13 year old son nausea dizzyness vomiting

[kirons]

my son has been suffering from these symptoms for 3 weeks.  I found a post on your site from 2/3/99 about this and I was wondering if you could help me.  he has had ct scans of the stomach and head, and 2 MRI's of his head one with contrast and one without.  the only finding is a pineal cist which they say is not associated with this.  We have tested for addison's disease which so far the test are negative for that. he has been seen by a ENT specialist and an optomologist with negative findings.  This was a sudden onset of symptoms.  There has been no relief with medication either.  

[FatherLou]

My daughter, who is also 13, has also been suffering from vomitting and nausea for several weeks.  She has been diagnosed with gastroparesis (post-viral), but I am not convinced.  I believe that her symptons relate to a concussion that she suffered prior to the sudden onset of her current symptoms.  The focus of all tests has been on her digestive/GI system, not on her brain and/or nervers.  She has not kept down food for several weeks and is being fed at home through an NJ tube.  She has not responded to meds either.  This sounds very similar to what your son is suffering from.  I don't know where to turn.

[kirons]

My son is going on 6 weeks of his illness.  Went to a GI specialist and they have found nothing still waiting to see an endocrinologist and a neurologist.  he does keep food down unless he is active.  the more he just even walks around the more he vomits.  doctors think it might be abdominal migraines or CVS (Cyclic vomiting syndrome).  sorry to hear that you daughter has to be fed through a tube.  My son thankfully is not that bad.

[SoulFeather]

Sleep with him and see if he grinds his teeth when he sleeps...bad grinding can cause inner ear distubances and dizziness and dizziness can cause nausea.

[kirons]

Wow I have never heard of that??  I know he grinds them some times but I don't think it is allot.  He has always ground his teeth since he was really young he gets it from me and his father does it sometimes too.

[tjtz]

Get a prolactin test done--simple and cheap. (And there are some other things from the pituitary.)  Have the MRI evaluated by a neurologist who has experience with pituitary adenomas.   And the endocrinologist also should have had experience dealing with such.  If they haven't then they probably will miss.  Happened with me and many others.  This important, many neurologist and radiologists aren't geared to look for pituitary problems.   And the growth can be small and cause a diverse range of seemingly unrelated systems.  I speak from personal experience.  May or may not be the problem but pituitary generally go mis/undiagnosed for 8-12 years.  I went through (and  others likewise) all the tests for varying things and got varying medicines --migraine, sinus, IBS, severe itching, triedness, faintness, splitting mind numbing headaches.  Alateral weakness, vision problem and so on.

I guess my main point is so many diverse symptoms are exhibited that you and the doctors might be "unable to see the forest because of the trees".

[runnergirl444]

A pineal cyst can in fact cause these symptoms. Your doctor is incorrect. My daughter had a pineal cyst and this is exactly how it began to present itself. Do not let your doctor "blow off" this cyst. She eventually had a seizure and collapsed because the cyst grew. They must be watched carefully. The larger it gets the more symptoms/damage it causes. We decided to have it taken out while it was small so that minimal brain tissue is removed. I would get a second opinion from a top neurosuregon not neurologist. We were lucky and live in Phoenix where Barrow Neurolgical is located (top in world). I recommend researching this and driving a bit if you have to to get a qualified evaluation. I'm curious to know if your child has had any type of head injury?? Mine had a very severe whiplash injury at 4 and I wonder if this didn't cause the cyst to form.

[tjtz]

Sorry, I sort of  ran past that you said peneal not pitutitary.  However, that doesn't change much because they are in the same neighborhood and although there are the direct hormnal/peptides/etc changes to directly cause problems, there are the pleiotropic ("indirect" seemingly unrelated) problems caused by the physical presence of something extra trying to be where there is no space.   (Law of physics:  no two bodies can occupy the same space at the same time.)  So, if as in my case, the growth can be causing a lot of  problems by physically compressing the structures around it and thereby causing them to malfunction.  It doesn't matter that is small if it is pressing on a crucial structure, say an optic nerve, etc.

Get a 2nd opinion.  Don't get brushed off,  there should some serious testing.   The opthomologist and ENT persons probably didn't look outside their Habitual "boxes".  They certainly didn't for me.   An  experienced endocrinolist need to be involved to look for chemical/hormnal/etc changes others might miss.  I suspect that finding someone experienced with peneal gland problems is even harder than for pituitary glands.  Don't know where you live, but my neurosurgeon was (is) exceptional and does nothing but tumors mostly in that portion of the brain.  (Two to four ops a day.)  Unfortunately for me, he was so good he got lured away to S. Calif. to head up a head clinic of some sort.  If you are in that part of the country I could secure relevant contact info for you, if you need it.

I advise to see a good neurologist because the neurosurgeon will only be dealing with the problem intensely immediately before surgery and shortly thereafter.  The neurologist is set up to spend more time pinpointing the exact causes and then informs the neurologist.  The neurologist will also be the person dealing with long run after care for the most part.  I didn't see a neurologist before surgery because my gp found the problem and I had to have "almost" emergency surgery. But afterwards although seeing the neurosurgeon from time to time to check "gross mechanical" healing aspects, it is the neurologist that I see on a recurring basis to decipher/keep up with the aftermath.

Money wise the neurologist will also cost less.  (Yes, "less"  is a somewhat misleading term when the choices are very costly or even more costly!)