Has anyone else been diagnosed with essential tremor after having a ruptured cerebral aneurysm/SAH? Do you know if the two are or could be connected in some way? I see my neurointerventionalradiologist in a couple of months, but it is always good to know first hand from you all. I have my 5-year post-rupture MRA at that time, but just found out that my tremors are due to essential tremor, which didn’t sound very upsetting until I read about it and now I believe that is what my mom had for the last 7 or 8 years of her life. I thought she had Parkinson’s. ET is what Katharine Hepburn had when she acted in “On Golden Pond”. Her head and voice were very shaky, but she had no problem speaking and being understood. (I also thought she had Parkinson’s.) My mom was unable to speak coherently because her tongue was involved in her tremor condition.
I hope this isn’t considered off-topic.
Thank you for your time.
Jackie
Hey Jackie,
No, it most definitely is not off topic, in fact I would say it’s very on-topic.
An ‘essential tremor’ is another way of the medicos to say ‘idiopathic in nature’ or ‘No known cause’. I too have had a diagnosis of ‘idiopathic in nature’ and, I’m sorry to say it like this but, I considered it to be a cope out diagnosis by the medicos. My tremors are intermittent, they come and go. After all of the scans and tests they cannot comprehensively identify why I have a tremor nor why it comes and goes, it has therefore been labelled as idiopathic. I’ve had a few neurosurgical procedures and ‘the shakes’ (as I call them) have gotten progressively worse. The medicos say it’s not related, but I had no issue prior, so how can it not be related? They have no answers, hence the label idiopathic or an unknown cause.
I know for myself tiredness doesn’t help and sometimes it’s because I have done too much in my day. Also I find food intake can have an impact ie If I’ve missed a meal, forgotten to have lunch, I can often feel a tremor coming on. I find it a little easier to accept if I’ve exhausted myself or missed a meal, than if the tremor occurs and I can’t identify a reason.
Here’s a bit of a write up I found which maybe of assistance
Hope it helps
Merl from the Moderator Support Team
Thank you both for your posts. My husband had a brain hemmorage from a fall and has had intermittent tremors for the two years since that time. His tremors are certainly connected, as they began directly after the incident. Thank you for the link.
Jackie, I just got home from the new neurologist and he believes my tremor, caused by the SAH, is a rubral tremor caused by damage to the genu of corpus callosum. They are called Holmes tremors, of course I looked it up lol. He believes I can take a very mild dosage of a benzodiazepine which will help not only the tremor, but my speech as well. He explained different tremors from SAH or brain injury are determined by which part of the brain is damaged. He is also going to do an EEG to determine risk of seizures. Apparently I’m at some risk to them, due to my SAH and previous head injuries. The previous neurologist called it an essential tremor or NOS tremor. We all knew it came from the rupture. PreSAH - no tremor, post SAH tremor and increasingly getting to the left hand. Hopefully the new med will slow down the damages
Redhead,
I thank you so much for your post about your husband’s tremors starting right after the SAH.
I want to ask about the severity of the tremors, now at 2 years post rupture for him and 5 years for me. Mine started with difficulty writing script letters, so I started printing, then certain letters had squiggles in them due to finger tremors, so I switched to typing letters. When my fingers started hitting keys multiple times on the keyboard, I went to my internist, who said Essential Tremor. The shaking is much reduced with an increase in my propranolol (for migraines) from 80mg to 120mg.
If I am lying on my back I sometimes get leg tremors which can be quite violent!
Thank you again for your reply,
Jackie J
Hi Merl,
I haven’t read your article yet, but something I did read after doing a search was that reducing caffeine intake be useful, which has definitely been true for me. I only had two cups a day, but eliminating one cup has really reduced my shakiness. And my tremors, like yours, are intermittent. I have no way of predicting them.
Thank you for your reply.
Jackie J
Hi Moltroub,
Leave it to you to come up with a bunch of new terminology for me to study!
Do you happen to know why the tremors are becoming increasingly worse? We haven’t sustained new brain injuries, so why?
All you need is to start taking meds for seizure prevention. Because I had seizures in ICU (is a vasospasm a seizure?) I wasn’t allowed to drive for a year seizure-free.
I’m sure you will follow up on this post. Thank you for your news. I hope your new meds will eliminate the need to tap!
Jackie J
Jackie, the previous neurologist tried me on several anti seizure medicines and I couldn’t tolerate them. One, and I don’t remember which, the dog nor I liked me and I stopped it right away with permission. I think I’d been on it a week or two. I never thought to look up the reaction of those drugs with my metoprolol I used to take. Since I stopped that for my tachycardia, my blood sugars are back to normal, my energy is higher, all good things IMHO.
