Please help...scared!

[AATiday]

I just wanted to post on here to see if I can get some input or reassurance.  I know that its impossible to diagnose someone over the internet, but maybe some of you can relate to these symptoms and help ease my mind.  I am 29 years old, a female.  I have suffered from migraine headahces for 7 years.  In Oct of 2007, the migraines became very frequent, so I decided to have an MRI done.  The MRI came back with a tiny lesion on my brain.  My neuro did a spinal tap to rule out MS and a few other things.  Everything came back normal.  Good enough.  

Then, in Feb of 2008, I noticed a change in my vision.  I go off into a stare about 100 times a day and everything goes blurry for a few seconds, then when I blink it clears up.  A few months later, I began to have body wide muscle twitching daily and limb jerking on occasion.  I went BACK to the same neuro, who told me that a brain tumor and MS had been ruled out due to my "clean" MRI a few months prior.  He did a EEG on me to check for seizures (normal), threw me some depression pills and sent me on my way.  

In the meantime, I visited three different eye drs about my eye problem....each time they just changed my eye prescription, which never helped me.  About the same time I visited my Primary Care Dr about the muscle twitching...he gave me nerve pills and sent me on my way.  I got tired of it and stopped going to Drs.

Fast forward about 16 months later (to now)....I am still having the eye problem (going into stares tons of times per day and having to blink to clear things up) and the twitching and limb jerking is still occuring.  I decided to visit another eye DR about my eyes.......because I am still terrified that all of this might be a brain tumor.  She checked my eyes very thoroughly and said that my eyes are weak and recommended that I do some eye excerises.  She has also scheduled a Visual Field Test in July to check for brain tumors and other problems.  This scares me, because I know migraines and muscle twitching/limb jerking can also be related to a brain tumor....and that lesion that was found on my brain (and never checked again) really haunts me.

Bottom line is, I am scared to death that I have a brain tumor.  The wait is killling me, and I dont go back until July 14th.  I am 16 weeks pregnant and I know this stress isnt good for me or my unborn baby.  

Can anyone ease my mind??  

Thanks!!

[AATiday]

WOW!!  Thanks for that valuable information.  I am not too concerned about MS at this point, because after the MRI was done in 2007, my Neuro said that he wanted to do a spinal tap to help rule out MS.  The spinal tap was normal, and therefore my neuro chalked it all up to the migraines.  He said that spinal taps are 99 percent accurate for diagnosing early MS.  So the negative spinal tap was a good thing.

The fact that this info states that " Periventricular hyperintensity is a normal finding that should not be considered indicative of either demyelinating disease or hydrocephalus" is quite comforting at this point.  

At least the info doesnt seem to say anything about a brain tumor.....not that I could determine, at least.  I am still waiting for the 14th.....its getting easier with help from people like you.

Happy 4th of July!

[rumpled]

I found this:
"Periventricular hyperintensity was identified using long repetition and echo times in spin-echo magnetic resonance imaging of patients with white-matter disease (e.g., multiple sclerosis) caused by local demyelination and in hydrocephalic patients caused by transependymal migration of spinal fluid. A review of 365 consecutives studies revealed that some degree of periventricular hyperintensity is present in most patients (93.5%) regardless of diagnosis. Mild periventricular hyperintensity was seen in patients with no other evidence of intracranial pathology. Periventricular hyperintensity is a normal finding that should not be considered indicative of either demyelinating disease or hydrocephalus. More extensive and severe periventricular hyperintensity is associated with intracerebral pathology, but the finding often is nonspecific. For example, mild periventricular edema from hydrocephalus is impossible to differentiate from the increased periventricular hyperintensity seen in patients with multiple white-matter lesions. Thus, the pattern of periventricular hyperintensity has proven to be of limited value in the clinical assessment of hydrocephalic patients. "

Before you think you have MS, white matter lesions also show up a lot if you have migraines. Your doctor has to evaluate and may do further testing.

[AATiday]

Thank you for taking the time to answer.  I do appreciate it.  I do not have a copy of the actual MRI, but I do have the report, and in short it says ""there is a very minimal pattern of T2 flair periventricular hyperintenisty".    Does this tell you anything?  If not, I can type up the whole report.  Thanks!

[rumpled]

I would suggest that you find a neuro-opthomologist who knows more about the eyes, the muscles and deals with more difficult cases.

I would bring your MRI and maybe the doctor can suggest another doctor to see.

The thing is that migraines themselves can cause white matter lesions - so do you have the exact wording of what is on the MRI - do you have the report and the MRI itself?

Then perhaps you can find a neuro-muscular specialist and try to find out about the twitching - they would do an EMG.