Tommorow I will talk to my psychiatrist about the Strattera and ask if I can get an EEG. But I also have had other symptoms which are what led me to believe I may have a brain tumor.
Last year I passed out randomly no explanation. I went to ER they gave a heart scan not a brain scan. They said everything checked out normal. Could not find a cause. That narrows it down. The random fatigue/dizziness, ringing in the ears, morning headaches, muscle numbness. nausea. It makes the most sense because the symptoms are getting worse too. They assumed I was dehydrated.
For the past two weeks I’ve been woken up early in the morning with a seething migraine in the lower back of my head. My ears started ringing constantly before I developed symptoms that got diagnosed as chronic schizophrenia. Recently my vision has gotten worse, blurrier/vision loss. I have astigmatism in my eyes that isn’t normal for people of my age. I’m a 31 year old woman and my visions gotten worse for the past four years. I have to wear glasses and I can’t see anything far from me.
Not only do I have ringing ears, constant headaches in the morning that go away after I drink coffee and take strattera, but also numbness in my hands and legs that started this year too. Where my hands or legs fall asleep randomly. Sometimes with pressure sometimes without. I wonder if it always was something else not schizophrenia. Would be really sad if I found that out almost don’t wanna know at this point. But I can’t know until I get a scan.
Brain tumor and schizophrenia are two separate medical conditions. I have ringing ears, cracking/electric sounds/feelings at the lower back of my head, my mother has severe migraine.
I passout when its too hot. Now I have AC, no more passout.
Numbness without nerve pressure is something you need to tell your family dr about. Brain tumors are detected with MRIs, not EEG. EEG is for sleep disorders, etc
I had all these symptoms when I had a brain tumor, but there are also other causes. You’ll want an MRI of your brain, not an EEG. You can only get an MRI if you have an abnormal neurological screening. Basically, the doctor checks your pupils,checks your balance, tests your reflexes, and checks your sensation on both sides of your body. If you live in the US it is easier to get a CT scan, but less accurate and it exposes you to marginal amounts of radiation.
That said, even when I got rid of my brain tumor, the schizophrenia stuck around for life. And the migraines never fully went away. And the vision disturbances. But I AM alive to tell the tale, so I can’t complain.
Thank you for the insight. So I need to get an MRI. Is an MRI when they put you in the machine that blasts noise for thirty minutes? I had something like that done once, when I was fifteen. I’m really nervous to get it done, but it may save my life. I just hope it’s not too late.
Yes in the narrow tube. It is scary if you don’t like tight spaces. I take Benadryl beforehand, and try to take a nap during the procedure. It also helps because I need my MRIs with gadolinium contrast dye, which I am allergic to.
You will tell your general doctor,who will do a neurological evaluation and determine whether you have abnormal findings.
They will either order the MRI, or refer you to a neurologist (depends on your health history and insurance. Sometimes a GP can’t order an MRI)
The neurologist, if you go,will ask a lot of questions that seem unrelated, and do another MRI.
You will get the MRI. It will be scary, so take someone along for comfort.
If you have abnormal findings,you will find out within a day. If you have normal findings, you will find out within a week.
If you have a brain tumor:
Go to a trusted university hospital with a good reputation for your type of tumor.
Ask what your treatment options are.
Ask what your doctor’s record is for this type of tumor. If it is not OUTSTANDING request a better doctor. This is your brain, it isn’t the time to be polite and take chances on an inexperienced doctor
If you are in the US
4. Find out the cost of treatment up front, and what your insurance will cover. If your insurance will not cover the treatment you feel is best, SUE THEM. They will cave eventually.
5. During treatment, always ask for an itemized bill. Fight every item on the list. There is a good chance a lot of the items will be dropped or reduced
Keep track of the names of your treatment team. If you see a name on the bill that is unfamiliar, refuse to pay that part. Doctors do a shady thing where they bill themselves for a consult because they walked into your room while you were unconscious for five minutes. If you fight it, you won’t have to pay.
