Head pain, seizure like activity, right temporal lobe cyst.

[bjphlieger]

I'm am writing about my father's conditions.  Just wanted someone else to hear me out and get another opinion!  About 25 yrs ago my father was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  I was told that it shrunk (not sure if a procedure was done for this or not) and they have been calling it a cyst on his right temporal lobe.  Several yrs ago, he had problems with cluster headaches and was put on oxygen therapy.  They eventually went away.  He has always had problems with anxiety and has been on and off anti-depressants and anxiety medication over the years.  Recently he had an attack where he grabbed his head due to severe pain and collapsed, started having what we thought to be seizure like activity.   Doctor said his eyes were not reacting, they intubated him and flew him to another hospital thinking possible aneurism.  While in the hospital he was fine although very sedated from pain medication they were giving him.  My mom and I have noticed that since that hospitalization, his eyes don't quite look right.  It looks as if one pupil may be larger or a little different than the other, and one eye strays to the right when he looks at things.  He says he has no vision problems.  After his release, 6 weeks later, it began again.  He collapsed in the local convenient store and seemed unresponsive with seizure like activity.  He was given pain medication at the hospital and released the same day.  The next day it happened again only this time my father was able to call and let someone know he was not feeling well.  By the time they got to the house, he was already on the floor starting to convulse, but was able to walk some while the person helped him to the car.  In the hospital he was given doses of Dilaudid to help with the head pain.  He stated his pain was a constant 3 or 4 on a scale of 1-10 even when he was alert and normal.  He complained of pain on the same side where his cyst is located.  He was having these seizure like symptoms every 3-4 hrs a day and then it went to every a 1 1/2 hrs on his 2 day there.  Doctor said he was not sure what was wrong, but that it didn't seem seizure related.  Most of the time he he was conscious enough to hear us and nod a head sometimes or moan.  We noticed when it comes on he just stares and then doesn't always respond to us but we can clearly see his is not unconscious, then the shaking or convulsions, sometimes he grasps his head due to pain, eyes rolling up into the head, mouth moves as if chewing or biting down on the tongue, sometimes tongue swelling sometimes not.  After it passes it takes him just a little bit to come back, he has no memory what occurred and sometimes isn't quite sure who we are in the room or where he is.  These attacks occurred almost after every EEG and MRI that was done during his hospitalization.  After the MRI, he was alert so they wheeled him back to his room but once they got there, he was sitting in the wheelchair with his head flopped to the side and unresponsive.  They couldn't get him to stand up or respond to get him back into his bed.  Once in the bed it took them a long time to get him to come to.  Mom said at this point he was unresponsive and they didn't think he was going to come out of it.  They took him to another hospital (the one he was flown to 6 weeks prior).  They did CAT scans, MRIs, you name it.  A video EEG they said reported no abnormal activity or seizure activity when he was going through his episodes.  He was diagnosed with depression.  They said his brain is reacting to the depression by having what looks like a seizure, but is not.  One doctor said his cyst had grown about a millimeter which is not much, and that depending on the angle it was taken it may not have grown at all.  Another doctor said it had gone from a 17 to a 22 (what unit of measurement I have no idea).  My family believes that this cyst is what is causing my father's problems, but doctors don't really seem concerned.  How can something on the brain or in the same area NOT be a problem or affect someone?  My father also has had issues with memory.  He gets his stories different and can't always remember to do things.  He has even reported doing things and then not remembering it.  We were told that if his memory problems continue to he should see a doctor for dementia.  I don't know if anyone else has had these problems, but we are just wondering if all this temporal lobe cyst could be a contributor to everything going on with him.  Any advice or further info on right temporal lobe cysts would be greatly appreciated!

[justinearl]

My 20 year old son has the same, and has been through the same tests.

No one knows why, but he was born with a cyst in the same area, and it is still there!.

my email is j.s.***@****, i would like to know more as he is getting so depressed.

[bjphlieger]

It's been over a year since I wrote the above story, and symptoms have not resolved.  Diagnosis of depression was given by one neurologist and Munchausen's Syndrome by another.  We recently took him to a new neurologist for another opinion as he is now experiencing additional problems.  EEG came back with abnormalities (not sure what kind because when I asked the doctor yesterday he said he could not remember and he would need to get his records sent over from the hospital).  Symptoms are now headaches or collapsing with headaches -- this has now been diagnosed as atonic seizures.  Others are vertigo, or feeling as if everything is moving around him.  He is off balance often and falls because of this.  He has slurred speech, which I don't believe he experiences all the time.  Memory loss and problems with cognitive function.  He did very poorly on a mental status exam, then had one of his atonic seizures and headaches after his appointment.  He has complained for a very long time that he has constant ringing in his left ear.  He has had hand, sometimes whole arm, and lip tremors but I don't notice that so much anymore.  He is on seizure medications, dose was recently increased because of the vertigo and balance problems.  Still waiting to find out what's going on.  If I did not mention in last post, his mother had parkinson's disease and died of stroke.  I'm convinced that my father's problems are brain related such as a possible neuro degenerative disease.  Please if anyone out there has similar problems, write and let me know about it.