New symptoms

[Jake]

I was walking fine for about 10 minutes in Cisco yesterday and then the back of my neck started hurting really bad and I felt weak I didn’t think I could make it back out to my car. On my way home I had double vision which I occasionally have. I stopped at my neurologist and I saw him and he believes that I had a focal aware seizure in Costco. He claimed I didn’t come when called into exam room until the third time. Although I suppose a Focal Aware is possible I don’t really believe that’s what happened. After 13,000+ seizures I pretty much know when I have a seizure not Tonic-Clonic seizures but focal seizures pretty much for sure, Especially Focal Aware seizures. He wouldn’t let me drive home. Now I’m wondering if he’s going to yank my drivers license again. I just paid $3100 to get my car fixed and I’m certainly not gonna let it just sit again and deteriorate. He can’t prove I had a seizure and I can’t prove that I didn’t and of course the motor vehicle department is going to believe him over me. On my previous Nuro appointment he’s believed I had arthritis of the neck because of a somewhat similar incident that happened. I didn’t have a neck pain but I had a pain over the occipital lobe removed slowly towards the front and my legs became weak. He believes that was attributed to arthritis in my neck. Yesterday when he examined me he said my neck with stiff, same thing he said on a previous visit. So now I have to find a rheumatologist and see if there’s arthritis in my neck and if it could’ve possibly caused the issue at Costco. The symptoms that I had at Costco could have certainly been a seizure manifestation.
I was going to ask him for an EEG to see if there was any focal activity but that would only give him more ammunition to prove his case. I’m hoping the rheumatologist will be able to prove to me one way or the other if I do in fact have arthritis in my neck.
I imagine he will yank my license again but whatever happens will happen, no need to stress about it.
Has anyone experienced anything like this or anything similar.
Thank you for any assistance you can provide.
Jake

 

[Nakamova]

Hi Jake --

Sorry to hear about the latest stress -- it's no fun wondering if you'll have your license taken away, and it's no fun trying to figure out whether you've had a seizure or something else is going on.

Neck pain and leg weakness can be caused by spinal stenosis in the neck -- that's where the narrowing of the spine puts pressure on the nerves. It's pretty common -- it can develop slowly due to aging or from a herniated disc. Your doc should do some imaging tests (xray/MRI/CT) to help diagnose the problem.

How long have you had the double-vision? Does your neuro have any ideas about what may be causing it and/or what to do about it? Among other things, it can be caused by being on too high a dose of meds.