I'll preface this by saying I have great insurance and literally no pecuniary reason not to see a doctor, but I have been swamped at work and neglected my health. Also I'm not sure if I should see my PCP (who is an all around bad doctor with no bedside manner) or a neurologist.
Recently I've been having some problems that probably point to something that may be serious. It started about three weeks ago when I was driving. It felt like something popped inside my head above my left ear, then I temporarily lost the ability to read. I couldn't read street signs, much less complex sentences, for about 2 hours. I slowly regained my ability to read back.
Now I'm having problems with the right side of my body. I had a shooting pain in my right index finger that hampered my work for the rest of the day. Now I have shooting pains in the right side of my face, but I'm not sure if it's the toothache. I've never had a toothache this painful before.
Along with those physical problems I never smile and never laugh. I'm tired all the time and sleep with my mouth open (I've been checked for sleep apnea and I don't have it).
I know there are some premed students on here, and if anyone can give me some leads on how serious this is and what I might have I'd appreciate it.
Basically, you should just see a doctor. Anything to do with mental faculty like inability to read should immediately prompt a doctor's visit. If you don't like your PCP, see someone else. Good insurance would allow for that. Don't make excuses, ask for a day off at work, and then go see a doctor.
Go to the doctor. Right now in fact. Your judgment has clearly been compromised since you didn't already go to the doctor. Loss of any faculties, for any amount of time, is serious because it may come back and at an even more inconvenient time.
Go to the ER. To at least get the ball rolling and to get some pain relief. Pain makes you do things you wouldn't normally do and even though some pain killers make you loopy at least you won't be in pain.
-You temporarily lost your ability to read.
-You have strange issues with a specific side of your body.
-You have emotional issues since you felt this.
This all began when something "popped" over your ear.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you had a mild stroke.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you had a mild stroke.
Minor stroke is the best-case scenario, barring migraine. The other options would be tumors, brain infections, physical trauma to the brain, or Alzheimer's.
So yeah, seeing a doctor would be advised.
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The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
A brain infection probably would have resulted in some catastrophic failure by now, as is the nature of either viral or bacterial infections that go on undetected long enough.
Well that's just a lovely set of possibilities there. Brain tumor and stroke. My mom had the right side of her body paralyzed and it ended up being hypokalemia. We had a similar surgical procedure done and I get my potassium and magnesium checked regularly, so it's not that.
I'm not calling the ask a nurse helpline because they're virtually useless. They always tell me to go to the ER for minor stuff, because they have a legal liability. I had heart palpitations and dizziness and it ended up being hypertension from the 5 hour energies I would constantly drink. I don't have high blood pressure anymore and my cholesterol is normal.
It's the weekend and SXSW is in town so I have a good feeling I won't be able to see an actual neurologist until Monday. I've gone to the ER for ear infections that left me with vertigo and they don't help at all. In fact, every time I've been to the ER it was a huge waste of my time.
See, if it was merely "temporary loss of ability to read", then it will probably be neurological in origin.
Same with the emotion issue.
But the pain on a specific side of the body strongly suggests something is seriously wrong (not that the rest do not, but the human brain on a very rare occasion just goes bonkers). All of those are signs of a stroke.
This is what WebMD says are common signs-
Sometimes symptoms of stroke develop gradually. But if you are having a stroke, you are more likely to have one or more sudden warning signs like these:
Numbness or weakness in your face, arm, or leg, especially on one side
Confusion or trouble understanding other people
Trouble speaking
Trouble seeing with one or both eyes
Trouble walking or staying balanced or coordinated
Dizziness
Severe headache that comes on for no known reason
And this is what the NIH's department on neurological issues say-
The symptoms of stroke are distinct because they happen quickly:
Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg (especially on one side of the body)
Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
Sudden severe headache with no known cause
I strongly encourage you to go see a doctor, even if you think that this is trivial. My mother thought she was having a minor seasonal stomach bug, but decided to go to the doctor anyways because my dad has good health insurance. It turns out the pain came from a lump in her ovaries. Which turned out to be ovarian cancer. A combination of my mom being paranoid about basic pain + a very attentive primary care physician saved her life.
I strongly encourage everyone to not take lightly any pain that they cannot immediately point a cause to.
Well, unless you don't mind the possibility of dying early.
See, if it was merely "temporary loss of ability to read", then it will probably be neurological in origin.
