Has anyone else found themselves telling other people to go get themselves checked out for symptoms like you had before you knew what was wrong? I am constantly telling my co-workers to get themselves checked. Anyone mentions a headache for example, "Go get a CT/MRI....." Well this one lady has complained of headaches since I have known her and she has never had a scan of her head done. She always blames it on her blood pressure. But anyway, stuff like that.I had always blamed my symptoms on other stuff. Like passing out on being sick or excercising too hard. Headaches on sinus trouble. Dizziness on dehydration. Feeling like I was falling over to one side for no reason was blamed on not eating well. Zoning out while driving was sleep deprivation. My leg jumping uncontrollably while I was trying to sing in front of everyone at church was my nerves. I blamed all my symptoms on something else except what it was.At least until I had a seizure at work 2 days before my 39th birthday. I wonder how many other people have one of these things and don't even know it? I lived 39 years before I knew.
Hi Melissa,
I think it's pretty normal to attribute symptoms to other causes. My wife's AVM showed up at 40--something one DR mentioned to her. He said it so un-tactfully, like "Well, you are 40, and things like this tend to show up as you age................" She didn't like that!
For her, her legs would go numb. She attributed it to sitting cross legged or tucking one foot under her as she sat in a chair. What she was really experiencing was the beginnings of seizures..........
I'd be a little cautious of suggesting anyone with a headache to get a CT scan. You might come across as a nervous nelly or something. But you are right, persistent heachaches are nothing to ignore.
Best wishes,
Ron KS
I do this all the time!! I tell people even if they have other symptoms like that of a heart attack go to the doctor ASAP.
Because of what i went through a few people i know have gone to the hospital when they have gotten sudden severe headaches. Everything turned out okay but i am glad they went to rule out anything major.
I do it too. I have a friends whose daughter has severe headaches with vision loss. I begged her to take her to a neurologist and seek an MRI. Her daughter does not have an AVM (thank goodness) but she has a type of migraine. At least she now has medication to help. I think given what we know now which me may not have known before it's only natural.
My Mother had almost daily nausea. She made excuses too. "It's my teeth. They are always abscessed." Well she did that for a year and I told her, "You need to go get that seen about. That is not normal." When she finally went to tell her doctor about her terrible abdominal pain she had developed 3rd stage Ovarian cancer. They thankfully got her in remission, but unfortunately the chemo they gave her to treat the ovarian cancer also gave her CML(Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia). She had a massive stroke and couldn't take her medications for the CML. Anyway, I saw how much it put my daddy through taking care of her until she passed away. I don't know if that is why I feel so about informing everyone that they need to look into everything. Don't blame their symptoms on anything until they get it checked out. Don't just assume.
With my avm I found myself wanting to get my 9 year old daughter checked out but in the uk it’s not that easy. She sometimes says she can hear her hart beating in her ears, wushing when she does a little running around… Scares the crap out of me because of my knowledge of avm’s… Every headache she has my stomach turns…
I tell friends that as a child, I had frequent headaches and light-headedness, but the adults in the family would just give me Tylenol and think nothing of it. I started taking pain killers (albeit occasionally) before the age of 12 and had my rupture at 21. What I say to my friends is that I encourage them to take their children's chronic complaints seriously and if in doubt, get a scan. It doesn't hurt to be safe, and something like an AVM could be caught before any bleeds.
Hi Melissa...I find myself doing that at times. Particularly with my coworker, Chris, who frequently calls in late because of migraine pains a while back. He did get this checked out, and luckily, he does not have an AVM.
I experienced migraines since I was nineteen, and I had always looked at them as just that, migraines. My former coworker would ask me to see my doctor about this, and she would tell me that I just had allergies. My AVM would not be discovered until the age of twenty-six, three weeks after a rupture. I ignored a lot of the symptoms that I had (memory lapses, speech difficulties, etc) because I felt fine physically. I sometimes wondered what would have happened if I paid more attention to these symptoms before my rupture. Which is why I feel it is important to spread the word on this rare condition.