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MIGRAINE WITH AURAS
hello, i am a 47 year old female. in febuary 1997, i started seeing neon colored zig zag lines in my field of vision. i would see them even when i closed my eyes. i was having no pain when they would appear, but felt very nervous. i went to the hosp er and they said one of my pupils in my eye was dilated. they did a cat scan and everything looked good. i went to my eye dr and he said i was having octical migraine. i am now seeing a nero dr. here in dayton, ohio. he did alot of test, mri, with and without gad.,which is normal, alot of blood work. he said my blood was a little thicker than normal. he did eeg, witch is normal.i was looking at one test he did it is called,fundoscopic, it said, a benign appearing disk. was wonder what that is? other test were, caritod ultrasound, which was normal. since my first aura, i have had difffernt types of auras now, some with headache and some without. auras are very upsetting to me. a few times i lost my speach and felt like i was having a stroke. i have lost vision in my right eye, looking through water effect, strbe light effect. my dr has me on depakote er and low dose asprin every day. i also have RA artritis. when ever i have headaches it is always in my right temple. my question is, what is the benign disk, and are these migraines? i am very scared i will have a stroke. i am on, methotrexate, enbrel, folic acid, lucovorin, depakote er, low dose asprin, and vivelle 0.05 patch.
thank you, paula jane
thank you, paula jane
A related discussion, Same problem no medication involved was started.
A related discussion, Auras in vision with migraines was started.
Thank you for answering my question, as i am very concerned about this. i started taking enbrel along with the metotrexate, and i started to get better. the auras were going away. i do believe the RA is causing this, because i had to stop the enbrel, was having some breaking out and itching. the auras are slowly coming back. please let me know what, diffusion weighted mri is? when i had the mri it was with and without gad. i think gad was some kind of dye. my neuro dr said he didn't want to put me through a angiogram, so i never had one. please explain what MRA with MRI is also? also, what can a person do for, central vasculitis? it does sound very scary to me, thank you, paula jane
Dear Paula Jane:
I am sorry that your having symptoms. Did they do a diffusion weighted MRI? RA has been associated with migraine. Your description is also compatible with migraine headaches with and without aura. Many patients have both types of migraine. What is alittle troubling is the changes in aura. I will assume that you mean that you have had vision changes as well as expressive speech problems but they are back to normal after the headache or aura. I think that I would continue the work-up and just make sure that your RA isn't affecting the vessels in your brain. Maybe a MRA with the next MRI might help answer this question and if there is still doubt then maybe an angiogram of the brain vessels. As depakote is associated with lowering the platelet count in some patients, I would just make sure that your platelet count isn't too low as your on aspirin. A stroke with vision changes, would have given you changes on the diffusion weighted MRI.
A benign looking optic disc just means that it looks normal and there isn't a pathological abnormality.
I hope your headaches are just migraines, but I would persue whether you might be having a RA induces central vasculitis.
Sincerely,
CCF Neuro MD
I am sorry that your having symptoms. Did they do a diffusion weighted MRI? RA has been associated with migraine. Your description is also compatible with migraine headaches with and without aura. Many patients have both types of migraine. What is alittle troubling is the changes in aura. I will assume that you mean that you have had vision changes as well as expressive speech problems but they are back to normal after the headache or aura. I think that I would continue the work-up and just make sure that your RA isn't affecting the vessels in your brain. Maybe a MRA with the next MRI might help answer this question and if there is still doubt then maybe an angiogram of the brain vessels. As depakote is associated with lowering the platelet count in some patients, I would just make sure that your platelet count isn't too low as your on aspirin. A stroke with vision changes, would have given you changes on the diffusion weighted MRI.
A benign looking optic disc just means that it looks normal and there isn't a pathological abnormality.
I hope your headaches are just migraines, but I would persue whether you might be having a RA induces central vasculitis.
Sincerely,
CCF Neuro MD
HI, I DON'T KNOW WHAT syringomyelia IS? I WISH I KNEW. IT COULD BE WHAT IS CAUSING THE CONSTANT NUMBNESS. I HAVE HEARD OF MIGRAINES CAUSING NUMBNESS, BUT NEVER ALL THE TIME. I HOPE YOU FIND OUT WHAT IS CAUSING THIS. IT IS VERY UPSETTING TO ME JUST SEEING WEIRD THINGS AND NUMBNESS EVERY NOW AND THEN, WITH HEADACHES TOO. I BROKE MY C2 A FEW YEARS AGO, BUT MY NERO DR SAID, THAT IS NOT WAS IS CAUSING MY AURAS. DO TAKE CARE, PAULA JANE
Hi,
will e-mail you soon,Betty
will e-mail you soon,Betty
It's gratifying to see others with aural migraines - as long as I can remember, I had frequent severe migraines with visual disturbances, numbness, and intense pain until about six years ago. It was necessary for me to have my mitral valve replaced and immediately upon waking up, I began having severe visual disturbances, including the colorful zig zag lines, blank black spots, etc. They have been extremely severe, with bad sieges of dizziness and weakness. My attending physician tells me this is is just a different manifestation of migraines and not to be concerned. Numerous MRIs have been done and EEF's and EMG's and nothing was found. About ten years ago I was diagnosed with a rather large syringomyelia in the cervical and lumbar area but had manifested no symptoms. Could this contribute to the migraines? Could my bloodthinner be causing the intense visual disturbances? Now I have numbness constantly in my left arm and hand and after seeing my neurologist was informed that my syrinx is no larger than it was 10 years ago - could this still be causing my numbness in spite of the fact it has not increased in size?
