I am 21 year old female college student, I have been dealing with these health issues since November 2013. I used to lead a healthy lifestyle, doing great in school, had a job, and participated in school organizations. Also, I was able to exercise everyday and was in the best shape of my life and ate extremely healthy no bread, lots of veggies and grilled chicken. Happier as ever.
Then one day after exercising i began to feel this nauseated off feeling that made me feel as though im not stable. I have never fallen over or fainted (except once when i got my blood drawn to check for this problem). Then gradually over time dizziness is what i began feeling not the room spinning but i feel like i am moving when im not, i feel like i have to second guess where i walk and concentrating on the computer or driving long distances is a challenge. Then started these headaches since April 2014 where i feeling like my head is shaking and pulsing inside. This pulsing and pressure worsens when I am lying down and it takes a while for me to adjust from lying down to standing up i feel woozy when i do. Anyway I have had this constantly everyday. At first it got me really emotional but I have been practicing yoga/mediation everyday as well as acupuncture and massage therapy to help manage the stress and anxiety i was having about the dizziness/head pressure.
Heres the many doctors I have seen:
blood work - all normal according my GP; blood pressure, b12, thyroid is normal
eyes (i wear contacts) - optometrist, opthamologist, neuro-opthamologist - all normal; no elevated optic nerve pressure; prescription is the same
ears - saw two ENTS, had vestibular testing done - nothing wrong
finally got an MRI - it showed i have a cavum velum interpositum cyst (3x3.7cm in sagittal views (side), 3.2x4cm axial view); i was most likely born with this - it is hard to say if has grown or always been this size and might be an incidental finding - hard for doctors to say which makes it super frustrating
**NO HYDROCEPHELUS, hemorrhage, midline shift, extra axial collection, or acute intracranial mass effect
i have seen about 3 neurosurgeons all with different opinions
- first was an adult surgeon at the cleveland clinic - said my cyst is very rare; suggest a shunt (but would not want this due to the risky foreign object nature of the device, i would rather an endoscopic procedure)
- second saw a pediatric neurosurgeon; put me on diamox 250 mg twice a day it has been making my head feel better so the doctor is inclined to think its the cyst
- third pediatric neurosurgeon at University of miami; was not convinced the cyst is causing my problems said it was probably incidental and wants me to wait 3-6 months to get another MRI
HELP? is anyone going through this.. im trying to stay as optimistic as possible. i just hope i do not have to feel like this forever i had to take the semester off of my senior year of college because i wanted to get to the bottom of these problems that have affected my whole life. just want to be normal again.
This discussion is related to
Chronic off balance sensation/dizziness.