Muscle twitching after gamma knife

Hi, just wandering if anyone else has experienced muscle twitching after gamma knife? I had gk 2 months ago to remove a brain AVM . 2 weeks ago my chin muscle was twitching in the night for over an hour and last night my thigh muscles were twitching for over an hour in the night too. I’ve never had this before but find I’m panicking about everything now. Any ideas to what it might be would be helpful please as my neurologist appointment is taking forever to come. Thanks. Gill.

I haven’t noticed any change since having gamma knife to the muscle twitching I experience from time to time. Usually occurs when I’m really tired, and for me the tricep muscle or forearm. Take Care, John.

Hi, Welcome. My name is Les, your comment about muscle twitching is interesting to me. I live on the Olympic Pensulia, Washington, USA. Since my Gamm Knife treatment and its success, I’ve had had muscule twitiches just out of the blue. My Dr’s think since my gamma knife the twitching is related to that but also could be related to something else. To make story short, pay attention to the twitching, write down dates and if possible how they affected you. That’s how I deal with it.

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Hi, thanks John.
Hopefully it’s nothing to worry about then. It’s just weird when these new symptoms start after having radiation. How much of your AVM has gone now? Gill.

Hi Les
Thanks for your reply and good idea, I shall do that. I’m pleased your gamma knife was a success.
Gill.

I hope all of it Gill! I’m due for another MRI in November, so I hope after that it is an angio. November will mark two years. I still have pulsatile tinnitus so likely there is still a flow issue, however am optimistic for November and then hopefully not too long a wait for the angio. Although I don’t see the angio happening unless my neuro is fairly confident it is gone. Take Care, John

Hi JD12! I m doing my angio at the two years mark! December! I m full of numbness and pain that comes and goes with different levels of intensity and the neuro wants to see if I have radiation necrosis to do hiperbaric oxygen therapy and if the avm is closed already, I cant wait for December :pray::pray::pray::pray:

Looking forward to December for you as well, hoping for good news. I’m a little worried about the pulsatile tinnitus, always had it but it is a s loud as its ever been right now and has been unchanged for several months. I can live with it, just hope it is not an indication of other problems. I don’t want to wish away the summer but November and December may be interesting months!

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Wow that’s great John, I’ll have my fingers crossed for you then. How much had gone on your last scan and when was that? You always give me hope! :slight_smile: thank you.

Sorry to hear about the tinnitus though, hope it’s nothing serious.

Thanks Gill, I hope its nothing serious as well and having no effects so figure all is well. I’ll mention it next time I see the neuro for sure. Take care, John.

The twitching and numbness could be a seizure. I am on anti seizure medicine because I experienced those symptoms after gamma. I never even considered seizures a possibility because when I thought of seizures I thought of people on the floor twitching but there are different types of them. Just a thought.

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Hi Edn, thank you for your reply. My doctor believes they are partial seizures too now but I’ve had then on both sides of my body now rather than just the side the avm controls so I don’t understand that. Can you describe yours please. Were your twitches on both sides too? And how long after gamma knife did your twitching start? How many partial seizures did you have before they put you on medication? Thank for any help. Gill.

My symptoms were more than just twitched actually. There was slight twitching, sometime numbness, sometimes spotty vision. It wasn’t often that I had those symptoms after my gammaknife. If I had to guess I would say I had symptoms like that once or twice a month for maybe 30 minutes. I was on no medication after gammaknife for 4 years. Then I had an incident where I had spotty vision for an hour, I could not rember names of people I sat next to at work, and I was twitching. My sister in law who is a nurse made me go to ER and eventually a neurologist and it was determined to be a seizure. I went on kepra and have not had any more incidents like that in the two years I’ve been on the meds. Hope this helps. The meds are no big deal if you do have to go on them. I don’t notice any side effects.

Hi Edn,
That’s really helpful thank you. That seizure must have been very scary for you. Last night I just had random twitches 3 on arm, 5 on neck, and odd ones . It’s really weird I feel like I’m all charged up, I don’t know if they can be partial seizures. But it’s reassuring to know that nothing serious came of yours and you’re now AVM free, yippee! :slight_smile:

Alas, I have no answers for you. The side of my face is paralyzed after my craniotomy. 4 years later I still get twitches in my lip and on my nose on the paralyzed side. Something makes it move but I can’t. I’ll be interested to follow this thread, thanks for posting!

Hi Jeremy
I’m sorry to hear about your poor face.
I’m still awaiting a neurologist but gamma knife center in London said although it’s very rare it can be a symptom of the radiation working and that it’s not serious unless I have other symptoms with it such as blurry eyesight. They can’t tell if it’s a partial seizure unless they test me whilst it’s happening! But if you haven’t got radiation working I don’t know what else it can be. Gill.

Hi again John,
What did the doctor say about your muscle twitches, did he recommend epilepsy tablets? Thanks Gill

Hi Edn, does the medication stop your muscle twitches? Can I ask what it’s called and what side effects you have please thanks

Hi. Yes the medicine is called kepra and it did stop the symptoms. The first couple months of being on kepra I was tired. That was really the only side effect. After a couple months I stopped noticing being tired.