I have never had headaches. I have never had the numbness. These symptoms all started recently like this year. My mom wants to think its diabetes. But I don’t think that is the main issue. My mom was recently diagnosed with diabetes and she is getting better with medicine for this. My mom also has schizophrenia. I don’t think it’s the Aristada because I’ve been on Abilify for 15 years, started the Abilify injection for one year, and then this year Aristada. I worried the vision loss was due to Abilify. But I don’t think anti-psychotics cause tumors do they? Also, my schizophrenia symptoms were never hallucinations. More-so personality/mood and thought disturbances. Doing things repeatedly that made no sense. Inability to communicate/cognitive issues/recklessness and impulsivity.
The onset of my schizophrenia was more unusual than others I have read. My mind went completely dark. I got worse and worse. It was like falling into a black hole. couldn’t feel emotions. could not think normally. They called it catatonic schizophrenia. Then later I developed paranoia because I did not think it was schizophrenia and fought with the psychiatrists constantly. I only ever had induced hallucinations that went away when being on a different medication. So I may have some type of schizophrenia, but what if it was something else in the beginning or a sign of it that went undetected?
It would be good to rule it out to see if this is being caused by medication or something else.
Yeah. It could be a tumor. But, it is very important to remember that some symptoms of brain tumirs stick around even after you are cured. So regardless of the cause of your symptoms, it is still important to stay compliant with your treatment.
Brain tumors don’t cause schizophrenia, even catatonic sz. I have catatonia when unmedicated.
I have itching from diabetes. Meds don’t cause tumors. You can have sz without positive symptoms and then don’t need meds bcz meds are only for positive symptoms like hallucinations, delusions etc
The earliest symptoms of sz is cognitive symptoms, then positive then negative. As for impulsivity make sure its not the Abilify. Recklessness, impulsivity and addictions can be side effects of Abilify for some ppl like me my psychiatrist said. I stopped Abilify over a year ago and no more impulsivity, addictions and recklessness.
Abilify can cause blurred vision, it did for me and I fixed it with laser in 5 min by my ophtalmologist.
In my experience, this is demonstrably false. I developed psychosis, and my doctor found a brain tumor. It may have been coincidence, but they both happened at the same time.
I asked my psychiatrist to give an MRI because I thought it causes sz and he refused. He said there is no reason and an MRI doesn’t detect schizophrenia.
Brain damage tends to stick around even after the tumor is removed. Your doctor probably refused you because you had a normal neurological evaluation and did nit display other signs of a brain tumor. But brain tumors can cause psychosis and numbness and vision changes and migraines.
When brain tumors grow, they cause scar tissue to form around them. This increases the negative effects and the scar tissue can’t all be removed in every case. I still have some.
Brain tumors can cause lots of things. So can other illnesses. It is crucial that doctors don’t ignore possible physical ailments in patients who present with psychiatric symptoms. It is crucial that we don’t dismiss the possibility of physical illnesses in our fellow members just because they also have psychiatric symptoms. If my doctor had just dismissed my complaints as psychological, I would have died at age 17.
Most doctors will first request a CT scan then follow up with an MRI as needed. The CT scan is much quicker and isn’t enclosed.
The CT should be able to detect most tumors, cysts, etc. If the CT is inconclusive or shows an anomaly, it is usually followed up with an MRI since that typically provides much more detailed information and can also provide information for other conditions such as MS. Note that a brain MRI requires an additional open “mask” over your face that holds your head in place and aids with the imaging (the “mask” has large coils).
Also, note that diagnostic imaging can also detect congenital structural abnormalities that may not necessarily be associated with your current symptoms. They refer to these as coincidental findings. This happened to me. I found out I have a lemon sized arachnoid cyst in my brain plus Chiari I malformation (both congenital birth defects apparently) when I went in to the ER with sudden onset double vision some years ago. I had a CT done at the ER and a follow up brain MRI. Neither birth defect was ever conclusively tied to the double vision and the double vision resolved after 4 weeks.
I just called the Nurse Helpline from my health insurance. She recommended I be seen today based on my symptoms to go to an urgent care first or emergency room if I can’t get seen today.
