Unknown what to do

Question

My mom is 54 years old and is having extreme pain on the left side of her head, her left hand turns purple and she feels like she is going to pass out all the time. She looks sickly and pale. She has never been sick before except for some colds. She has a thiroid problem and she takes medication for that, but that is all of her medical history. Over 10 doctors, from cardiologits to neurologits, have looked at her and cannot find anything. She went to the Mayo clinic for 8 days to get tests done. They thought they may have found a vein in her head that may have been the problem, but they did a biopsy and it was negative. What other options are out there beside the Mayo clinic or some possible diognosis? This has been going on for over 8 months going back and forth to different doctors. Im scared that she may die. Thank you for your time and ideas.

KMathurMD · Answer

GR8

mikeapd71 · Answer

They may have found out the illness. occipital nueropothy(probably spelling it wrong) Last week, they inserted some nerve blockers into her brain to see if that would help....FYI

mikeapd71 · Answer

I advised my mom of your advise and she said that she was tested for that both at her regular doctor and at Mayo with negative results...Just FYI   Thanks again.

mikeapd71 · Answer

Thank you for the advice...She is going to see her nuerosurgeon this week and cadiologist next week, so maybe they can take a look at that with all the test results she has from Mayo. I did a little reading on wikipedia and it shows posture along with sitting at a desk all day. She is an accountant and works long hours, 12 a day, so I send her your message. Thanks again and I'll post some more information when I get it.

KMathurMD · Answer

Hi 
Welcome to the forum!
I would say seriously look into thoracic outlet syndrome or TOS. What your mother is suffering from is symptomatically very close to the vascular variant of TOS. X rays of neck or shoulder, venography, angiograms, pulse recording etc may be required. Talk to the cardiologist regarding this possibility. There may be associated nerve compression too causing headaches.

Hope this helps. Do discuss this with her doctor and get her examined in this line. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!