Aa
blindness, blackouts, dizziness
Hello
I'm a 21 yr old female...looking for some answers. My case is a bit complicated and I'm seeing a neurologist, but no one has found out what is wrong with me.
My Freshman year of college, I randomly collapsed and hit my head. I had an MRI done and there was no concussion but it came back abnormal. This is basically what they found:
There are scattered foci of abnormal signal intensity within the corona radiata and centrum semiovale bilaterally, which most likely ischemic. There are also cystic changes in both cerebral hemispheres, some of which have white matter gliosis. While these changes may be related to cysticercosis of another infectious inflammatory etiology, the dilated perivascular spaces, adjacent white matter gliosis and other peripheral white matter changes most likely are all related to ischemia.
All of my life I have been having blindness spells where I will be usually walking from a lit room or outside to a dark room and my vision will fade to black for 3-5 seconds. I did not know this was abnormal because it has happened since I was a child.
Also, all my life I have gotten severe migraines that last anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Sometimes I lose my side vision, and I always see zig zags, flickering lights, and I almost constantly have a disturbance in my visual field. Its usually a shadow around an object that I know can not exist based on the lighting around it, and random spaces of lightness. This seems to bring me on to a headache later.
I used to be very athletic and was involved in sports. However, the past 10 years have been more difficult for me. I often felt dizzy and disoriented after playing, and I would also temporarily go blind after a game. One time I was training and my vision went completely white and I felt very disoriented. My coach said it was probably because I didn't have enough to drink/electrolytes, and I sat out the rest of the period.
Also, I used to have nearly a photographic memory. Anything that I read was completely committed to memory, as well as anything anyone ever said. Nowadays, I can not remember recent events very well. It's difficult for me to find words and sometimes I replace words with ones that rhyme or in a similar category. (like dishwasher with garbage disposer). I also feel like I have to work a lot harder in school than I used to. In addition, I feel like solving higher level math problems are exceedingly difficult for me, even though as a child I was considered to be gifted in all areas, especially fast math calculations.
Other odd things that have happened to me with in the past few years include the following:
Often, when I lift my hands over my head to reach for something or do my hair, my arms will suddenly hurt, feel weak, and then I feel like I'm going to pass out.
Sometimes, this is accompanied by fluttering and almost like a feeling like a bubble is in my chest. There have been times where I could not breathe for a couple seconds. It felt like I was choking, but from the chest.
I have always had Raynaud's phenomenon in my feet and hands.
Sometimes, its hard for me to recover from a chilly area. I have turned blue in 70 degree weather and was shaking violently. My fingernails also turned blue. When I was in middle school, an administrator saw me like this and demanded I go to the nurse because he thought I had a high fever, but my temperature was normal. More recently, I turned blue and coworkers thought I wasn't getting enough oxygen but I got it tested and it was 100% saturated.
Sometimes my hands will get very red, painful and swollen. A more scary incident happened recently where my whole ARM got very very swollen and painful, feeling like it was going to explode. My veins were bulging and my arm turned purple.
Sometimes the slightest thing like carrying a normal sized purse will cut off circulation to my arm.
I have had a couple episodes where my arms and legs felt extremely weak all of a sudden and I had to have someone help me walk.
Medical History:
As a newborn I had pneumonia and was hospitalized for a week. At 2yrs I cracked my skull but it healed fine, no plating was needed. I seem to always have an ear infection and often get respiratory infections. I was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma at age 7. I went through puberty at an early age, getting my period at age 9. I have had a history of irregular periods and sometimes they have stopped altogether (for 6mos, needed to go on birth control/a pill to kick start it). They are usually very painful and heavy.
I know this is a lot of information, but I have been suffering with this a long time and want some answers...
Thank you!
I'm a 21 yr old female...looking for some answers. My case is a bit complicated and I'm seeing a neurologist, but no one has found out what is wrong with me.
