Complicated migraine with prolonged hemiparesis

[fethiere]

My question relates to the duration of the recovery period after an episode of complicated migraine accompanied by hemiparesis. Five weeks ago my wife had a sudden, thunder-like, migraine attack during a meeting. She came back home and rested the whole evening with Advil. The next morning she woke up with her lips stretched to the right and still a very strong migraine. OK! we opted for the ER. She was seen right away and they give her Maxoran for the headache. A CT-Scan with staining was done and showed nothing abnormal. As the day was passing, her whole right side was getting numb, and she had difficulty speaking. After about 7hrs, the drug had done its job and the migraine was down. The neurologist came, and did his usual physical examination. She could not squeeze her right hand, and could not keep it up at level, her right eye was very sensitive to light and overall the whole right side had no strength at all. He prescribed an MRI with Gd (brain and neck), discontinuation of the pill, and aspirin 80mg every day.  As the days were going by she was limping on the right side, could not write anymore (she is right-handed) and had not recovered any strength on the right side.  Three weeks later we got the MRI which was normal. We saw a neurologist again and he confirmed the complicated migraine diagnostic. He told us that it may take 6-8 weeks before things come back to normal, prescribed folic acid, VitB and nor-tryptiline 10mg (an antidepressant!). It's been a whole 6 weeks now after the first episode and things are not getting better. Yesterday she had another light migraine, her lips are stretching on the right again at least twice/day, she still has no strength and limps on the right.  OK, that's the story. Now, I guess we sort of have to trust the neurologist but our GP is skeptical and thinks that things should come back to normal more rapidly. We read every websites, look at all textbooks, and nowhere we can read that it could last that long. Needless to say that this skepticism of the GP adds stress on my wife, which will surely slow down her recovery. What I need to know from you is
- how long can this really last? I mean the hemiparesis and the whole recovery?
- how often can the symptoms come back to hunt her?
- can it be something else that a neurological problem?
- what can you suggest? a part from patience?

P.S. she should do a transcranial doppler together with a cardiac Echo, but I doubt that these will provide any more clues.

Many thanks for your reply

James