Hi Linda,

I'm so glad you dropped in. I've often thought of you and Brian and was wondering how you both were doing. That's great news that a new blood supply is growing.

I don’t know if I can shed any light on this for you or not, but I’ll try. A stroke or seizure can manifest itself in so many different ways. With either a stroke or seizure, in some cases you may never even know you had one. A stroke is simply any disease process that kills cells in your brain. Some regions in your brain can die and yet a patient will have no symptoms at all. Yet other areas of the brain are much more important and even if a tiny amount of cells die in these locations, it can cause severe disabilities or even death. You brain is composed of these living cells that require a blood supply to provide oxygen and nutrients, so if Brian had an episode where his blood supply was interrupted long enough to destroy any brain cells, a stroke will result (Cell death) whether he had any symptoms or not and it can show up on an MRI.

With a seizure, that’s simply abnormal electrical activity in the brain, and sometimes that’s hard to notice as well, especially in a child. There are so many different types of seizures and they come in so many different forms. They may simply consist of staring spells, or an emotional change in behavior, like crying or fear or a change in sensation or vision and many times this can all happen in your sleep, and it may only last a few seconds, so like I said, in some cases, a seizure is not always noticeable either.

The brain is so complex and amazing. I remember asking the doctor if my niece had a complete blockage of a carotid artery, then how is she functioning, why aren’t her cells dying? He said, the brain's blood supply is being maintained by the other blood vessels, and that’s what’s saving her from more strokes or death. Confusing, but true. That’s why surgery is so vital for a MM patient. The new blood supply lessens the chance of destroying any more brain cells.

I hope I explained that ok and that it helped you some.

Take care. Hugs to Brian, and my continued thoughts and prayers.

Mar

I went to the er when I had my stroke and they did a CAT scan, which of course showed nothing.  A week later my regular Dr. ordered a MRI because he suspected MS.  The MRI a week later showed the "acute" stroke.  I was then referred to a neurologist who  did another MRI approximately 2 weeks later and she said my stroke "looked" very old to her although I knew it was only 2 weeks old.  I have no idea why the stroke "looked" old when I knew it wasn't.  I really don't even know how they can tell, and the radiological reports never mentioned how old it "looked." 
I believe what matters is he is getting proper blood flow now!  Thank God for that! 
Michele      

Hi Linda,
The report from my first MRI/MRA said both a recent and an old infarct were evident. Wish there was some way of putting a date to that old infarct, especially as I think it coincided with a car accident I had about eight months earlier. Here's a web page I found that describes what an old infarct looks like on an MRI/MRA. Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or
You might ask his neurologist to have the radiologist do a comparison between this recent MRI/MRA and his earlier one. The old infarct might have been there but was overlooked during by the radiologist who reported on the earlier scan. Good news on the growth of new blood vessels!
Kim

Thank you everyone for your responses.  It did help somewhat.  We are changing neurologists and going to Childrens Memorial Hospital downtown Chicago.  I hope we can get a knowedgeable caring neuro through there.

Thanks again,
Linda

Hi Linda,

My daughter was diagniosed with moyamoya almost a year ago after a serious ischemic stroke while she was moving in to her dorm room at college. Like so many moyamoya patients she was first suspected to have MS. This was because her CAT scan showed several lesions on her brain from previous small strokes that she probably had been having over many years. She never had head aches or TIAs or anything during her school years that caused us to suspect a problem. But a few days before her junior year at UNCW she sufferred a serious stroke in her left brain. That stroke was followed by at least two others and several seizures. 

The brain is truely amazing! It begins to adapt immediately to the damage caused by a stroke. So often the insult to the brain is never detected.  All of this is good news for moyamoya patients like my daughter who could barely walk, talk or perform sequential tasks after her strokes but who can now, after lots of hard work, do all of those things.  Since her bypass surgeries she has made great progress, she is practicing her driving again and getting ready to take a college class next month.  She has been weaned off of her seizure medication and she got me up this morning to workout with her at the Y.  My advise is find very good doctors, I recommend Stanford University, Learn everything you can about the decease and demand the best care.

Prayers and confidence that your son will be just fine.

JP