Why Am I Experiencing A Throbbing Sensation In My Head That Is Not Painful, Slight Vision Distortion And Loss Of Motor Ability In The Right Hand Muscles?

Posted on Thu, 12 Jul 2018

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 12 Jul 2018 Answered on

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 Last reviewed on

Question : I experienced a throbbing sensation in my head, not painful but felt like I could feel and hear a pressure like throb, pumping in my head. Next, My left thigh felt numb... then my vision got funny. peripheral vision felt blurry and strange. Next, the numbness starting moving up then my hand and arm on that side were numb and felt uncoordinated. It all lasted for about 30 minutes from beginning to end. After I had a headache on the right side behind my eye next to my temple for about a day. not severe but it would hurt if I shook my head or coughed. Everything seemed to go away. Then it happened again about 2 weeks later. Then about a week after that I was trying to put a cover on a boat and suddenly my right hand was all weak and felt like it wouldn't respond to me. like the muscles had just gone limp. Since then, almost daily or every other day, I've been experiencing very slight vision weirdness like described above and an occasional sense of loosing control of the muscles in my hand on the right side. tingling and some numbness (very mild) everywhere it seems. example: I play guitar and can smoothly finger pick with my right hand fingers... but, when this happens, suddenly, my hand responds like I was just learning. very jittery and hard to control. To me, its VERY noticeable. there is definitely a problem. Not sure what this is but I feel like its been slowely progressing. sometimes I think its just in my head until I get those very real and very clear symptoms. and the earlier attacks I described were VERY real and scarry. Any ideas?

Answered by Dr. Olsi Taka (44 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
TIA or seizures possible, MRI needed.

Detailed Answer:

Hello,

Judging from your description those episodes might constitute transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), which typically are neurological deficits lasting less than an hour. They happen due to transitory lack of blood flow leading to dysfunction of the brain area which does not receive blood.

Another possibility would be that of seizures. Seizures can come in many different forms and those episodes could be focal seizures due to abnormal electrical discharges in a brain area.
For both of those hypothesis there is the need for diagnostic imaging through MRI of the brain as well as blood vessels in the head and neck. That is done to check for brain lesions such as stroke, tumor, inflammation as well as to check blood vessels for atherosclerotic plaques or changes in the vessel wall which might lead to insufficient blood supply.

Other hypothesis would include metabolic alterations such as changes in glucose and electrolyte levels, so some routine blood tests are recommended as well. Given the localization of the symptoms on one side though less likely.

I remain at your disposal for other questions.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar