Half body numbness, vision problems and migraines.

[Ronnie_ca]

I have this half body numbness, vision problems and migraines since I was only 12 years old. It never happened more than once in 6 months period, some times it happens only once in 3 years but rare.
When ever this kind of problem occurs, my whole day and the next gets reserved with pain. Some times it triggers by bright sun shine or a camera flash. My vision starts getting impaired and then I cannot see objects clear (see mostly shadows). Some times it directly triggers by suddenly numbing my right hand fingers (I believe this happened to my left hand side body as well) and then slowly moves to my other right hand side body parts i.e. arm, leg, lip, nose and eye etc. I usually try to sleep so by the time I will wake up I will be start feeling better but it never happened. By the time I wake up after an hour or so, I will be having severe migraine pains on the left hand side of my head. I take Excedrin, Advil, Tylenol or Ibuprofen to get rid of this pain but no help. Some times I stay home and some times my family members take me to the hospital so the doctors can do something for pain but it never helped. I usually get big vomiting too. Another important point is that I cannot even speak correctly, I would be speaking incomplete and wrong words, this starts happening after half of my tongue gets numb and I believe one of the reason in speaking wrong and crazy words is that perhaps half of my brain gets numb as well.
I have never done an MRI but got some other brain scans done including blood test, blood sugar, uric acid and blood pressure etc. but everything looked normal. Please help me to diagnose this problem. I apologize of writing such a long essay. Thanks

[Likesjewellry]

I am Likesjewellry.  The lady who is 50 and just developed over a year and a half this dibilitating problem.  I feel like a three year old sometimes when I can't speak or my words come out like baby talk.   I am sorry you are so young and going through this, you are very brave to reach out and help others.  I am wondering why after such agonizing testing, retesting, that not one doctor suggested anti migraine drugs to me? I would like to give it a try. Please email me and tell me which ones you tried and what reactions you had to them.  I already to the quiet time, space and meditation.  It is the only thing that calms things down but it never really goes away entirely.  Take care.

[Legh]

Yesterday, I started seeing strange lights and was feeling really strange.  Then, about 30 minutes later my left hand went numb and my lips.  I felt very disoriented and could not think properly.  Shortly, after I had a spiltting headache and all my energy was zapped.  I am at work today and the lights here are killing me.  All I want to do is go home and sleep, but I can't leave work.  It is really a frightening experience and very hard to remain calm when your whole body is out of whack.  It is comforting to know that my symtoms don't seem to be uncommon.  I called my doctor and they said that it sounded like I had a food allergy or I was dehydrated, but after reading this sight I am convinced that it was a migrain.  I am 6 weeks pregnant, so am thinking hormones may have triggered it.

[ger11]

hi my ame is gerard, i'm just comeing out of one at the minute, i can relate to you all, when i get the tingleing numb ness it puts me into a panic which makes everyything worse, its a comfort to know i'm not alone. i take migarleve, not sure if i've spellt that right, anyway i'm with you guys.

[cynthia1234]

Hi - I'm a 31 year old woman and I am really glad to see all of your comments!

I have just started experiencing similar symptoms, they seem to be brought on by stress.  I've never really had headaches of any sort so it didn't occur to me that this could be migraine related.  But, I got kind of freaked out the first time the numbness in the right side of my face happened (about 2 months ago); it felt like the onset of Bells Palsy (which I had 11 years ago, accompanied by Lyme Disease).  But, then unlike Bells Palsy, it went away after a few days.  My doctor was concerned about MS, but my MRI came back in good form, so I am hoping that this numbness really is just some sort of migraine reaction.  Of course my doctor's concern about MS stressed me out as well and the numbness quickly returned.  

Along with the numbness I get really tired and my vision is a bit fuzzier than normal so I have to make sure that I wear my glasses.

Have any of you who take medication had success with it alleviating the numbness?  So far, I've self-medicated with coffee and sleep, which both make me feel better, but the numbness seems like it doesn't go away until I am able to get the stress under control.

[Brook711]

My name is brook an I am 18. Just 3 days ago i was at work and started seeing colors and had blurred vision and lost all peripheral vision and then about 20 minutes later my left side of my mouth went numb and my hand finger by finger went numb. Then after that the headache started. From the sounds of things that have happend to all of you I am getting migranes. I have never gotten headaches or anything like that. It just happend and I havent went to a dr yet, but just days before this a small lump about he size of a dime formed right above my left ear in the pressure point area and I am wondering if anyone has an info on this? & is it common to have the headaches for like a 3 day span because ever since the first one i have had them everyday.

[Ronnie_ca]

Thanks a lot to all who have replied to my post. I apologize for replying so late, I never got any email notification from medhelp notifying me of these posts. Anyways my neurologist diagnosed my symptoms as "classic migraines". I've been taking a very good preventive medication which has changed my life, its "Atenolol" i take 50mg every night before bed and it keeps away migraines and ora's away from me so no numbness, tingling, vision problems anymore.

If once in a while I get migraine again, I take Immitrex shot (myself) or 100mg tablet and it takes care of pain in just a few minutes. Let me know If anyone needs more information. Thanks once again