Migraine with Aura

[Mindful]

Does anyone here have migraine with Aura?

I do and have for years but recently i am getting 1 or 2 a week. :ohmy:

Worrying to say the least, i was doing quite well with my Panic and anxiety but each time i get a migraine with aura ( not always followed by pain) its like i step back 5 spaces. :unsure:

[nicola1980]

Hi i had my first migraine in yrs about 4 weeks ago and omg i thought i was dying with the pain and sickness and it knocked me off course for a good week, my panic attacks came back along with my heightened anxiety :ohmy: i used to get them every wk in my early twenty's (now 31) just hoping there not back for good again now :mad: xx

[Mindful]

They suck they dont? Do you get the Aura too? Its that part that scares me, gets me thinking about strokes ( in the family) and brain tumours and what not.

I have been down the doctors about 5 times this past month, but they dont seem to take anything i say seriously. ''Oh yeh its just migraine'' Oh is it? How can you tell without even checking me over? :ohmy:

Have another appointment this afternoon and i am going to get tough with them :shades: Or try to, i want to be referred to someone who knows what they are talking about.

[RitaBoyd]

'They' tell no one ever died with a migraine.
That may be so but migraines scare the he*l out of me.
When I realise I can only see half of everything and a
migraine is coming: I panic.
Why? Because I think the visual disturbance will not pass and
I will be left with distorted vision forever. I don't see so well at the
best of times, so to lose what little I have would be tragic.
Hasn't happened yet but my mind worries: 'There could always be a first time'.

[frozenwithfear]

I get the aura first of all, and can usually stop a migraine in its tracks with two pink Migraleve. I have to sit down, wait for the kalidescope to go, and nausea to disappear. Might take an hour or so. I get them in clusters. Nothing for six months, then three or four in the space of a month. They are a pain, but I always make sure I have Migraleve in my handbag, ready, just in case. They are scary, nasty but please remember they are common, and not sinister.

[RitaBoyd]

I use Voltarol Dispersible. Works for me.

[Irysbleu]

I get the aura's that effect my ears as well as vision...like...I see spots and my vision changes. I also get bouts of deafness where I cant hear a thing from one ear or everything is just high pitched. Anyone get these?

[Kelley]

Hey.
I suffer with these blasted things too! First time ever being this year and so far ive had 8! Sratred 3 monthly, then went to monthly and i also had 2 in one week. My most recent one was two months after the last.
I also get the weird hearing thing.....it usually comes after the eyes and sounds like everything is too loud and sometime muffled too! I really can't cope with these....they're worse than the skipped heart beats i used to panic over! I still do but i can understand how they work now but noone seems to give me answers for these migraines! Hormones perhaps? along with stress??

:) Kel

[Carys]

Hiyer, My daughter (bless her she is only 13 years old) has migraine with Aura and has done since she was 11. I too used to get them into my 20s, full blown classic with loss of vision, vomiting and so on. Nowadays, oddly, I just get the aura and nothing afterwards ?! My mother is on permanent medication for migraine and has been for a couple of years as hers were in clusters of a few a week, then a break and a few the next week. They are really debilitating and make you feel so dreadfully ill !!! They are certainly related to stressful periods and having them in clusters is not unusual, it doesn't mean that you have any underlying condition causing them, but boy I do feel for you as they are dreadful.:weep:

[.Poppy.]

I've had migraines for about 9 years now (since I was 11 and I am now 20). They seem to go up and down in pain level - sometimes they're really bad, other times they're still bad but it's manageable because I KNOW it can be worse.

Usually the worst vision issue I get is that I cannot make my eyes focus unless I work really hard at it - it's like they've gone lazy. Last year, though, I met with a group and I couldn't see properly - it was as if I'd gone from brightness outside to a dimmer inside but the sensation wouldn't go away. I was scared to death as that had NEVER happened to me and I didn't make the migraine connection. When we got done meeting, it occurred to me that it could be a migraine and about 10 minutes later a full-on one hit. It was awful.

Migraines are absolutely terrible. I don't think that anyone can accurately understand the pain and the fear and the overall awfulness unless they've truly had one.

[Lainie1]

I am just recovering from yet another migraine with aura symptoms. I can go weeks or months without one then they seem to come one after the other and I am left for at least 2/3 days feeling awful. Usually I don't develop a bad headache...occasionally only a slight one or even none at all. Years ago when I was in my 20s (I'm in my 60's now) I used to have migraine with severe headache and vomitting but no aura then went for many, many years with no migraine at all.
Now I've come to this conclusion:
The migraines appear AFTER (not during) a period of stress or upset (had a very stressful and upsetting Christmas this year)
or they appear after drinking red wine (which I love) but have to do without. I may get them when I'm tense, especially when neck muscles are tense, or they appear if really rundown or overtired....which at the moment is most of the time, or occasionally if I've had too much sleep..strange but true!
Had an MRI but all was normal and was given a Triptan drug but haven't taken it.....as yet...for one you can't take it when you are having an aura and the other reason is there seem to be that many side effects I'd rather do without.
There are many types of aura associated with migraine.....may get flashing lights...which usually start as a tiny pinprick then get bigger and bigger or get blurred vision. But occasionally another aura is really cold feet before the onset of visual aura. Another aura is running off to loo with upset tum. Sometimes all 3 of these auras appear together...firstly the cold feet, then running to loo then visual aura. Another aura that has affected me is the feeling that I'm falling over feeling that I'm extremely tired....this too could be the onset of a migraine.
At the moment I treat migraine with crystallised ginger (eating a couple of lumps and chewing it well)...occasionally this will reduce the aura or it will go completely. If not I take 2.5mg diazepam and paracetamol and go to bed., (thankfully being retired now I can do this... when I was at work people thought when I said I had a migraine it was just a headache....IT'S NOT!!). Sleep in a dark, quiet room is a must.
Sometimes I wake up and feel immediately better but other times, like now, I am still feeling the symptoms.
Occasionally after experiencing aura I've tried to carry on as normal when the visual aura has gone but believe me I've paid the price later...having to spend even longer in bed and felt absolutely lifeless for about 4 days.
To anyone experiencing what they believe to be migraine my advice is to get things checked out medically...you cannot self diagnose migraine and to someone, including me on this forum who has problems with anxiety, ect that's a must.
Hopefully some of you will find what I've put useful...it's certainly made me feel better writing it :)

[milkcarton]

I suffered migraine with aura in late 2010 when I had about 3 bouts in 2 months; two were at work and one was in the house. They terrified me as I only had mild headaches afterwards, I suffer from migraine headaches a lot but never had the aura before those episodes.

I'm on 40mg Propranolol after going to the Dr's and haven't had a full on aura since, although I don't want to jinx myself. I still get bad headaches where I need to lie in a dark room. Ask ur Dr about Beta Blockers as I witness they do work!

[happycarrot]

I have migraine with aura. My aura symptoms are unusual because they mimic a stroke--numbness on one side and confusion along with the visual problems (hemiplegic migraine). The first one I had was one of the strangest and scariest things ever. I had to have a head MRI to make sure they were just migraines. Now I take a beta blocker to prevent them, and it mostly works. I had two attacks this week after not having any in several months, though, so of course that made me worry even though I know what's going on.