Brief Answer:
Racing temporal pulse

Detailed Answer:
Good morning. I am a neurologist from XXXXXXX Ohio (Dr. Saghafi) and am happy to be the one that you found to "bounce" your "PULSATIONS" off of before you leave for your business trip.

Since you've only provided that information and that information along then, I am going to assume the following other information which I generally would ask you if we were face to face...ready?

1. There is no nausea/vomiting/headaches/or other general discomfort with these pulsations other than the fact you feel the left side more forcefully and more prominently than the right side which to you seems calm and even normal in pace. Is that correct?

2. This is the first time that this is happening.

3. There is no pain in the area of either temple. You are not able to see veins "popping" out on one side compared to the other. And there is no appearance of what is sometimes referred to as "beading." In other words, the veins (if visible) don't appear to be like a string of beads or something similar? Is that correct?

4. There is no change in your visual acuity or ability to see things as you saw them let's say last evening before you went to bed...no sudden waking up to find things blurry, backgrounds darker than usual...nothing out of the ordinary, correct?

5. I'm assuming that there are no unusual joint pains in the neck, shoulders, small joints of the fingers, hips, knees, or toes....at least nothing out of whatever you consider normal for yourself. Is that correct?

6. You have not mentioned anything such as the sensation that a "curtain has fallen over your left eye" or anything like that.

7. I'm also assuming that you did not do any illicit drugs last evening before going to bed such as cocaine, stimulants, speed, PCP, or drink 2 pots of coffee, etc.....is that correct?

So, I'm hoping that I've made correct assumptions and if I have would you agree that I could probably beat XXXXXXX Copperfield as a pretty darn good mindreader...seeing as how you and I are 1300 miles away and never met except for what you've told me? I'll admit though....I cannot make the Great Wall of China disappear but neither can he just look at someone walk in from a waiting room and tell that a patient everything he has and doesn't have neurologically in 5 seconds of watching him walk and quite possibly without saying a word!

So here are a couple of rules. The body is symmetric at least for the most part. Certainly whatever blood pumping is going on in the left side of the head in order to generate what you felt and what we refer to as the "Temporal Artery Pulsation" has to be the same in terms of volume and force against the walls of the arteries.

It is therefore, impossible for a person to have actually 2 SEPARATE rates of pulsations in the same arterial system on opposite sides of the body. Physically that is an impossibility unless the person has 2 separate hearts that are independently connected to each arterial system. What that means is that your sensation of racing pulse on the left may have simply obscured the pulse on the right due to better and more superficial access on the left or there is actually a difference of some sort in the texture of the interior of the arterial system on the right such that what you perceive as a normal or lesser racing pulse is actually just a less prominent feel of the pulse on that side due to masking of the pressure from some type of interior pathology to the vessel.

The other possibility is that the entire aforementioned theory is XXXXXXX cock and all that happened is that for some reason you awoke with a lot on your mind, big meeting today, perhaps, you're not quite ready...or maybe you are and it's a big client, or big boss, or you're going to pop the question today, or maybe awaiting a big bonus check...anything that would get your ticker tockin and all that happened is that your temporal artery on the right was just not as accessible as the left because it was rolled underneath a fat pad a little bit and then, when you discovered this difference it made you even more anxious which made it even more difficult to adequately located the pulse of the artery on the right.....and we go through the whole cycle all over again.

The only way to really resolve this is to do what they do in the NFL.....you throw the red flag on the field (means you go to the doctor's office) and then, you have some "expert" video replay guy go meticulously through the films looking frame by frame, angle by angle at whatever it is that the guy throwing the flag is squawkin' about and come to a decision. Of course, in our case that would imply that the doctor, being the expert, would EXAMINE you carefully, listen with his stethoscope to both temporal arteries, palpate them, VISUALIZE them, look at the overlying skin, take your heartrate and blood pressure, so a few quick cranial nerve tests of probably your Trigeminal and Facial nerves, and then, give you the final decision just like they do in the NFL.

You are either going to win the challenge which means the doctor found something he didn't like and that he needs to send you for more tests....and you pick up your flag and move on....or the play stands as called....which means the doctor doesn't find anything,,,,my initial explanations are all plausibly right and again, you can call me XXXXXXX Copperfield THE SECOND....and then, divert his royalties my way! LOL!

So how's that for a whirlwind explanation?

If everything's cool at this point and we're as we were 24 hrs. ago then, Cumbaya my friend and have a great meeting....Go get 'em Tiger! However, if you feel there continues to be this noticeable difference in one side vs. the other so far as pulsations are concerned in the head then, you need to make an appointment with your doctor when convenient. If you have any of the things I assumed were ABSENT and they turn out to be present then, you should make sure you get in to see your doctor as soon as possible.


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Please feel free to contact me directly and ask more questions on this topic or any other by using the following link:

http://doctor.healthcaremagic.com/Funnel?page=askDoctorDirectly&docId=68474

This query required 31 minutes of physician specific review, research, and final draft documentation for envoy.

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