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Suggest Treatment For Upper Respiratory Illness
Question: My mother fell a week ago after a brief illness with an upper respiratory illness. She was weak and dehydrated...............laid in the floor for 15 hours. In hospital now. She had fluid on her lungs and that is better. IV ATB tx. Currently, she started jerking all over 2 days ago and her speech is garbled and we and the MD do not know what is going on. Hx: NIDDM HTN Gout Neuropathy in her feet and hands. The MD gave some medicine for 'Parkinson's' to help with the jerking all over her body. She has no hx of Parkinson's. Med change: She did have her Gabapentin increased to 3/day as at home. The MD had had her on 2 per day. This happened on this past Sunday - 2 days ago. This is the only med change that we know about. Also her BP was high when she first went to hospital. We are concerned about a stroke. Her mind is very clear. Please help with any ideas..............thank you
Brief Answer:
These are probably myoclonic jerks.
Detailed Answer:
Thank you for posting your query.
I am Dr Sudhir Kumar, Neurologist, and I would try my best to help you.
I have noted your mother's clinical details. Based on this, the most likely cause of her jerks is myoclonus, also called as myoclonic jerks. Myoclonus is a rare side effect of gabapentin and it usually subsides on stopping the drug in a few days.
In view of speech disturbance, it would be a good idea to also do a brain scan to exclude stroke (as she has the risk factors for stroke- DM, HTN and old age).
I hope my answer helps. Please get back if you have any follow up queries or if you require any additional information.
Wishing you good health,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
Click on this link to ask me a DIRECT QUERY: http://bit.ly/Dr-Sudhir-kumar
My BLOG: http://bestneurodoctor.blogspot.in
These are probably myoclonic jerks.
Detailed Answer:
Thank you for posting your query.
I am Dr Sudhir Kumar, Neurologist, and I would try my best to help you.
I have noted your mother's clinical details. Based on this, the most likely cause of her jerks is myoclonus, also called as myoclonic jerks. Myoclonus is a rare side effect of gabapentin and it usually subsides on stopping the drug in a few days.
In view of speech disturbance, it would be a good idea to also do a brain scan to exclude stroke (as she has the risk factors for stroke- DM, HTN and old age).
I hope my answer helps. Please get back if you have any follow up queries or if you require any additional information.
Wishing you good health,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
Click on this link to ask me a DIRECT QUERY: http://bit.ly/Dr-Sudhir-kumar
My BLOG: http://bestneurodoctor.blogspot.in
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Yogesh D
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