Not likely. Aphasia is relatively common in strokes. With neurological problems, the problem wouldn't be as sudden but would onset gradually. Epilepsy and migraine can lead to short bursts of it, but I'm highly doubtful that these would've gone unnoticed until now. Herpes that spreads to brain can also cause it, but would also have a number of other symptoms. So unless steroids or fentanyl is involved, it was probably a minor stroke. Somewhere around 70% of people fail to recognize a mild stroke when they have it, so that would be consistent.
Though I don't think we're going anywhere here. Just go to a doctor, mate. He'll tell you what it is much better than we would.
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The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
Go to a doctor. And fast. Just by asking this here, you made a bad decision wich could lead to either an accident that would cause a long time hospitalization or even death. If something goes bad with your head, you need to go see the doctor. But be wary, if you have symptoms to your body, be sure they also check your head (one of my gramps died of a cerebral tumor last month, doctors were checking his body, but not his head, they found the tumor after he fell months later, so anything suspicious can be a hint towards something bigger and more deadly).
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Casual crazy magic player, otaku maniac, unrully cosplayer, what did you expect me to be?
A little late to this thread, but it looks like everyone else has it spot on. It sounds like a CVA (cerebrealvascular event - AKA stroke). There are basically 2 types of strokes - ischemic (most common; narrowed blood vessel - not enough blood to brain - brain hiccups and causes neuro symptoms, which can range from numbness to weakness to incontinence to aphasia) and hemorrhagic (least common; but most fatal; blood leaks in brain - not enough blood to brain - brain hiccups). Risk factors are like any artery-damaging disease: smoking, hypertension, Diabetes, high cholesterol, Atrial fibrillation, any coagulation disease.
I hope you have gone to the doctor's for a stroke workup. If this is recent enough, a head CT should be still be able to detect blood to rule out hemorhagic stroke. Also, definitely keep yourself up to date on your own chronic conditions (listed above as risk factors) in you have any. If you're a young person with a relatively benign medical history, you'll likely need to be evaluated further as it's not usual to have stroke symptoms due to the risk factors I listed above. A space-occupying cancer and/or infection are also possible diagnoses, and the doc may or may not want to look into those.
Also, for those interested, Aphasia is simply impairment in language. For 95+ % of people, language is in the left brain (Brocca's area in frontal lobe; Wernicke's in the temporal lobe; Arcuate Faciculus connects the two and is in the Parietal lobe). Brocca = expressing language. Wernicke = understanding language. AF = allows for repetition. Damage to each area due to stroke / cancer / infection will produce the appropriate symptoms. Ie. damage to Brocca = impaired fluencey and repetition; pateint talks slowly using simple words, patient can't repeat sentences, patient can understand language perfectly.
EDIT:
I'm a Medicine resident. I admit that my knowledge of strokes is limited, so I really shouldn't be giving advice (esp over internet). But the bottom line here is to go see doc and to get regular health checkups. God forbid you have a blood clotting disease you didn't know about.
I went to the doctor and they gave me an MRI and a full blood panel. I suspected I had hypokalemia, but everything turned up normal. They're sending me to a neurologist to get anything checked out, so I'll be making that appointment on Monday. They actually seemed quite disturbed that I didn't go to the doctor as soon as I lost my ability to read, so your concerns were well-founded.
I have a very long family history of stroke, but I'm young and they ruled that out. They mentioned something about parasites but said I'm not immunocomprised. I asked if it may have had something to do with the fact that I lived next to a federal Superfund site for 8 years as a child and the doctor was quite dismissive.
When I see the doctor I'll mention the superfund site, because I don't really have a family history of stuff like MS or other neurological issues sans stroke. I don't know if my sudden stoppage of birth control (I have endometriosis and it didn't do squat for it) has anything to do with it.
Thanks for your advice, everyone. Even if it didn't show up anything abnormal it was an important first step. Because I'm so used to not having insurance I always wait until it's far too late. And the tingling and pain in my right arm was the stopping point. Imgio34, I especially thank you for the medical expertise.
I actually have this weekend off (both days!!) after a grueling 22 day-straight ICU shift, so I have some time to contribute to threads (and play mmo's, but that's a different story).
It's good that you're getting this taken care of. But please be more quick about it if there is ever a second time. The doc was likely disturbed for the reason I mentioned early in my last post. A stroke due to a brain bleed (ie. caused by rupture of a brain aneurism - irregular enlargement of a blood vessel) can be fatal. That's why we're taught to do a CT asap to rule out brain bleed. As you can imagine, the immediate treatment of lack-of-blood stroke vs brain-bleed stroke are vastly different. After 2 to 3 days, the CT won't be able to tell the difference. It's good that the MRI didn't find any funky stuff like cancer, Tb, or HIV-associated infections (look up ring-enhancing lesions if you want to see something scary).
