Bad migraine or a TIA

[pinkbear82]

My mum is currently in hospital after being taken in last night when she had right side numbness and weakness, her speech was incomprehensible and when it was she showed lots of confusion and struggled to get the right words, often replacing with quite random replacements. She had no recollection of her dog nor of my DSC.

At times she felt she couldn't swallow, she was very cool to touch and about 40 minutes after being in majors she had a sudden severe head pain. She said she couldn't see anything centrally, it was black and blurry. No flashing lights or zig zag patterns.

She did have a tc scan, but this was almost 3 hours after being taken in. Her speech would improve and then deteriorate again rapidly.
The scan apparently didn't show anything 'too significant'.

The dr felt it was more likely to be a bad migraine, which she does not suffer from normally.

Any one have any experience? Anything is possible, my gran died a month ago and my dad is in for open heart surgery soon...I know stress can come out in different ways. Just wanted to see what others thought.

It doesnt sound much like a migraine to me.
Other than that, I hope she feels better soon.

The headache makes migraine seem more likely to be honest. Hopefully they will check her stroke risk factors anyway. It is actually impossible to differentiate really if no risk factors. There is no diagnostic test for a TIA or a migraine. It is based on history to a great extent. Hemiplegic migraine is very frightening but "better" to have than a TIA. a scan done any earlier would not have shown anything. Hope she's feeling better.

Thank you, she seems much better today, very tired and a very small bit of confusion and stumbling over words
I was so worried last night.

Musical when you say stoke risk factors could you say what these might be?

I think whatever this was/is will probably have a question mark over it from my point of view, but as long as Mum seems to recover and there isnt anything lasting from it, then I guess that is the main thing.

Thank you both again.

High blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, smoker, overweight, family history of stroke at a young age

Look up Heamoplgic migraines, my husband had one of these out of the blue six months ago was sent to the stroke ward MRI, scan etc? turned out to be Heamoplgic migraines mimic strokes! he was off work for a month you get all the symptoms of a stroke without the bleed he is 54. Stress is a BIG factor.

This sounds like the migraine I suffer from. Up to 6 weeks at a time and as someone had said, hemipalegic. Mine are induced by stress and dehydration as well as food and air pressure. I hope she feels better soon!