Migraine or Stroke?

By Maksmom1130 Saturday, December 13, 2008

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I am 29 years old and this week went into the hospital with numbness/tingling/weakness on the left side of my face, neck, arm and leg. I had taken a migraine medication that morning and shortly after began to feel exhausted. I took a nap at work in my boss' office as i could not drive home, and my co-workers had to shake me for 4-5 minutes before i would wake up. I was disoriented and slow all day, so i went to the ER. I spent 3 days in the hospital having test after test..all normal. I was told it was probably due to my migraine. Has anyone else had this? I get them less than once a month and have never had this happen before. As i also had unequal pupils, my doctors were convinced it was a stroke at first. with the normal scans they changed it to migrained related.

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Nancy Harris Bonk, Health Guide

12/14/08 1:23pm

Hello, and welcome to MyMigraineConnection.com!

That must have been an awful experience for you, I'm sorry you had to go through that. I can provide you with some information you may want to share with your doctor.

Hemiplegic Migraine (HM), a rare form fo Migraine disease, is the only type of Migraine that has true motor weakness included as one of its symptoms. HM can be difficult to diagnose because it can mimic other vascular diseases and may be thought to be epilepsy or stroke. Continue reading Hemiplegic Migraine - The Basics.

Thank you for creating a SharePost. SharePosts are a form of blogging, and there are many things you can do with them. You can share an experience, suggest something that's helped you, use SharePosts as a Migraine and headache journal, and many other things.

We also have a discussion forum that you may want to check out. Especially if you have questions or are looking for information, you may find the interaction on the forum to be quite helpful. To get to the forum, just look for the orange box marked "Manage" and click on the Migraine Forums link. Because our forums are maintained by a third party, you'll need to register for the forum. You can use the same information you used to create your community log-in if you like. If you want to go directly to the forum, you can click HERE.

Along with your personal "My Home" page and the discussion forum, you'll find links to a great deal of helpful information and a spot to sign up for our free newsletter on the main page of our site, http://www.MyMigraineConnection.com.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them to the forum or send me a message through my profile.

Welcome again,

Nancy Bonk
MyMigraineConnection.com Expert

monica

12/26/08 11:16pm

I also frequently have neurological symptoms, including loss of speech with my migraines. I have had them for almost three years. Sometimes the weakness, paralysis and loss of speech can last for many hours. As much as I know that it is part of the migraine, it is hard to not be scared and frightened every time it happens. The bummer about having this type of migraine is that I am told by my neurologist that taking triptans (like immitrex) is out of the question since it is contraindicated for patients with Hemiplegic migraines. That is really a bummer for me as that has required frequent trips to the ER as a result, to treat the pain. The thing to remember is that it is NOT a stroke and the symptoms will resolve themselves.

Migraine or Stroke?

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