I apologize, but I assumed you were a male. The fact that you're a female makes things (a bit) more complicated. Female hormones tend to mess things up physiologically, which is why pregnancy is another risk factor for strokes. The monthly cycling varies between women, so it's sometimes unpredictable. I'm sure when you started taking OCP's, they mentioned the risk of clots (commonly deep vein thrombosis - which could lead to pulmonary embolism). All due to female hormones. Suddenly stopping may have contributed to the problems, but it's hard to tell.
Anyway, the neurologist will likely go over the risk factors I mentioned earlier. I like to tell patients to always "be good to yourself." <- not saying that you smoke like a chimney and have uncontrolled diabetes, but just something I like to say to everyone =)
If you have other questions, feel free to send them to me. I can give suggestions, but take what I say (and what everyone else here says) with a grain of salt.
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Recently I've been having some problems that probably point to something that may be serious. It started about three weeks ago when I was driving. It felt like something popped inside my head above my left ear, then I temporarily lost the ability to read. I couldn't read street signs, much less complex sentences, for about 2 hours. I slowly regained my ability to read back.
Now I'm having problems with the right side of my body. I had a shooting pain in my right index finger that hampered my work for the rest of the day. Now I have shooting pains in the right side of my face, but I'm not sure if it's the toothache. I've never had a toothache this painful before.
Along with those physical problems I never smile and never laugh. I'm tired all the time and sleep with my mouth open (I've been checked for sleep apnea and I don't have it).
I know there are some premed students on here, and if anyone can give me some leads on how serious this is and what I might have I'd appreciate it.
My helpdesk should you need me.
Go to the ER. To at least get the ball rolling and to get some pain relief. Pain makes you do things you wouldn't normally do and even though some pain killers make you loopy at least you won't be in pain.
-You have strange issues with a specific side of your body.
-You have emotional issues since you felt this.
This all began when something "popped" over your ear.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you had a mild stroke.
Minor stroke is the best-case scenario, barring migraine. The other options would be tumors, brain infections, physical trauma to the brain, or Alzheimer's.
So yeah, seeing a doctor would be advised.
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
Tumor also sounds like a possibility.
I'm not calling the ask a nurse helpline because they're virtually useless. They always tell me to go to the ER for minor stuff, because they have a legal liability. I had heart palpitations and dizziness and it ended up being hypertension from the 5 hour energies I would constantly drink. I don't have high blood pressure anymore and my cholesterol is normal.
It's the weekend and SXSW is in town so I have a good feeling I won't be able to see an actual neurologist until Monday. I've gone to the ER for ear infections that left me with vertigo and they don't help at all. In fact, every time I've been to the ER it was a huge waste of my time.
Same with the emotion issue.
But the pain on a specific side of the body strongly suggests something is seriously wrong (not that the rest do not, but the human brain on a very rare occasion just goes bonkers). All of those are signs of a stroke.
This is what WebMD says are common signs-
Sometimes symptoms of stroke develop gradually. But if you are having a stroke, you are more likely to have one or more sudden warning signs like these:
Numbness or weakness in your face, arm, or leg, especially on one side
Confusion or trouble understanding other people
Trouble speaking
Trouble seeing with one or both eyes
Trouble walking or staying balanced or coordinated
Dizziness
Severe headache that comes on for no known reason
And this is what the NIH's department on neurological issues say-
The symptoms of stroke are distinct because they happen quickly:
Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg (especially on one side of the body)
Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
Sudden severe headache with no known cause
I strongly encourage you to go see a doctor, even if you think that this is trivial. My mother thought she was having a minor seasonal stomach bug, but decided to go to the doctor anyways because my dad has good health insurance. It turns out the pain came from a lump in her ovaries. Which turned out to be ovarian cancer. A combination of my mom being paranoid about basic pain + a very attentive primary care physician saved her life.
I strongly encourage everyone to not take lightly any pain that they cannot immediately point a cause to.
Well, unless you don't mind the possibility of dying early.
Not likely. Aphasia is relatively common in strokes. With neurological problems, the problem wouldn't be as sudden but would onset gradually. Epilepsy and migraine can lead to short bursts of it, but I'm highly doubtful that these would've gone unnoticed until now. Herpes that spreads to brain can also cause it, but would also have a number of other symptoms. So unless steroids or fentanyl is involved, it was probably a minor stroke. Somewhere around 70% of people fail to recognize a mild stroke when they have it, so that would be consistent.
