Migraine Aura, talk to me please!

[Bogeyface]

I ended up at A&E 4 weeks ago as I had a major visual disturbance that was very similar to what my father has due to bleeding in his eyeball. He was already blind in one eye and is now losing the sight in his other due to that. We were with my parents for Sunday lunch and Dad was terrified I was having bleeding and would have called an ambulance if I hadnt called a cab.

I ended up with a banging headache and the doctor explained it was a migraine. 2 weeks past 40 and this was my first one.

I have since found out, after much googling and watching a very good video online, that this is Aura and since that first episode I have had 3 more migraines, still not worked out if I have a trigger yet although I suspect stress. Its quite handy in a way I suppose, I do at least know that within half an hour of the eye disturbance, I need to be in bed in a dark room dosed up on pain killers. The banging awful head aches last about 2 hours but the horrible "not in my own body" feeling lasts up to 24 hours.

What I am confused about is what happens after the visual thing but before the headache. I feel sort of....odd. Disassociated from myself, like an out of body experience. I need to shake my hands, flex my facial and leg muscles, talk, blink, etc just to make sure everything is still working properly as it feels like it wont. That bit is quite frightening as I worry I have had a stroke or something. My brain feels too big for my head, it feels really heavy, I keep shaking it to make everything settle,

Does that make any sense at all? Is this normal for Aura or is something else going on?

I recognise the disconnected feeling, everything is a bit wobbly, off-balance and unreal, though I don't actually feel dizzy.

Are the auras typical? A blind spot followed by spreading wiggly or jagged lines? Have you had them on both sides?

I sometimes get the aura with no headache but still get the disconnected feeling.

Mine didn't start till my 50s but, with hindsight, I realise I had simple migraine (no aura) before that. They are hormonal and very stress-related.

Four in 4 weeks is quite a lot so keep a diary and note any possible triggers - caffeine is the notorious one.

Hope you get on top of them soon

My period started today, and the first one I had was the day my period started too, follow by 2 more that week so I think hormonal might spot on. I am peri-menopausal, they are getting gradually further apart and I am feeling more PMTish with each one, despite never getting it before.

The aura is like this video, it starts as a little blind spot then works it was across my whole field of vision.

www.mayoclinic.com/health/migraine-aura/MM00659

I dont geel dizzy, just....like everything is on a 5 second delay....I cant describe it very well, sorry! I do get them on both sides. Yesterdays wasnt too bad headache wise, not as bad as the others had been, but I felt wiped out for hours afterwards.

Mine are hormone related. Didn't get any when pregnant.

I only got them when I was pregnant! Definitely hormone-related.

My auras are similar to that, with zig zag lines too. I don't think mine are hormone related though, they just happen randomly, with no set pattern.

I get something similar, I sometimes look down and think my foot/leg/arm is not my own and get freaked out by it! I also start talking random rubbish. I find drinking lots of water and having a co-codamol can mean I don't have to do the darkened room thing. Have you had any nausea op?

Doc explained to me that there isn't usually 1trigger to a migraine and that you have a threshold. If you eat the 'wrong' thing you might be OK one day but on another might have that same thing but also be tired, stressed, thirsty etc and this will push you over the edge.

I find keeping hydrated helps alot as a preventative measure.

I think it's also worth taking soluble painkillers rather than tablets, migraines affect your digestion so the easier the meds can be absorbed into your system the better.

My migraines were the same with the aura, also having no vision in one eye so terrifying the first time I lost the field of vision on the "good" side. Oddly enough though mine have been much better since having the kids. A neurologist prescribed me beta blockers which significantly reduced the severity and frequency of the migraines but dropped my blood pressure so I kept fainting. So I tried Feverfew tablets (homeopathic but also suggested by neurologist), although not quite as effective as the beta blockers they still significantly improved things. Now nearly 40 and had my first migraine in years a couple of weeks ago, bit worried they might be making a comeback

I get this too, only it affects my speech sometimes, I know what I want to say, but can't say it!

It is very disconcerting. Your Dr can prescribe medication if it is bad and even an epipen, although I find it I take two co-codamal as soon as the blob of light starts, I can reduce the severity of the headache, but I am exhausted afterwards.

I can get mine triggered by lights in a shop, jazzy carpets and worst of all flickering sunlight through trees when I am driving. All very odd.

Poor you, they are horrible, and so debilitating. I used to suffer from them as a young teenager, and then again in my late teens. Since I was pregnant with DD2 (now 2.5yrs) I've been suffering with them again, and I'm really struggling with them.

Mine start off with the typical zigzag lines, and then the blind spot. I had one today, and timed it - the zigzags lasted 20mins, and the blind spot a further 15. Then the headache hit, followed by numbness and tingling down my left hand side. I too sometimes have the issue whereby I know what I'm trying to say, but it comes out slurred or gibbery! I had a MRI scan when I was 18, which showed no abnormalities.

