Aa
Scared to say the least
Hi I'm new so bare with me here a little bit. I'm scared nervous and had one hell of a bombshell dropped in my lap today.
As for some background. Im a 27 yo single mother of a 2 yo. I've been in good health my entire life minus the occasional sickness n broken bone here and there. The only standing medical condition is migraines. Uncomplicated pregnancy. I've had multiple (6) surgeries in the last 11 years. Torn meniscus, sinus surgery, gall bladder removal, and 3 laproscopic ovarian cyst removals (the last being this past February - baseball sized cyst adhered to anything and everything it could possibly stick itself to, completely UNUSUAL). Only other bump in the road to speak of is a concussion in 05 (beer bottle from a second story balcony to just behind the hairline right hand side... unequal pupils since)
This past Mother's Day my migraines took a bizarre turn. They switched sides (from right to left) and location (from front to back). The aura has changed as far as it now bleeds into my migraine now lasting almost as long as the migraine itself. It also now includes numbness and/or tingling in my face/tongue sometimes in an arm or a leg. I have a problem speaking (normally finding words) when I have or am getting a migraine now also. CT scan was clean. Perfect in all actuality according to my neuro.
Enter being of August. I wind up with shingles. Being my right ear and onto the back of the right ear itself. The rash clears up after a 7 day course of valtrex. Just I wind up with severe dizziness 2 days into the treatment. That doesn't go away. Sometimes its worse then others. But when its at its worse I literally feel like if I get off the couch I might get sick and/or pass out. This normally is tending to happen right around dinner time whether right before or right after we eat doesn't really matter. The 24th I'm on my way to school for a seminar after my internship and out of no where, I black out coming to within 5 feet from the car infront of me hitting that car and in turn that car strikes another vehicle. I was aware enough after "coming to" that I was able to slam on the breaks and attempt to swerve. Thankfully everyone was ok. I go to the ER at the urging of the state police and first responders due to the state of the vehicle, the fact I blacked out, and the fact that at the point the EMT took my pulse it was 176 bpm. At the ER they tell me that other then the black out and dizziness I'm in perfect health. Blood counts are all normal, EKG looks great, glucose is phenomenal. Bruised collarbone from the seatbelt, follow up with the family dr. So me being the nervous Nelly that I am, family doc couldn't get me in right away (I was in the process of switching to a new dr. The old one wouldn't have been able to get me in any sooner anyway), I call the neuro explain to his nurse exactly what happened. She calls my doc who is over covering the hospital to talk to him (which made me thrilled because I didn't ask and that isn't normal to bother him at the hospital with 5 other nueros to bother in the practice). He wants an EEG as soon as I was willing to get in there to get one. That was Thursday... the girls had me in for the first available opening Monday (before labor day). So I have my EEG. Go and see my family dr. He tells me that there's no way I could have had a seizure because I was responsive after blacking out. (Mind you, I lost .9 mile of roadway pin straight roadway, we are talking about 7-10 minutes of lost time from the last thing I remember) He is telling me that this is most likely some quirk with my migraines that rather then actually getting the migraine, the blood vessels are constricting to much and completely cutting the blood flow off to my brain... thus blacking out. He wants an echocardiogram and a holter monitor just to be safe which are tomorrow. BUT I touch base with the neuro's office today because well I'm impatient and I would like to know that the EEG is at least read. Well... when his nurse told me that she had to call me back, she couldn't even tell me if it was read, my heart sank a little in my chest. She calls back about an hour and a half later. Of course I missed it, I was on the phone at work with a client. Listened to my voicemail and wanted to cry. She had a message, from my neuro himself. He tried to change my appointment to get me in sooner (I don't go back until the 19th) but he doesn't have any openings. He needs to talk to me. My EEG came back abnormal, seizure activity. He wants a sleep deprived EEG. But he wants to explain it to me in the office first. (Cue the fighting back tears sitting at my desk) under no circumstances am I to stop taking the topamax (which I'm on a whole 25 mg for migraine prevention, I had wanted to talk to him about it when I went back... I was supposed to go up to to 50mg but surprise I got shingles and stopped getting migraines... I've had 2 in the last 34 days). Also... had the episode with the accident on 8/24, had another episode that I felt come on while showering on 8/28 (I was able to sit my tush end down before blacking out, came to with no conditioner in my hair and pruney fingers), and had God only knows what while shoe shopping in kmart 9/3 (I will refer to it as a near syncopal type episode as I almost blacked out and fell, I got extremely lightheaded and mom said my eyes rolled back in my head but I grabbed her as she grabbed me and I never quite made it to the floor)
So now I'm extremely extremely confused. I have my family doc telling me its not epilepsy and its migraines, yet he's checking my heart. I have the neuro/EEG telling me that it most likely is some kind of epilepsy/seizure disorder and I need a sleep deprived EEG just to be definitive. And all I know is I just don't get it. Im so truly scared and confused by all of this I can't even explain it. Any help suggestions input would be terrific. Im terribly sorry this is so long winded but I just don't understand how all of a sudden something like this can just pop up.
thanks for your time and patience guys!
As for some background. Im a 27 yo single mother of a 2 yo. I've been in good health my entire life minus the occasional sickness n broken bone here and there. The only standing medical condition is migraines. Uncomplicated pregnancy. I've had multiple (6) surgeries in the last 11 years. Torn meniscus, sinus surgery, gall bladder removal, and 3 laproscopic ovarian cyst removals (the last being this past February - baseball sized cyst adhered to anything and everything it could possibly stick itself to, completely UNUSUAL). Only other bump in the road to speak of is a concussion in 05 (beer bottle from a second story balcony to just behind the hairline right hand side... unequal pupils since)
This past Mother's Day my migraines took a bizarre turn. They switched sides (from right to left) and location (from front to back). The aura has changed as far as it now bleeds into my migraine now lasting almost as long as the migraine itself. It also now includes numbness and/or tingling in my face/tongue sometimes in an arm or a leg. I have a problem speaking (normally finding words) when I have or am getting a migraine now also. CT scan was clean. Perfect in all actuality according to my neuro.
