Please Help my mom! stroke like sypmtoms, no diagnosis?
December 29th, 2010
8 comments
Barry D asked:
First of all thank you all for your time and consideration in reading this. Forgive me for being long winded, but i’m trying to include every possible detail, because i don’t know if one minor symptom could be the key in finding the answer to my mom’s diagnosis. Right now my mother is in the hospital suffering from some very common neurological symptoms of an unknown origin. My mother is a 45 year old white female who lives in the Ohio valley close to Louisville, we live next to an army base and lived in Germany for about three years in the 1980′s (mad cow disease was prevalent at that time in Europe). She has had no major health problems, only a history of tubal ligation, allergy to codeine, and what we believed to be hypoglycemic episodes in combination with a variety of small vague symptoms which i believed to possibly be Fibromyalgia. She sometimes complains of neuropathy type pain in her hands and feet. Her blood sugar has bottomed out, causing some slurred speech and lethargy, but after providing some nutrition she has returned to her norm. She has suffered from migraine headaches for several years, and has been treated with a PRN prescription of Imitrex, usually sleep in combination with this medication relieves her symptoms. On the following day after she has had a migraine she complains of her face being sore in the area where the pain originated. She has a very acute sense of smell and often complains of smelling mildew in our home, therefore i considered some sort of toxic mold, however with this last and most acute exacerbation, she was in Ohio visiting family. A few years back a fasting blood sugar revealed impaired glucose metabolism with a blood glucose level of around 117. She has appeared to have refractory hypoglycemia, in which her blood sugar drops in response to eating sugar, unlike normal diabetics who have an increased blood glucose after eating foods rich in sugar. I believed she had just been an undiagnosed brittle diabetic, however, her Hgb A1c was 5. Starting about a month ago, what we believed to be hypoglycemic episodes worsened. She very suddenly started becoming very tired, somewhat lethargic, and confused, sometimes not being able to talk. I am a nurse by the way, and in my clinical experience have seen these symptoms quite frequently. She has had close to 8 of these episodes in about the past month, they have started to increase in intensity, duration, and frequency. Each time she has taken longer to return to her norm, and they last longer. With the very last episode which called for hospitalization, she wasn’t able to speak and couldn’t even move. We checked her sugar when it happened and it was 67, her pressure was in the 180′s, and pulse was slightly tachycardic. She has yet to return to her norm, and continues to appear very tired, and is still slurring her speech and talking very slowly. She is slightly confused at times and has generalized weakness. She has had thyroid and cortisol levels drawn which are both normal. The only abnormal labs have been an ESR and WBC of 12. MRI revealed a sinus infection. I considered it causing some sort of encephalitis or meningitis, but she has had no neck tenderness, her wbc is not extremely high, and she has had no fever. CT, MRI, MR angiography of the brain, EEG, EKG, and carotid Doppler scan have ALL BEEN NEGATIVE! At times her right side seems slightly weaker, her deep tendon reflexes are intact, her pupils are perrla, cranial nerves are intact and WNL, but when asked to do a heel to toe walk she had trouble with her gait and also had difficulty with sliding her heel onto her opposite knee downward. Weakness appears mostly in her lower extremities. Her troponin level came back zero initially, then 1.7, and back to zero when rechecked….(the lab probably mixed up the tubes?). But i thought it was worth mentioning. Again i apologize for being long winded, but i wanted to include every possible clue. Thank you for your time…
I forgot to mention a few things….several years ago my mom was in the house when our dehumidifier caught on fire, and there were some toxic fumes she breathed in a little. Since then she has had what seems to be exercise induced asthma. Also as she has aged she has gained more and more weight, but she exercises quite frequently and eats very very lightly and healthy at that…..
Baltazar….the doctor is aware thank you! I wouldn’t be telling the yahoo community unless they were stumped. Also the MRI did not show any plaque sites consistent with a diagnosis for MS, i’m going to ask the neurologist about a lumbar puncture to rule out protein in the csf fluid….which would be an additional way to indicate Multiple Sclerosis
i realize this is yahoo answers, but we have exhausted multiple avenues of consultation without any leads or diagnosis. This is a last resort for me, I thought perhaps someone on here might know of something or someone who found resolve in a similar situation.
Ms thank you for your input, i appreciate the thoughtful time you put into your answer. I also considered TIA but the neurologist doesn’t seem to agree. mom has had some parkinson like symptoms with tremors and also hasn’t been able to stick her tongue out all the way….there are just so many little things i’m praying they can be put together to create a clear picture of whats going on.
