Auras

[Mama Sita]

I was just curious to see if anybody here has had experience with auras. A friend of mine has been having problems with having auras since she recently had a small stroke last November. She says she does not have migraines, nor any pain at all with the auras. These auras last about 15 minutes each, and she has about 2 per month.

She is rather young (38), but already on BP meds and cholesterol meds, which she believes, was the cause of her stroke.

If anyone here has any experience with auras, please post. I'm trying to learn more to help my friend. Thanks!

[Siege]

A friend of mine with this issue was told that it was a migrane with no pain. She and her mother both had them and her mother was told the same thing (they lived far from each other and did not tell the Dr about the other). CJ

[Gigi]

I have experienced auras many times, both with and without headaches.  My understanding is that something (with me, it is only when I'm preggo/post-partum, it is hormonal) causes blood flow to constrict in areas of the brain which control vision/speech, etc.  This causes temporary problems which clear up in a short amount of time and are sometimes followed by a headache, and sometimes not.

The doctors still call them migraines. 

Actually, my very first adult migraine was only aura with no follow-up headache.  My family took me to the ER because anyone would have thought I was having a stroke, and I was preggo at the time. 

ER doc ran a test just to verify no stroke and told me it was a migraine.  It was all news to me, especially since I had no headache.

I've had plenty since then   

[Mama Sita]

Hmmm...all very interesting. Thanks, ladies. This sounds more like a hormonal/circulatory issue rather than a nerve/electrical problem. Does that make sense?  I really haven't done my homework on this yet, but all this feedback is extremely helpful.

Anybody else?

[Gigi]

I certainly wouldn't eliminate a pinched nerve or something of that sort from the realm of possibility, I just know that in my personal experience it is a migraine and that a migraine CAN happen without having a headache.

You asking about the possible nerve/electrical cause made me think that it could be a good idea to get some good chiropractic care for a few weeks to see if that gave some improvement. 

And then, of course, you could comb through the migraine threads to see the different things that folks have found to alleviate their problems.   There seem to be many, many things that can trigger these, so it's just finding out what particular thing it is for each person, kwim?

HTH

[cinmama]

I found a sight that explains different kinds of migraines that can occur without the headache:  http://www.relieve-migraine-headache.com/eye-migraines.html

I had never experienced migraines, or so i thought.  After the birth of my 4th,  i began getting these strange symptoms in my vision, which led me to do some research. 

I found out i was having "classic" migraine symptoms- just no headache.  The blood vessels in the brain are spasm-ing, causing the aura.  Headache is only one of many symptoms that can accompany a migraine. 

I ended up having an MRI because i was post-op, and stroke was a possibility.  Of course, it was not a stroke, thankfully.  But, the scan showed evidence in my brain of chronic migraines!   So much for never having one! 

Point being,  migraines can present in many different ways. Not everyone will experience the same things, but there are some "triggers" that are common.  Hope this helps.

CM

[Kati*did]

I actually just had this happen for the first time 2 weeks ago.  It was really weird.  I had my head turned at a really restrictive angle for about 1 minute and about 5 minutes later, no matter where I looked, there appeared to be a "tear" (like a rip, not a tear drop) in the scenery.  Inside of the "tear" there were jagged lines all parallel to each other, different colors (black, orange, and green) and flashing.  I thought it was like seeing dots when the blood has been restricted to your head, but then it got bad enough that I was having a pretty serious gaps in my vision in both eye (I could only see/read from the side of my eyes).  Anyway, I was a little freaked out, so I googled "seeing zig zag lines from eye" and came up with a bunch of sites.  Like someone said, it was an opthomalic migraine, and judging from the large number of google hits, it seems relatively common.  Anyway, I was relieved and it went away after about 5 minutes.

[grambee]

Oooooh!  I hope your sites also told you that if these visual oddities last more than 15 minutes, it could be your retina detaching and, as Captain Jack Aubrey would say, "Lose not a minute!"  In a very short time, you can lose the sight in that eye altogether.   I usually have bright little sparklers that fall down like snow for a minute or two--but I'm always very aware of the time because my father had both his retinas detach at different times, and it was quite similar to ocular migraines, which he'd also experienced.  There's my two cents!  Cheers!

[Gigi]

Well, grambee, that just sounds delightful!

I had no idea that people could have their RETINAS DETACH just out of the blue?!  Nice.

Anyway, I know for certain that some of my visual oddities have lasted longer than 15 minutes when I'm having a migraine ~ I had no idea that I needed to be worrying about detaching retinas!!! YIKES!