Let me start by saying, off and on for most of my adult life (I am 35) I have had passing out spells and migraines…sometimes together, sometimes totally unrelated to one another. In the past couple of years I have started having what my husband believes to be seizures. I always have a horrible headache (sometimes a migraine) either before or after these episodes. After seeing a Neurologist a couple years ago, he determined that I had a “brain malformation.” I can’t remember the true name, but I believe he called it an arterial malformation??? Anyways, he said at the time it was nothing to worry about, that these things rarely cause any problems. He showed me where on my head this was located. First of all, it appears that the majority of my headaches (which I have ALL the time…3-4 days a week) seem to reside in or around this area. Can these two things be related? Also, while sleeping last night, I had a seizure. I don’t remember much, but my husband said that once I stopped shaking, I was trying to tell him that my left side was numb. He said I couldn’t move my mouth and was difficult to understand as well as it appeared that I could not move my left side. He said I was quite out of it, so it could have been that I was just not understanding him when he told me to do things like move my arm or leg. When I did come out of it, my left arm hurt. Oh yeah, I do have mitral valve prolapse…I forgot to tell you that, but I’m on no medication for this. Can you guess as to whether any of these things are related? Or am I just one big problem after another for my family? Please give me your opinion. I know I need to go to the doctor, but I know this will just lead to test after test and right here at Christmas, I just don’t think I’ve got it in me.

Doctor Sinuhe Answers:

I’m sure you’re not a problem for your family - we all bring both joy and sorrow to our loved ones. To love and support in health and sickness - that’s what loved ones are for.

Of course, anxiety may increase with increased knowledge, as you seem to fear (by not wanting to go to see a doctor), but I strongly think modern medicine provides really good possibilities to actually get help. For instance, in your case, the diagnosis needs to be confirmed. If you indeed have seizures (and yes, they do sound like seizures in your description), they can in most cases be effectively taken care of by proper medication. This, while actually preventing the seizures and also by reducing the fear of having a seizure, would probably ease your feelings of causing problems to your family. Not to mention the fact that seizures may in themselves be dangerous.

Moreover, if you do have some sort of “brain malformation”, it may well be the cause of seizures, even headaches. Obviously, it is not up to me to try to tell the nature of your “malformation”, without seeing the test results (usually brain MRI in this type of case). One possibility, however, would be arteriovenous malformation (AVM). There are different types of AVM, some of which warrant operation or other treatment while others no not. Since you’re doctor said it is nothing to worry about, your lesion could be cavernous hemangioma, another type of vessel malformation, which typically may cause seizures, but rarely massive bleedings.

All in all, I recommend you to rapidly see a doctor, preferably a neurologist or a neurosurgeon. Please keep us posted about what he said and what you decided.