Enter being of August. I wind up with shingles. Being my right ear and onto the back of the right ear itself. The rash clears up after a 7 day course of valtrex. Just I wind up with severe dizziness 2 days into the treatment. That doesn't go away. Sometimes its worse then others. But when its at its worse I literally feel like if I get off the couch I might get sick and/or pass out. This normally is tending to happen right around dinner time whether right before or right after we eat doesn't really matter. The 24th I'm on my way to school for a seminar after my internship and out of no where, I black out coming to within 5 feet from the car infront of me hitting that car and in turn that car strikes another vehicle. I was aware enough after "coming to" that I was able to slam on the breaks and attempt to swerve. Thankfully everyone was ok. I go to the ER at the urging of the state police and first responders due to the state of the vehicle, the fact I blacked out, and the fact that at the point the EMT took my pulse it was 176 bpm. At the ER they tell me that other then the black out and dizziness I'm in perfect health. Blood counts are all normal, EKG looks great, glucose is phenomenal. Bruised collarbone from the seatbelt, follow up with the family dr. So me being the nervous Nelly that I am, family doc couldn't get me in right away (I was in the process of switching to a new dr. The old one wouldn't have been able to get me in any sooner anyway), I call the neuro explain to his nurse exactly what happened. She calls my doc who is over covering the hospital to talk to him (which made me thrilled because I didn't ask and that isn't normal to bother him at the hospital with 5 other nueros to bother in the practice). He wants an EEG as soon as I was willing to get in there to get one. That was Thursday... the girls had me in for the first available opening Monday (before labor day). So I have my EEG. Go and see my family dr. He tells me that there's no way I could have had a seizure because I was responsive after blacking out. (Mind you, I lost .9 mile of roadway pin straight roadway, we are talking about 7-10 minutes of lost time from the last thing I remember) He is telling me that this is most likely some quirk with my migraines that rather then actually getting the migraine, the blood vessels are constricting to much and completely cutting the blood flow off to my brain... thus blacking out. He wants an echocardiogram and a holter monitor just to be safe which are tomorrow. BUT I touch base with the neuro's office today because well I'm impatient and I would like to know that the EEG is at least read. Well... when his nurse told me that she had to call me back, she couldn't even tell me if it was read, my heart sank a little in my chest. She calls back about an hour and a half later. Of course I missed it, I was on the phone at work with a client. Listened to my voicemail and wanted to cry. She had a message, from my neuro himself. He tried to change my appointment to get me in sooner (I don't go back until the 19th) but he doesn't have any openings. He needs to talk to me. My EEG came back abnormal, seizure activity. He wants a sleep deprived EEG. But he wants to explain it to me in the office first. (Cue the fighting back tears sitting at my desk) under no circumstances am I to stop taking the topamax (which I'm on a whole 25 mg for migraine prevention, I had wanted to talk to him about it when I went back... I was supposed to go up to to 50mg but surprise I got shingles and stopped getting migraines... I've had 2 in the last 34 days). Also... had the episode with the accident on 8/24, had another episode that I felt come on while showering on 8/28 (I was able to sit my tush end down before blacking out, came to with no conditioner in my hair and pruney fingers), and had God only knows what while shoe shopping in kmart 9/3 (I will refer to it as a near syncopal type episode as I almost blacked out and fell, I got extremely lightheaded and mom said my eyes rolled back in my head but I grabbed her as she grabbed me and I never quite made it to the floor)
So now I'm extremely extremely confused. I have my family doc telling me its not epilepsy and its migraines, yet he's checking my heart. I have the neuro/EEG telling me that it most likely is some kind of epilepsy/seizure disorder and I need a sleep deprived EEG just to be definitive. And all I know is I just don't get it. Im so truly scared and confused by all of this I can't even explain it. Any help suggestions input would be terrific. Im terribly sorry this is so long winded but I just don't understand how all of a sudden something like this can just pop up.
thanks for your time and patience guys!
I'm so sorry for all that your going through. This kind of health issue would be over the top to make anyone scared. You might not like my comment but I have been in a unimaginable health issue for over 10 years. I would normally have lost my mind and ended up in a ward , medicated to survive the experience. But it wasn't like that for me from the beginning, You mentioned, "God only know what happened," about one of your situation. Before I know what I do know now...I would have told others they were crazy and stay out of my life. But I was told that God created me for a relationship with Him. That all my human ways were limited to be born and having a nature that was sin filled and dependent on what I could master. I was pretty happy with my life I thought. But when I heard more of why Christ die and that He wanted to give me His life to live in me. I broke. I sincerely gave Him my life. I hated religion before this. But He gave me something that I didn't understand at the time, but I knew something changed for me. This was 35 years ago. During my illness when I was scared or confused, I have found He does know everything and is always there for me as I turn to Him. I care for people and I find it's worth the risk of sometimes telling others that life goes beyond our health in finding answers. I hope you find both.
One thing you can check for is Celiac disease. Check out this article.
http://www.celiac.com/articles/116/1/Epilepsy-and-Celiac-Disease/Page1.html
http://www.celiac.com/articles/116/1/Epilepsy-and-Celiac-Disease/Page1.html
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