Temporal arteritis
 

I know for my age i shouldn't have this. But for me i seem to fit the profile of symptoms. I have fatigue, and i get vessel spasms in my head. actually right in the temporal(temple) area. They could be related to headache, but does a headache also cause cognitive symptoms. along with a feeling that something is wrong. and when the spasms happen i know that something is wrong, because all the energy is sucked out of my body. I know it's not cluster or migraine. cause the pain isn't so bad that i have trouble with bright light, or nausea.

And funny thing is the only drug, that really fixed it, and the cogntive problems associated with it was topamax. which i believe works on the temporal lobe. But again the side effects with that were too much to handle, or maybe there is a similar drug that hits temporal lobe out there. does lamictal hit that?

i tried to eliminate all excititoxins, from diet sodas(or soda in general) cause i knew it had an effect on me. but does sucralose(splenda) count? my father gets a lot of sugar free type puddings or ice cream sandwiches out there. the ice cream sandwiches he eats are the skinny cows, and i cant seem to find the artificial sugar they use in it(it just says sugar alcohols.

Re: Temporal Arteritis
 

If you have not seen a Medical Doctor for this condition you need to and ASAP. A simple blood test “ESR” aka Sed Rate, ordered by your Dr. will help diagnose your condition and/or at least exclude Temporal Arteritis, which is a serious condition.

Please do not wait.
Regards
Joe

Just curious about the ESR test, my past gp would order it when i asked for it but my current refuses to saying all it does is show if you some kind of inflammation going on and it is not a definitive test. She also has called me a drug seeker but I refuse all opiates and benzos so go figure. I have Trigeminal Neuralgia and had a failed mvd surgery in Dec. 2007. Guess I went and had brain surgery so I could seek drugs that I don't want or ask for lol! Gee the lengths I go to!

Yah, but say if you had a Creactive protein test done, as well as an ESR done, Would that make it a more definitive diagnosis? I tested high in the CRP test, so i have some sort of inflammation going on, maybe both combined would make for a temporal arteritis inflammation DX. not sure though. maybe mrsD can answer this, but if you have inflammation you may go for corticosteroids instead of other abusable drugs, but they have their own side effects. hypomania i heard was one of them, in addition to high blood pressure. I've had both so that might not be a good combo.

If you've had your retina examined, and have abnormal ESR, c-reactive protein and hematocrit results, the next step should be biopsy of the temporal artery. This would give a definite yes or no to the diagnosis of temporal arteritis. Some doctors might opt for an ultrasound of the temporal artery before deciding whether to proceed to biopsy or not.

OK, so this may seem strange or offtrack but I was diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder awhile ago. So, part of my obsession with health deals with this. But anyways, so i figured out that i don't wash my face like normal people do. I used to not wash it cause I didn't want acne. But instead of acne, I just got dead skin that was never washed off. So anyways, this may have something a bit to do with my heartburn issues and even breathing issues. As of late, when i washed my face, my skin looks paler and actually there is actual signs of yellowing of the face and my feet also got more yellow. Like this is maybe an actual sign of liver disease. My bilirubin has always been high but doctors explained that it was Gilbert's disease.

But I really think my constant fatigue, combined with this jaundice may lead to something. The jaundice is more pronounced if I clean my face on a regular basis.

I'm going to a cardiologist soon, he probably will look into looking at my eyes. and look into my other issues. I'm also getting my arteries checked anyway by the lifeline utility.

Newly Diagnosed with Temporal Arteritis
 

My diagnosis was made with sed rate and C-reactive protein blood test. I am on 30mg prednisone a day, increasing 10mg every 5 days till I reach 60mg a day....she will run tests again to eval if I need to continue increasing dose or can start tapering off. she also has me on 1000mg Tumeric a day. She says NO MILK....anyone heard of that in this case