My Freshman year of college, I randomly collapsed and hit my head. I had an MRI done and there was no concussion but it came back abnormal. This is basically what they found:
There are scattered foci of abnormal signal intensity within the corona radiata and centrum semiovale bilaterally, which most likely ischemic. There are also cystic changes in both cerebral hemispheres, some of which have white matter gliosis. While these changes may be related to cysticercosis of another infectious inflammatory etiology, the dilated perivascular spaces, adjacent white matter gliosis and other peripheral white matter changes most likely are all related to ischemia.
All of my life I have been having blindness spells where I will be usually walking from a lit room or outside to a dark room and my vision will fade to black for 3-5 seconds. I did not know this was abnormal because it has happened since I was a child.
Also, all my life I have gotten severe migraines that last anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Sometimes I lose my side vision, and I always see zig zags, flickering lights, and I almost constantly have a disturbance in my visual field. Its usually a shadow around an object that I know can not exist based on the lighting around it, and random spaces of lightness. This seems to bring me on to a headache later.
I used to be very athletic and was involved in sports. However, the past 10 years have been more difficult for me. I often felt dizzy and disoriented after playing, and I would also temporarily go blind after a game. One time I was training and my vision went completely white and I felt very disoriented. My coach said it was probably because I didn't have enough to drink/electrolytes, and I sat out the rest of the period.
Also, I used to have nearly a photographic memory. Anything that I read was completely committed to memory, as well as anything anyone ever said. Nowadays, I can not remember recent events very well. It's difficult for me to find words and sometimes I replace words with ones that rhyme or in a similar category. (like dishwasher with garbage disposer). I also feel like I have to work a lot harder in school than I used to. In addition, I feel like solving higher level math problems are exceedingly difficult for me, even though as a child I was considered to be gifted in all areas, especially fast math calculations.
Other odd things that have happened to me with in the past few years include the following:
Often, when I lift my hands over my head to reach for something or do my hair, my arms will suddenly hurt, feel weak, and then I feel like I'm going to pass out.
Sometimes, this is accompanied by fluttering and almost like a feeling like a bubble is in my chest. There have been times where I could not breathe for a couple seconds. It felt like I was choking, but from the chest.
I have always had Raynaud's phenomenon in my feet and hands.
Sometimes, its hard for me to recover from a chilly area. I have turned blue in 70 degree weather and was shaking violently. My fingernails also turned blue. When I was in middle school, an administrator saw me like this and demanded I go to the nurse because he thought I had a high fever, but my temperature was normal. More recently, I turned blue and coworkers thought I wasn't getting enough oxygen but I got it tested and it was 100% saturated.
Sometimes my hands will get very red, painful and swollen. A more scary incident happened recently where my whole ARM got very very swollen and painful, feeling like it was going to explode. My veins were bulging and my arm turned purple.
Sometimes the slightest thing like carrying a normal sized purse will cut off circulation to my arm.
I have had a couple episodes where my arms and legs felt extremely weak all of a sudden and I had to have someone help me walk.
Medical History:
As a newborn I had pneumonia and was hospitalized for a week. At 2yrs I cracked my skull but it healed fine, no plating was needed. I seem to always have an ear infection and often get respiratory infections. I was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma at age 7. I went through puberty at an early age, getting my period at age 9. I have had a history of irregular periods and sometimes they have stopped altogether (for 6mos, needed to go on birth control/a pill to kick start it). They are usually very painful and heavy.
I know this is a lot of information, but I have been suffering with this a long time and want some answers...
Thank you!
Hello Stacey,
I'm sorry to hear your suffering from your issues. Did you ever get diagnosed? My wife has a lot of the same issues you have and I was wondering if you ever found out what was wrong with you.
Please respond if you can. Thanks.
God Bless.
Mike
I'm sorry to hear your suffering from your issues. Did you ever get diagnosed? My wife has a lot of the same issues you have and I was wondering if you ever found out what was wrong with you.
Please respond if you can. Thanks.
God Bless.
Mike
Hello Stacey,
Wow, this is complex, I doubt I can give you a diagnosis but I can maybe help steer you in the right direction.
