Diagnosed with pineal gland cyst

[coachlinda]

What symptoms can this cyst cause? My daughter has had muscle tension and aches from her neck to her legs for a while now. I have read that the cyst may cause such problems. She also has headaches sometimes on the side of her head. Does the cyst enlarge with time?

The cyst was discovered with an MRI her neurologist ordered.


This discussion is related to Pineal Gland Cyst.

[mikemcsw]

my daughter has same symptoms.
back ache, neck pain, blurred vision.  the stomach pains may be to the pain relievers, but confident that her 1.1 cyst is the main culprit as everyone who seems to have these "incidental" cysts, have the same symptoms.  the doctors are idiots.

[Jules77733]

Geez...the seizures definitely sound like the pineal gland cyst at work. How large is your cyst, currently, and how large was it when it was first discovered?

The headaches that get worse with light were probably evaluated by your neurologist as migraines, which is why you're on Maltex. It is possible for you to have migraines/headaches not related to the pineal cyst, but it sound like your cyst isn't doing you any good.

Pineal cysts are considered benign brain tumors, since the Latin meaning behind tumor is just "abnormal growth"...and a cyst IS an abnormal growth. As of late, though, "tumor" has come to mean a "solid mass" of sorts that causes symptoms, whereas cysts don't generally cause symptoms.

sarahren--I'll check out your blog soon, and let you know what my thoughts are. I'm sorry I didn't realize earlier that you had responded! Sometimes I forget to check back on these threads......I hope Violet is doing well, regardless!

[mandy84]

I have a cyst on my pineal glad. I am 24 I have had so many problems that Dr.s can't explain.  Since I was six I have had sever leg pains. All they can tell me is that they are not in the bone. To me they feel like they are in the muscle or nerve. The pain has spread in to by back and arms.  It is not all of the time but most of the time and when it gets bad it's crippling.  Also I have sever headaches I have had them as long as I can remember. The headaches never really go away but the intensity changes sometimes to the point that I can't open my eyes (light makes them worse) or even function really but about a year ago they got so bad a doctor put me on Maltex and it helps tremendously. Also I have had horrible stomach pains; the list really does go on. I periodically have seizure, (I've been tested and do not have epilepsy) some weeks I can go days with out sleeping and other weeks I can easily sleep 16+ hours a day.  A Dr had me do an MRI during the epilepsy testing and they discovered the Cyst on my Pineal Gland. They told me it's like a tumor but not really, as long as it doesn’t grow or move I'd be fine and it's not really operable unless it gets bad. And that was it, that’s all they said. I wonder if they symptoms could have any thing to do with the cyst.

[sarahren]

Oh forgot to mention Violet is 3

[sarahren]

Thanks for your reply...

Sorry I left out the fact that she did have a VP Shunt put in @ 5 months of age for her hydro.

She has only had the 1 MRI @ birth and since that CT scans...

My concerns are: Will it grow? Has it grown? They have done CT scans
over the past 3 years to check the flow of her shunt but no mention of
the cyst. Do they show up on CT scans too?

Have a blog on my daughter: www.violetsjourney.blogspot.com



To me any cyst in the brain couldn't be a good thing.

[Jules77733]

I'm no doctor, but it sounds like that might be possibility. The pineal gland, itself, is only 7.0 - 7.4mm (perhaps smaller in children, depending on your daughter's age).

You might want to take your daughter to a neurologist, and they will likely monitor the cyst for a year to see if it's growing, but if she is experiencing hydrocephalus and it is still showing up on the MRI as hydrocephalus, the neurologist might recommend the cyst be treated immediately, as hydrocephalus is life-threatening.

Good luck!