hello betty, this so strange, i thought i was the only one like this!! would love to email you, or you can email me. my email is:
***@****
i am on depakote er, which is a time released kind, and low dose asprin, every day. my auras have slowed down some now, but, they could come back at anytime. i know this sounds odd, but they were even in my dreams. i was dreaming, and there they were. zig zag neon lights. i must have made myself wake up and sure enough there they were. the auras would last from 20 min to 30 min. i would try and remain calm when they would show up, but it would scare me so!! esp if i was driving in my car, i would pull over and look for a phone. i told my hubsand i need a cell phone. i will not drive the free way anymore, because it is too fast and no where to pull over. plus no one to help me. i am very parnoid when this happens to me.
i have had lose of my speech and numbness on my face and hands, just a weird feeling i can not explain.
i have only gotton sick once to my stomach, i think it was because i was so upset.
my blood test, said my blood was a little thicker than normal, so that is why my nero dr told me to take low dose asprin, every day.
sometimes i think if i get upset about anything or nervous they will come. but even when things are going well, they come.
would love to talk to you, just to have someone who knows what i am going through. thanks, paula jane
***@****
i am on depakote er, which is a time released kind, and low dose asprin, every day. my auras have slowed down some now, but, they could come back at anytime. i know this sounds odd, but they were even in my dreams. i was dreaming, and there they were. zig zag neon lights. i must have made myself wake up and sure enough there they were. the auras would last from 20 min to 30 min. i would try and remain calm when they would show up, but it would scare me so!! esp if i was driving in my car, i would pull over and look for a phone. i told my hubsand i need a cell phone. i will not drive the free way anymore, because it is too fast and no where to pull over. plus no one to help me. i am very parnoid when this happens to me.
i have had lose of my speech and numbness on my face and hands, just a weird feeling i can not explain.
i have only gotton sick once to my stomach, i think it was because i was so upset.
my blood test, said my blood was a little thicker than normal, so that is why my nero dr told me to take low dose asprin, every day.
sometimes i think if i get upset about anything or nervous they will come. but even when things are going well, they come.
would love to talk to you, just to have someone who knows what i am going through. thanks, paula jane
Hi,
I dont know if you read my posting below but I have the same problem as you do...I am 40 and this started suddenly at 36...They have told me Migraine and I can relate because it scares the heck out of me too..I get the looking through water thing too as well as temporary vision loss..Is your loss temporary? I rarely get the pain of the headache all my tests were normal as well..and my hematocrit was a little high ? too thick blood or hyperviscosity syndromes..but the doctor said it was still within normal limits and everything else that would indicate this is normal..so they have not done anything..I too find it difficult to speak at times during this and I have to really concentrate on speaking to get it too come out..I get numb arms at times or numb legs..I also get a lot of like sleep paralysis..
I can relate to your fear, I am so scared of something like a stroke after seeing various family members suffer from them and pass away including my own mother just a few months ago..It was very hard and I don't want that to happen to me. I try very hard to watch my blood pressure and I take Inderal(propranolol) for the headaches and the blood pressure and I pray a lot...
I ofetn think well how am i suppose to know if this is a migraine or something worse..And I have frequent panic and anxiety attacks from all this....I can relete so well to your concerns..Just know that if your tests are normal its a migraine equivelent and worrying about it only serves to make it worse, i speak from experience...Take care and i wish you well...Betty
I dont know if you read my posting below but I have the same problem as you do...I am 40 and this started suddenly at 36...They have told me Migraine and I can relate because it scares the heck out of me too..I get the looking through water thing too as well as temporary vision loss..Is your loss temporary? I rarely get the pain of the headache all my tests were normal as well..and my hematocrit was a little high ? too thick blood or hyperviscosity syndromes..but the doctor said it was still within normal limits and everything else that would indicate this is normal..so they have not done anything..I too find it difficult to speak at times during this and I have to really concentrate on speaking to get it too come out..I get numb arms at times or numb legs..I also get a lot of like sleep paralysis..
I can relate to your fear, I am so scared of something like a stroke after seeing various family members suffer from them and pass away including my own mother just a few months ago..It was very hard and I don't want that to happen to me. I try very hard to watch my blood pressure and I take Inderal(propranolol) for the headaches and the blood pressure and I pray a lot...
I ofetn think well how am i suppose to know if this is a migraine or something worse..And I have frequent panic and anxiety attacks from all this....I can relete so well to your concerns..Just know that if your tests are normal its a migraine equivelent and worrying about it only serves to make it worse, i speak from experience...Take care and i wish you well...Betty
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