Need help with Episodes
 

I had a concussion in mid July of this year. For about a month afterwards I would have upwards of 100 episodes a day of involuntary muscle movement and speech problems, as well as occasional confusion.

The past two months have been clear and my doctor OK'd me biking. I have had no problems biking until today, about two hours after they flared up again.


I had an MRI, CT, and EEG. My neurologist said it wasn't seizures and that they were called episodes but didn't give me any direction or anything.

Can I please have some advice on what is happening, why, and if there is anything I can do to help them?

Video of it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcni3gCLWVA

The URL did not work, but no linking until you have the required # of posts. Sorry.

If you can describe your episodes that will help members to relate.
What happens, when it happens, how long it lasts, etc.

Do you think it is related to the concussion, or not fully certain?
Anyone in family have anything like it at all?

Milk_Shake,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. I've never heard of movements as extreme as yours. How hard were you riding ? Did you mean the episode started 2 hours after your ride ?

How did you get your concussion ? How bad was it ?

They may be what is called tics. I had tic movements early on too but was put on a med that helped. Jarring my head can trigger the movements.

I thought mine were seizures at first.

What are your movements like?

My episodes tend to be different at different times.

It's mostly involuntary flexing movements of either my hands and arms, face, or my chest and back.

It can be only one of them, a couple but not all, or all at once.


Sometimes during I will become limp in either of those but that's rarer. I will not be able to lift my head up for example. Or my hands will have trouble holding things or typing.

I never lose contentiousness but sometimes if the episode is really bad I'll get blurry and double vision and get dazed and confused. I'll forget where I am mostly.


They can last for seconds, minutes, and sometimes go on for hours, which is what's happening today. I was on hour 2 when I made the video.

They can be neck related I've read and can be treated with proper care-upper neck chiropractor specialist and pt.

Are the movements worse when you lay down or are trying to fall asleep?

As for the concussion I went to the ER the day after I crashed. The reason why I went to the ER was because of these symptoms and they diagnosed me as having post concussion syndrome. I got a CT that day because my speech was slurred and my memory was completely shot. It came back negative for bleeding or a stroke.

After that I went to my doctor to get a referral to a neurologist. She had me take an MRI and EEG when my episodes weren't going away and were starting to get worse.

They came back negative.

Could be dystonia or tics. I was misdiagnosed with dystonia at first.

Look them up. There are videos of other people with each of the conditions.

How are your other symptoms?

Certain meds called anti ecliptic scan help with these things. I took topiramate.

It is possible to acquire tics after brain injury.
One example from PubMed below...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21534741
Brain Inj. 2011;25(6):629-33. doi: 10.3109/02699052.2011.572944.
Tics after traumatic brain injury.
Ranjan N1, Nair KP, Romanoski C, Singh R, Venketswara G.
Abstract

However, you describe slurred speech, confusion, memory problems and going limp.
Were you having the movements when you had the EEG?
Did they suggest an ambulatory EEG? That's one you can move around with and take home and it monitors you over a much longer period of time.

Wow, yeah. That does cover a lot of the problems I am experiencing.


I had an uncle that my mom said would have epileptic seizures but only if he was really fatigued and stressed. I wonder if my mom misunderstood and it was this.


How would I go about approaching my doctor and do you know how such a thing is tested?