My jaw pulling sensations...and transvestism?

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elizzza811

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Actually, first, my real question is...could these relentless 'jaw pulling' sensations be simple partial seizures in disguise? It feels as if two magnets at points located somewhere inside my lower jaw, constantly pull upwards against my will. I can unclench my teeth IF I concentrate on doing so, but even unclenched, the pulling sensations continue. And as soon as I stop concentrating on not clenching, my jaw immediately returns to clenching.

Then I read the excerpt below...(italics and bold mine)...

'Partial Seizures and Interictal Disorders - The Neuropsychiatric Elements', by David P. Moore, 1997, Butterworth-Heinemann, page123...

From the ages of 24-32 years, the patient had recurrent grand mal seizures, some of which were preceded by an aura of facial paresthesias. Then at 33 years, he began to experience a sense as if he had been punched in the stomach, followed closely by a pulling sensation in his jaw, and then, most remarkably, for the first time in his life, an "impulse to dress in female clothes". This impulse was of such a compelling nature that he did cross dress, after which he felt "completely calm" for a few minutes. These "desires to transvest" continued to occur, and on each occasion they were "ushered in by epigastric and jaw sensations." Eventually, the patient "became increasingly irritable and normal sexual activity slowly diminished over...years."

On evaluation, an EEG disclosed "one isolated spike...from the right temporal region." Radiography of the thighs and pelvis disclosed calcified cysts, which were thought to be secondary to cysticerosis. The authors concluded that the urge to cross dress was secondary to an epileptic discharge in the temporal lobe, which they suggested was, in turn, due to a small cyst.

Certainly the author's conclusion would have been much stronger had the urge to cross dress occurred during electroencephalographic monitoring. Lacking such evidence, the putative connection between epilepsy and transvestism must still be considered tentative at best.

...Now I'm not having urges to cross dress (thankfully;), but this is the first place I've found reference to any jaw pulling sensations that sound anything similar to mine, and truthfully, some of my OCD cleaning 'obsessions' feel 'urge-like' and make no sense whatsoever to me. I simply feel compelled to perform these elaborate and bizarre cleaning rituals.
 
My very early symptoms that impending sps are coming, are in my face - facial muscles pulling, a tingling sensation under my skin (am assuming very small muscles, but haven't looked into it), around my brows, and in my jaws. So I would concur that if my jaws started pulling, sps were on their way, and to stop whatever I'm doing, because that's a trigger. In my case, that trigger will almost certainly be photosensitive (computer, certain types of fluoro lights, flashing lights, animations on screen, etc).

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks, but couldn't the jaw-pulling sensation in and of itself be a manifestation of a simple partial seizure in progress? What I feel isn't so much a tingling sensation at the surface of the skin, but rather a sensation deep within the muscles of the jaw, sensations of magnetism, or even a tight rubber band, constantly tugging upwards in my lower jaw alone; my upper jaw is totally unaffected and an innocent bystander of the event. To describe it further, if I were to wrap a thick rubber band around your wrists, the resistance you would feel as you attempted to separate your hands is what I feel inside my lower jaw when I naturally attempt to relax it.
 
I mustn't have explained myself very well - I meant that jaw-pulling symptom you described, as well as the tingling and other muscular symptoms I get in my face. For me, I know these are the start of a sps, and to remove myself from the trigger.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by everything I've had to learn about E in the last 8 months, and have declining cognitive abilities to go with it. Some else might need to answer for you whether it's a sps by itself, or the start of one.

Reading back - sorry - I know that sounds abrupt, but I've had seizures overnight and have an early morning meeting to get to, so have limited time and brainspace to rewrite. Hope you understand *wink*
 
Okay, I get it now. And don't feel bad...I think my brain is kind of 'off', too, the last couple of days.
 
I was on another epilepsy forum and saw someone who had the same "jaw pulling" sensation. I think you're onto something. :)
 
Good!...well, you know what I mean. I thought I was the only one with this symptom.
 
I'm a little more "with it" today than the other day, so will try again.

I have a range of muscle movements that I consider sps. One is jaw pulling on it's own, then there are the tingling sensations under my skin which are either a seizure or pre-empt sps - I'm not sure which.

More recently my face has started scrunching up as if I'm about to go into a crying jag. I can't control it, it comes out of nowhere, and I have to wait it out - so I assume it's a new (to me) form of simple partial.

I've only had a few of the latter, so don't know what the trigger was, but with the others, the trigger is photosensitivity.
 
Have your jaw pulling sensations shown up on an EEG though? Because I've had these jaw pulling sensations during both EEGs. The sensations were more severe during the first EEG, and that one did pick up some 'potential' abnormalities - but nothing definitive, and the tech actually scolded me for the clenching (which I couldn't control). The second EEG showed nothing.

As for your face scrunching/crying spells...one of my ongoing symptoms is that some days I feel like crying my eyes out...I feel sooo emotional and ready to break down...yet it will take every muscle in my face to squeeze even one tear out, if I'm lucky. Could this be seizure-related?...the inability to cry when you feel tears in the offing, yet they just won't come out? I'm not kidding though...my face will be all scrunched up like you describe, and I will feel like tears should be rolling down my face, yet nothing comes, or only one measley tear.
 
I've only had one EEG - last September - and I'm not sure if the jaw-pulling occurred. I didn't see the report, only had the basics read out to me by my neuro, but this is what I remember of it (if I had a complex partial, it may have been longer):

This was a sitting up, fully awake EEG (walk in/walk out). When I was asked to close my eyes, the tech told me to stop moving them around; it took a while and some effort before I could. At each signal to open my eyes for the flickering light, my symptoms included (I can't remember which occurred first) teeth chattering, muscles pulling in my face, left hand jerking, then right hand jerking (so that both hands were). Not sure if my legs did, and if I wasn't so lazy I'd look it up in an earlier post I wrote about it. They do now.

I don't think any of these symptoms stopped when I was asked to close my eyes to shut out the light, but I could be wrong there. I couldn't get my eyes to settle between each session with the light, though, and the tech had to keep asking me again to keep them still.

I know I smiled during the EEG when the symptoms occurred, as I'd been a member here for a month by then, and knew how often some members have negative EEGs - and here this was my first with a positive EEG. I just about skipped out to the car park!

To the face scrunching, there was no emotion with it - I didn't feel like I wanted to cry. My face was just so scrunched up as if I was about to cry, or was very, very angry. The first time it happened, I thought "if I'm in company when this happens, I'll have to hide it, or they'll get the wrong impression." The second time was much stronger, and I imagine I looked like the walls were about to cave in. My only emotion was "OMG, what is going on here?" I'll assume this is a simple partial, just move on and not worry about it. It lasts about 30 seconds, so I'll need to drop a pen or something, so I can hide my face during that time *wink*
 
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Wow, I wish I'd already pull a positive with my EEG. Your experience sounds more severe though than mine, or at least more obvious. I occasionally experience twitching (my eyelids, my lips), but for the most part, this jaw pulling sensation occurs all alone by itself, sometimes 'pulsating' rhythmically, sometimes combined with a relentless pressure at the base of my skull, but usually not, unless I'm outright complex partial seizuring (and lose consciousness or awareness).
 
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