My triggers seem to be a combo of things - strong perfumes, bright lights/strong sunlight, extreme tiredness, emotional stress and hormones. I agree with pp that it is a mix of different factors occurring together that set a migraine in motion, although I can never predict one - just spend a lot of time worrying that I'm going to get one! I take a mix of paracetamol and ibuprofen as soon as the zigzags start, which seems to reduce the strength of the headache - if I don't take them immediately, I feel like my head will explode.

Anyway, I hope your migraines start to lessen soon.

I only get the aura - or scintillating scotia to give it its posh name! - but definitely feel weird afterwards too, so I would say it's normal.

I thought I was going blind when I had the first one (at 41) but was perimenopausal soon after so I'm making an uneducated guess that the two may be connected.

Am just thankful I don't get the headache part!

Scotoma, not scotia! Or Scotsman, thank you,bloody IPhone

All very familiar and I'm afraid perfectly normal

Very familiar and I also have a hormonal link. Migraine Medication, not just painkillers, have really helped me - I take propranolol daily to try and prevent them plus at the first sign of aura I have Maxalt wafers (triptan) to dissolve on my tongue. It makes the difference between losing a whole day to migraine and being better in a couple of hours.

The talking gibberish thing happens too, DD (16) was a star when I had my last one and was quite worried. She said that it was like all the random thoughts we have in our head were coming out of my mouth. I was just talking random stuff.

Last time I got an aura and migraine I was in sole charge of 7 two-year-olds (working in a day nursery, colleague was out of the room for hours).
We had a "quiet time" where I got them all sitting down for a while as I couldn't see properly to supervise them running about. The headache later was a belter as I couldn't leave the children alone to get painkillers.

Inspare that sound horrendous :(

It has put me off applying for a couple of jobs tbh, one of which is as a PA to a blind person. What sort of use would I be if I am getting migraines every other week? I think I need to see the doctor to sort out preventative measures.

That occasion (and the lack of management support afterwards) was one of the reasons I quit. Mine are definitely stress related. I am now a self-employed storyteller and haven't had a migraine in ages.

I used to get migraines very, very occasionally but since my mid 30s (I am 40 now) I have had more and more. They are definitely hormonally related and can come on mid cycle when I am ovulating, the week before my period or when my period starts. Sometimes, they come every month, sometimes twice a month, sometimes once every two or three months.

I hate them.

There is no warning, just the blind spot/aura thing and if I take co-codamol straight away I find I can manage the headache although if i am at home I go straight to bed.

Strangely enough I often crave full fat coca cola later on - which I never usually drink, maybe for the sugar?

I don't feel right for a day after, bit vague and not quite with it.

Yoyr symptoms sound just like mine, OP. Sometimes I get the aura by itself and when it goes, I feel very hyper and giddy.

I have Maxalt melts on prescription and take one at the first possible hint of a symptom. No painkillers touch the headache otherwise. The headaches are terrifyingly bad, I banged my head against the wall in desperation once to try and get rid of the pain. I usually vomit, can't bear anything touching my skin and the colder I am, the better.

The headache always starts in a specific place too - always on the left side of my forehead above my eyebrow and all the way through to the back of my head and yes, my brain feels like it's really heavy.

I have the same senstaion of not being able to articulate my thoughts, which is often a precursor to aua. Just as an aside, my aura is like cogs, definite circular shapes with jagged edges on my peripheral (profiterole?) vision.

My migraines drastically reduced when I stopped taking the contraceptive pill around 3 years ago. however, the last few months I have had at least one per month. i keep a diary to try and identify triggers. it often seems to be related to bright/flashing light, so I understand the poster above who mentioned sun-dappling. i have been set off by an impatient boy racer behind me on a motorway, flashing his lights. Impaired visibility is not what you want when travelling at 70mph...

My worst migraine momentwas in a store in town with flickering lights. My eyes got 'stuck' and i couldn't uncrosss them for around 10 minutes. that was well scary. I have tried the whole she-bang of migraine treatments, and found the imigram IM treatment most effective, altjough I needed a lot of psyching up to inject myself. I temd to jusyt wait it out - laying down in a dark, quiet space, taking paracetamol and an NSAID on commencement and codeine later if I can't get any relief

I find I yawn loads just before - shallow yawns that dint get any ixygen to my brain.

That has just flagged up big style. I was doing that a lot just before my first one, it had never happened before. I dont remember if it happened before the others, but I remember thinking how weird it was when it happened before the first one. Its like the sneeze that wont come, you can feel it and try to force it but it just doesnt happen.

I never made the connection until I read that!