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Brain Met Symptoms
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Brain Met Symptoms

› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Brain Met Symptoms

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    • October 1, 2019 at 11:22 am
    gregisblessed
    Participant
      Hello, I am grateful for this avenue of support and the wonderful encouraging words I have received. I am back with a concern and wanted some feedback.
      I was diagnosed with scalp (crown) melanoma, 1.65mm depth, no ulceration, December 2015. CT and PET were clear, SLNB resulted in removal and biopsy of 11 LN, all clear. Excision of scalp with clean margins (skin graft from thigh). NED since although about two years ago a vitamin B deficiency resulted in dizziness and 10 months ago a cough that wouldn’t go away coupled with dizziness resulted in my GP ordering a head and chest CT scan which was clear.
      My new concern (hopefully I don’t seem like a hypochondriac) is the dull tension headaches that i’ve had for about 10-12 days that won’t go away. The last day or so, they’ve been accompanied by some nausea. I’ve tried not wearing contacts, decreasing caffeine intake, taking antihistamines thinking maybe it could be allergies, etc. Should I seek out a MRI? Have others had brain mets with tension headaches as only symptom? The nausea isn’t bad or constant so wondering if Dr Google is making me paranoid. Any thoughts appreciated.
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        • October 1, 2019 at 3:00 pm
        Linny
        Participant
          I am sorry to hear you’re going through this. You DO have one thing going in your favor and that is your scans are clear. Just your worrying about this can be cause for nausea and tension headaches. It’s OK to be paranoid/hyper-vigilant because you’re dealing with something like melanoma. The cause behind your headaches could be something as simple as clenching your jaw. But the only way you can put your mind at ease is to give your doctor a call.
          • October 1, 2019 at 6:05 pm
          doragsda
          Participant
            It is most likely not anything serious, but to answer your question of if you should seek out a MRI, I would say yes. With a history of melanoma, any CNS symptoms should be evaluated thoroughly, and the MRI is the best way to do that.

            My wife had her melanoma removed from her leg in December 2016. Clear lymph nodes, clear PET scan everywhere, she was staged 2c. 6 months later I had to take her to the ER with dizziness and nausea and two brain mets were found on MRI. Symptoms of brain mets really depend on the affected location in the brain.

            Do you have an oncologist from your prior melanoma episode? It would be best to talk to him/her if so. My wife’s general doctor was treating her for simple vertigo even though she knew about her melanoma history. The “vertigo” turned out to be two brain tumors.

            • October 2, 2019 at 1:15 am
            JudiAU
            Participant
              It is worth discussing with your doctor. It could be related or not. But start the conversation now if you are concerned. NB: my original Melanoma oncologist Pooh Pooh’s my brain tumor symptoms (and yes, had a giant tumor unrelated to melanoma discovered a month later) had almost three years of treatment and that is how they discovered my melanoma brain met and that melanoma had returned.
              • October 2, 2019 at 12:28 pm
              jbronicki
              Participant
                Hello,

                Agree with everything everyone posted. Unfortunately, those two symptoms can be related to many things as well as melanoma. As you noted above, you have had dizziness and there was nothing noted on the CT scan. As you probably know, the only confirmation is getting a brain image if you want to rule brain mets. Once you hear that you have melanoma, it is hard not to correlate symptoms with Melanoma, we all understand this for sure and understand the worry about being a hypochondriac. It is much more probable that this is not related to melanoma but the only confirmation is getting a head CT or brain MRI, if you feel strongly, doesn’t hurt to ask and you did have a melanoma on your scalp so I don’t think you are a hypochondriac, it is nerve wracking. It reminds me of my husband’s experience. He had a 22 mm melanoma (considered metastatic since no skin component) on his upper back area near his neck. Of course around the same time as his diagnosis and surgery, he said he had nearly passed out twice due to head pressure and dizziness in the past four months. He happened to mention this to me in passing. Now, my husband never talks about medical stuff and for him to even say anything scared the crap out of me. You couldn’t convince me he didn’t have brain mets! This was right before we had his first set of scans after the WLE/SLNB But it turns out he didn’t. As you know, with allergies, sinusitus, inner ear infections and so many other things can cause the symptoms above. Dr. Google will do a number as well. i wish you the best!

                  • October 17, 2019 at 9:46 pm
                  gregisblessed
                  Participant
                    Thanks to all! I had head CT scan done and it showed no abnormalities. Almost immediately after this, I observed (felt) a new papule on my scalp in my scar. See related post. Prayers for all of you.
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