to noises for my headaches. Fragmented sleep and sense of restless at waking up. Developed hemicraneal hypoestesia.

[FunnyMoth]

Thanks for sharing your experience, Alicia. I am really glad you now know the source of your problems and can therefore take control back on your quality of live.

Your comment comes really in very good timed: I have my annual checkup with my oftalmologist this week, so I will mention it. I am documenting myself about what Uveitis is about, etc. I havent found much about diagnosis tests available and tools (MRI,CT,XRay,etc) used to prove it. Would you be so kind as to share also which test did they perform on you for this purpose?  Also, is it a commercial juice of home made recipy to aliviate the headache...I would be also interested into it, as I suffer from headaches as well.
Wishing you a sucessful treatment for your Uveitis,
Mar

[aliciaegg]

Hello I was online and was looking for a Eye dr when google pulled this up. reading your post It was word for word what I have been saying to my dr's for years and until i finally got diagnosed with uveitis last summer i thought i was losing my mind. the sandy feeling in the eye and light sensitivy plus the headache finally got me into treatment for uveitis I had finished the treatment but still had eye pain, jaw pain neck pain ,fever right side bigger , swollen gland in neck , sinus pressure and pain in throat plus the headache that I had for about a decade until a friend gave me some juice the headache has been completely gone within 12 hour of me drinking it back in March. So now that the headach is gone it makes it easier for me to focus on finding the cause of my Uveitis and a treatment for the remaining symptoms.

Good luck I Hope all is well TGC = take good care
Alicia