Black Mold
First of all thank you all for your time and consideration in reading this. Forgive me for being long winded, but i’m trying to include every possible detail, because i don’t know if one minor symptom could be the key in finding the answer to my mom’s diagnosis. Right now my mother is in the hospital suffering from some very common neurological symptoms of an unknown origin. My mother is a 45 year old white female who lives in the Ohio valley close to Louisville, we live next to an army base and lived in Germany for about three years in the 1980′s (mad cow disease was prevalent at that time in Europe). She has had no major health problems, only a history of tubal ligation, allergy to codeine, and what we believed to be hypoglycemic episodes in combination with a variety of small vague symptoms which i believed to possibly be Fibromyalgia. She sometimes complains of neuropathy type pain in her hands and feet. Her blood sugar has bottomed out, causing some slurred speech and lethargy, but after providing some nutrition she has returned to her norm. She has suffered from migraine headaches for several years, and has been treated with a PRN prescription of Imitrex, usually sleep in combination with this medication relieves her symptoms. On the following day after she has had a migraine she complains of her face being sore in the area where the pain originated. She has a very acute sense of smell and often complains of smelling mildew in our home, therefore i considered some sort of toxic mold, however with this last and most acute exacerbation, she was in Ohio visiting family. A few years back a fasting blood sugar revealed impaired glucose metabolism with a blood glucose level of around 117. She has appeared to have refractory hypoglycemia, in which her blood sugar drops in response to eating sugar, unlike normal diabetics who have an increased blood glucose after eating foods rich in sugar. I believed she had just been an undiagnosed brittle diabetic, however, her Hgb A1c was 5. Starting about a month ago, what we believed to be hypoglycemic episodes worsened. She very suddenly started becoming very tired, somewhat lethargic, and confused, sometimes not being able to talk. I am a nurse by the way, and in my clinical experience have seen these symptoms quite frequently. She has had close to 8 of these episodes in about the past month, they have started to increase in intensity, duration, and frequency. Each time she has taken longer to return to her norm, and they last longer. With the very last episode which called for hospitalization, she wasn’t able to speak and couldn’t even move. We checked her sugar when it happened and it was 67, her pressure was in the 180′s, and pulse was slightly tachycardic. She has yet to return to her norm, and continues to appear very tired, and is still slurring her speech and talking very slowly. She is slightly confused at times and has generalized weakness. She has had thyroid and cortisol levels drawn which are both normal. The only abnormal labs have been an ESR and WBC of 12. MRI revealed a sinus infection. I considered it causing some sort of encephalitis or meningitis, but she has had no neck tenderness, her wbc is not extremely high, and she has had no fever. CT, MRI, MR angiography of the brain, EEG, EKG, and carotid Doppler scan have ALL BEEN NEGATIVE! At times her right side seems slightly weaker, her deep tendon reflexes are intact, her pupils are perrla, cranial nerves are intact and WNL, but when asked to do a heel to toe walk she had trouble with her gait and also had difficulty with sliding her heel onto her opposite knee downward. Weakness appears mostly in her lower extremities. Her troponin level came back zero initially, then 1.7, and back to zero when rechecked….(the lab probably mixed up the tubes?). But i thought it was worth mentioning. Again i apologize for being long winded, but i wanted to include every possible clue. Thank you for your time…
I forgot to mention a few things….several years ago my mom was in the house when our dehumidifier caught on fire, and there were some toxic fumes she breathed in a little. Since then she has had what seems to be exercise induced asthma. Also as she has aged she has gained more and more weight, but she exercises quite frequently and eats very very lightly and healthy at that…..
Baltazar….the doctor is aware thank you! I wouldn’t be telling the yahoo community unless they were stumped. Also the MRI did not show any plaque sites consistent with a diagnosis for MS, i’m going to ask the neurologist about a lumbar puncture to rule out protein in the csf fluid….which would be an additional way to indicate Multiple Sclerosis
i realize this is yahoo answers, but we have exhausted multiple avenues of consultation without any leads or diagnosis. This is a last resort for me, I thought perhaps someone on here might know of something or someone who found resolve in a similar situation.
Ms thank you for your input, i appreciate the thoughtful time you put into your answer. I also considered TIA but the neurologist doesn’t seem to agree. mom has had some parkinson like symptoms with tremors and also hasn’t been able to stick her tongue out all the way….there are just so many little things i’m praying they can be put together to create a clear picture of whats going on.
Black Mold
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