The Neurologist, explained that brain damage can continue. It’s like my NP at the Neurosurgeon said, it’s just all catching up. The Speech Therapist said it was amazing that with all my various head injuries, I didn’t have issues before I ruptured. I guess the SAH was the icing on the cake! The EEG will help the Neurologist figure things out.
I have never been told that vasospasms are seizures.
It used to be very hard to find information on the internet about vasospasms. I have a theory, but can’t find any studies to support my odd thinking, that there’s some damage done just from the erratic blood flow. If you ever find a study, please share! I found this and there are a lot of papers on them https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/vasospasm
So far, I’ve found that different parts of brain damage causes different types of tremors. My damage is the genu of the corpus callosum. The Corpus Callosum is the bridge between the hemispheres. Here’s a side picture https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_callosum#/media/File%3ACorpuis_callosum.png
Hi Moltroub! It’s so good to hear from you and as always, you have lots to say when I ask a question.
I just re-read my question and it sort of implies that I had a vaso-spasm, which I did not. I did have 2 or 3 seizures so was still taking that med (Keppra ?) at home and it was awful for re-awakening restless leg syndrome. I asked the neuroradiologist if I needed to keep taking it and he said no.
Thank you for the two references. It’s so good for our weary brains to attempt comprehension of these articles! LOL!
Jackie J
You said you previously took Metoprolol, cousin to Propranolol, which I know from long experience leaves you fatigued.
Your questions are important to all of us Ms. Jackie! The new neurologist put me on Clonezapam, so far it seems to be helping my tremors. The left hand has completely stopped and the right has slowed down a good bit most of the time. I am driving a bit further and don’t get so overwhelmed with all the traffic, though I stay off of I40 for the most part…
Hi Moltroub,
I wondered if the Clonezapam is helping your speech. Does it make you sleepy? I’m glad it is helping your tremors. For a while they were just a curiosity to me, but when you can’t even type well because of them, it ceases to be funny.
Do you get tremors in your legs, too?
I would really appreciate knowing if anyone has ever stumbled or fallen because of leg tremors.
Merl, I’m going to follow your link now on tremors to see if they answer that.
Thanks to all,
Jackie J
Hi!I was reading your story and can see your a very kind person.Hope your doing better.
Hi Teresa,
Thank for your sweet comments. I’m happy you found me!
Jackie J
Its made such a difference for me to talk to people.Still learning how to use site.Thank you !
Hi Moltroub,
How is your progress with tremor control now with the Clonezapam?
I think I told you somewhere that I was started on a higher dose of Propranolol ER recently, which I was taking previously for migraine prevention at 80mg per day. Now I am taking 120mg Propranolol and the tremors are decreased, though they still pop up from time to time, especially in the morning and even more especially if I’m short on sleep so drink a cup coffee. I’ve only been taking 120mg every day for about a week because I had a prescription that had just been filled for the lower dose.
Please let me know if your tremors subside. I will do the same.
Thanks,
Jackie
Jackie, Everything drastically improved Tremors, speech…then I got stung about ten days ago by several yellow jackets and everything went awry. So I’m at the new neurologist, the last new one has gone to Pineville and I’m not able to drive in that heavy of traffic. But I was able to drive to our mountains 87 miles!
Hi Moltroub,
You are going to have to de-code that name someday!
What did you do to tick-off those yellow jackets? They are a tricky bunch, building nests on the ground in camouflaged areas. Hubby has had a couple of run-ins with them as well.
I hope the reactions to the stings have subsided and you are again enjoying the improvements you saw with the Clonezapam.
At 120mg Propranolol ER I am not seeing results (with the tremors) as good as yours, but it is okay now. I have found them interesting for years, but lost my sense of humor when my head began jerking and my fingers would type the same letters over and over again.
We bought a new laptop last week so the touch sensitivity is a little different from what I was used to. I’ll be perfectly free of all aneurysm side-effects soon! 
Jackie
Moltroub is a mix of the feral cat that joined our lives and the Lab that saved me, both as a CPS SW and the day I popped my pipe.
I was moving branches with the little tractor and must have gone to low and scraped their nest. I haven’t been back around to check. It can wait until we are in the 40’s lol
The medication didn’t work, the one who put me on it isn’t practicing at the same place so the new one put me on an antidepressant. I either got a stomach virus or I don’t tolerate it well so he has taken me off it for a couple days. It starts with an S, I don’t remember it but it’s a generic for Zoloft I think…jeesh don’t quote me lol yes it’s Sertraline. When I read some of the side effects, I contacted my Neurosurgeon as bleeding is one of them and I’m to watch the amount of NSAIDs I take. It also reduces sodium and I tend to run on the low side anyhow. But they said I should be fine as long as someone monitors my sodium levels. Funny that he didn’t take blood work to begin with. The NP said those are rare side effects, but that’s not what the pharmacy page stated…And you know we are all rare!