Though I don't think we're going anywhere here. Just go to a doctor, mate. He'll tell you what it is much better than we would.
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
A little late to this thread, but it looks like everyone else has it spot on. It sounds like a CVA (cerebrealvascular event - AKA stroke). There are basically 2 types of strokes - ischemic (most common; narrowed blood vessel - not enough blood to brain - brain hiccups and causes neuro symptoms, which can range from numbness to weakness to incontinence to aphasia) and hemorrhagic (least common; but most fatal; blood leaks in brain - not enough blood to brain - brain hiccups). Risk factors are like any artery-damaging disease: smoking, hypertension, Diabetes, high cholesterol, Atrial fibrillation, any coagulation disease.
I hope you have gone to the doctor's for a stroke workup. If this is recent enough, a head CT should be still be able to detect blood to rule out hemorhagic stroke. Also, definitely keep yourself up to date on your own chronic conditions (listed above as risk factors) in you have any. If you're a young person with a relatively benign medical history, you'll likely need to be evaluated further as it's not usual to have stroke symptoms due to the risk factors I listed above. A space-occupying cancer and/or infection are also possible diagnoses, and the doc may or may not want to look into those.
Also, for those interested, Aphasia is simply impairment in language. For 95+ % of people, language is in the left brain (Brocca's area in frontal lobe; Wernicke's in the temporal lobe; Arcuate Faciculus connects the two and is in the Parietal lobe). Brocca = expressing language. Wernicke = understanding language. AF = allows for repetition. Damage to each area due to stroke / cancer / infection will produce the appropriate symptoms. Ie. damage to Brocca = impaired fluencey and repetition; pateint talks slowly using simple words, patient can't repeat sentences, patient can understand language perfectly.
EDIT:
I'm a Medicine resident. I admit that my knowledge of strokes is limited, so I really shouldn't be giving advice (esp over internet). But the bottom line here is to go see doc and to get regular health checkups. God forbid you have a blood clotting disease you didn't know about.
I have a very long family history of stroke, but I'm young and they ruled that out. They mentioned something about parasites but said I'm not immunocomprised. I asked if it may have had something to do with the fact that I lived next to a federal Superfund site for 8 years as a child and the doctor was quite dismissive.
When I see the doctor I'll mention the superfund site, because I don't really have a family history of stuff like MS or other neurological issues sans stroke. I don't know if my sudden stoppage of birth control (I have endometriosis and it didn't do squat for it) has anything to do with it.
Thanks for your advice, everyone. Even if it didn't show up anything abnormal it was an important first step. Because I'm so used to not having insurance I always wait until it's far too late. And the tingling and pain in my right arm was the stopping point. Imgio34, I especially thank you for the medical expertise.
I actually have this weekend off (both days!!) after a grueling 22 day-straight ICU shift, so I have some time to contribute to threads (and play mmo's, but that's a different story).
It's good that you're getting this taken care of. But please be more quick about it if there is ever a second time. The doc was likely disturbed for the reason I mentioned early in my last post. A stroke due to a brain bleed (ie. caused by rupture of a brain aneurism - irregular enlargement of a blood vessel) can be fatal. That's why we're taught to do a CT asap to rule out brain bleed. As you can imagine, the immediate treatment of lack-of-blood stroke vs brain-bleed stroke are vastly different. After 2 to 3 days, the CT won't be able to tell the difference. It's good that the MRI didn't find any funky stuff like cancer, Tb, or HIV-associated infections (look up ring-enhancing lesions if you want to see something scary).
I apologize, but I assumed you were a male. The fact that you're a female makes things (a bit) more complicated. Female hormones tend to mess things up physiologically, which is why pregnancy is another risk factor for strokes. The monthly cycling varies between women, so it's sometimes unpredictable. I'm sure when you started taking OCP's, they mentioned the risk of clots (commonly deep vein thrombosis - which could lead to pulmonary embolism). All due to female hormones. Suddenly stopping may have contributed to the problems, but it's hard to tell.
Anyway, the neurologist will likely go over the risk factors I mentioned earlier. I like to tell patients to always "be good to yourself." <- not saying that you smoke like a chimney and have uncontrolled diabetes, but just something I like to say to everyone =)
If you have other questions, feel free to send them to me. I can give suggestions, but take what I say (and what everyone else here says) with a grain of salt.