Numb face and body jerking

[Cowser]

I have been dealing with this for 5 years and am getitng so sick of no answers.    About once a week I have face/head numbness on the right side, stiff neck, right side arm numbness,  right eye slamming shut,fuzzy thinking, inability to speak and sometimes my body jerks uncontrolled (not seizures I am told by numerous doctors)  I also will collapse if I move too quickly back and forth.  I am told that these are Basal Artery Migraines but none of the medicines have helped yet.  I am very lucky that most of these attacks do not have a massive headache to go with it.  That is probably why it took so long to diagnose as a BAM.  I seem to have some luck with putting my head down when an attack happens and it will keep me from some of the symptoms.  Could this be relieving the pressure my neck places on some artery or improving blood flow to the brain??  If anyone else has ANY of these symptoms I would love to hear from you .  It is very reassuring to hear that someone else shares these problems and may have answers.

[Cowser]

Hello Dar202,
I can't tell you how comforting itis to hear that someone else has the same symptoms as I do.  Sometimes you think you are going crazy because the symptoms are so strange and no one can diagnose what you have.  I get aphasia (inability to speak) during the episodes but I do not have a headache.  Most times I cannot speak  at all or quite often I can't say a certain word, for example CHAIR.  I can tell you that is the thing that you sit on and I can touch it but I simply cannot say the word CHAIR.  Within a few minutes(about 5) I can say all the words I want and am only slightly foggy.  
  My "episodes" last about 5-20 minutes.  They can range anywhere from face numbness and right arm numbness and aphasia and right eye slamming shut to all of the above and dropping to the floor and doing seizure like movements (not seizures because I am awake and able to talk through them).  
  I went to Cleveland Clinic and they are the wonderful doctors who diagnosed what kind of Migraine it was.  The crazy part is that I usually don't get a killer headache with them.  I do get bad headaches other times(barometric pressure changes)  as do my 3 girls.  I also went to U of M Migraine Clinic at the beginning of all of this 5 years ago and they surprisd me by saying that they didn't think it was migraines.  Hmmm. Although I think it is strange to have all of these symptoms for 5 years I now do believe that it is BAM migraines even though they are so strange.  
  My wish is that I could find a medicine that would STOP all of these symptoms.  Topamax, Neurontin, Depakote..have not worked. I have found that chiropractic have greatly helped though.I have researched it and have found that it may be a dilated blood vessel to the head and when the chiropractor adjusts my neck and shoulder that I have less "episodes".  
   Please keep me informed as to what you Doctors say in December.  I am very interested to hear any new info that might be out there.    GOOD LUCK!!! Thank you, Colleen (Cowser)

[dar202]

Hi Cowser,
I may not have the answer, but I can sympathize with you.  I just started have these siezure like (no siezures) episodes and I was only diagnosed with "migraines".  I don't get numbness, but I do lose speach.  Can you not speak at all?  I stutter like I can't remember the word.  My eyes flutter and I can't control my focusing.  I also get tunnel vision and very fuzzy.  I can't move back and forth either.  I have to sit up straight for some reason.  How long do yours last?   I am going to see a specialist in Dec.  Maybe, someone here has more information than I can give but I wanted you to know I am so sorry you are going through this.   Stay strong:)