Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 10/30/2011

Question
Hi Claes
My name is jake and im 16 and i am worried sick not knowing whether or not i have a brain tumor. I rarely get the headaches , at most i get them 2 or 3 times a week. As for seizures, i keep getting these muscle twitches usually in my calfs or around my hamstrings. My concentration in lessons is being disturbed but that could be due to lack of sleep because i usualy only get 5-6 hours a day. I sometimes get nauseous but without no vomiting. And i often get pins or needles though that i usually when i am on my laptop. All of a sudden i keep having short term memory loss. Im sorry for bothgering you but when ever i complain to my mum she just says that i am paronoid and that my headaches and twitches are because i am growing which is very true. Ive heard that some of these symptoms can be due to anxiety and im not sure. But i am adopted and my birth mother and father both had mental health problems so im not sure if its got something to do with that. Im sorry for taking up your time and i hope you can help me, do i have a tumor?

Answer
Jake, I'll tell you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! I do not know! I can not know without examining you (which I can not do, I'm retired and I'm in Sweden while you are in Britain). And I would also have to run some special examinations of you to be sure. Most important an MRI scan of your brain (a CT scan would also do but is less certain). Your symptoms are not such that I really think a tumour is probable but as I wrote I do not know and can not be certain without what I have described. What is obvious is that these thoughts are worrying you and probably will continue to do so unless it can be confirmed that your symptoms are not caused by a brain tumour. I can assure you that if your symptoms indeed are caused by such a tumour that tumour will be detected by such brain scans! So if no tumour is detected in such scans your symptoms are NOT caused by such a tumour!
Good enough? It should be! I do not think your mother has understood how much this is really troubling you and your worries will probably not go away by being told that you are paranoid either. So I do suggest that you talk to your mother again and let her read what I have written. And ask her to make an appointment with a doctor for you (best a neurologist, but I'm not sure if she can do that - go directly to a specialist - since I believe that the to me rather strange rules of the British National Health Service demand that everything must go through your GP - in my opinion that is like you could not visit a butcher without being referred there by your local department store). If anything is unclear your mother is welcome to contact me here! Good luck! Please let me know how things turn out! Do not bother yourself with what is written about donations below!





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