Given the radiologists interpretation of your MRI findings being caused by Ischemia, and you seem to have widespread involvement and it has been chronic and progressive, I would lean towards Vasculitis, or a blood disease or something where your liver doesn't breakdown or produce certain proteins like it's supposed to.
A doctor who specializes in Internal Medicine and/or Hematology might be your best bet. If where your at now with your neurologist,they think this all caused by Migraines then their totally bleeping nuts! And it might be time to move on.
Some of my impressions are that you have symptoms of Intracranial Hypertension, which will cause a constant pressure feeling in the head, increased pressure on the optic nerves called Papilledema, hearing your heartbeat in your ears called Pulsatile tinnitus, when ever your cranial blood pressure increases from exertion your intracranial pressure increases with it and you will have a worsening of symptoms, when intracranial pressure reaches the 40-50 mm/hg level it will cause a loss of consciousness, and your brain can respond to the pressure and vascular constriction by creating Migraine like pain on top of the pressure pain. This pressure on the brain combined with your lesions in your white matter can account for your cognitive deficits.
But the Intracranial Hypertension probably would be secondary to an underlying inflammatory or blood disease,because you have other symptoms that still are not explained by just IH. Like your hands and feet turning blue, and your arm swelling, and heavy menstruates. And it's important to know that you could have all of these symptoms without IH, like Vasculitis is notorious for creating hemorrhage in the small capillaries of the retina, and it can create reduced blood flow to other organs including the brain. But there are many forms of Vasculitis that affect different vessels.
With a blood clotting or blood disease it can create small Thrombi throughout the body and reduce blood flow as well, or it can create an excessive breakdown of certain proteins or red blood cells in the blood that build up and create small clots.
So in conclusion I'm no expert but those are some of my impressions, I don't know if it made any sense but let me know if you want me to help you some more, or maybe I can explain something in more detail. I probably forgot some stuff too so let me know if I did. That and I don't know how much blood work you've had, or if you've ever had a Spinal Tap, or a follow up MRI.
Take care
Wow, this is complex, I doubt I can give you a diagnosis but I can maybe help steer you in the right direction.
Given the radiologists interpretation of your MRI findings being caused by Ischemia, and you seem to have widespread involvement and it has been chronic and progressive, I would lean towards Vasculitis, or a blood disease or something where your liver doesn't breakdown or produce certain proteins like it's supposed to.
A doctor who specializes in Internal Medicine and/or Hematology might be your best bet. If where your at now with your neurologist,they think this all caused by Migraines then their totally bleeping nuts! And it might be time to move on.
Some of my impressions are that you have symptoms of Intracranial Hypertension, which will cause a constant pressure feeling in the head, increased pressure on the optic nerves called Papilledema, hearing your heartbeat in your ears called Pulsatile tinnitus, when ever your cranial blood pressure increases from exertion your intracranial pressure increases with it and you will have a worsening of symptoms, when intracranial pressure reaches the 40-50 mm/hg level it will cause a loss of consciousness, and your brain can respond to the pressure and vascular constriction by creating Migraine like pain on top of the pressure pain. This pressure on the brain combined with your lesions in your white matter can account for your cognitive deficits.
But the Intracranial Hypertension probably would be secondary to an underlying inflammatory or blood disease,because you have other symptoms that still are not explained by just IH. Like your hands and feet turning blue, and your arm swelling, and heavy menstruates. And it's important to know that you could have all of these symptoms without IH, like Vasculitis is notorious for creating hemorrhage in the small capillaries of the retina, and it can create reduced blood flow to other organs including the brain. But there are many forms of Vasculitis that affect different vessels.
With a blood clotting or blood disease it can create small Thrombi throughout the body and reduce blood flow as well, or it can create an excessive breakdown of certain proteins or red blood cells in the blood that build up and create small clots.
So in conclusion I'm no expert but those are some of my impressions, I don't know if it made any sense but let me know if you want me to help you some more, or maybe I can explain something in more detail. I probably forgot some stuff too so let me know if I did. That and I don't know how much blood work you've had, or if you've ever had a Spinal Tap, or a follow up MRI.
Take care
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