When is it "911" bad?

There is a type of migraine may be a hemiplegic migraine that can involve  paralysis and/or weakness as well as slurred or loss of speech.  I suffer from this type of migraine. In my case, the paralysis and loss of speech can last anywhere from 5 mins to 1 hour. At the same time, I am very confused and have impaired cognitive ability.  I am not afraid to go to the ER if the symptoms persist. No matter how many times it happens, it is always very scary because the symptoms are the same as a stroke.

If these symptoms are new for you, and if they do not resolve on their own, it is not out of the question to seek medical help immediately, to rule out a stroke.   Regardless, I would still see a headache specialist to get an official diagnosis and then give you an appropriate treatment protocol.  

Whidbeygirl

Hi AlaskanMom,

      I'm not sure what kind of migraines you suffer from but if that was the first time you've ever had paralysis and slurred speech along with the migraine then I would have called or went to the E. R.

This happened to me in 2004- I was at work and absolutely got the WORST migraine of my life. I felt like my heart was going to rip through my hair follicle, scalp and expose my brain! I got tingeling sensations all over my scalp before it happened (aura). Once the pain hit I left work and drove next door to where my clinic was to see my family Dr. During this process the speech, weakness, increase heart rate, and paralysis hit. I told the tech at the desk I thought I was having a stroke. I had just turned 40 when this happened and I've had migraines all my life but this one was "life threatening" scary! I thought I would die that day.

Come to find out after all was said and done-went to the E. R.  (test, MRI, blood work and more test) that I had a migraine. I asked what kind of migraine and to this day I am still not told what kind this is other than a migraine *that's taken on a different formation*-  being localized in the back of the skull, pulsating and horrific pain in nature. My neurologist has me on magnesium/bupap/phenergan & oxygen and believe it or not this combination does help reduce most of the pain to a level I can handle. If I didn't have the medicine to take, the pain is so severe/morbid in nature that I just don't know what I would do. Yeah, that's irrational thinking but I'm human and certainly can't tolerate that kind of torture. Even with the high tolerance to pain I have, these literally bring me to my knees. Thankfully this particular migraine only hits about once a month but I still have the others I deal with. I use the magnesium 800 mg daily for prevention and just recently was prescriped Verapamil 120 for my heart which also works for migraine prevention as well. SO, anytime you feel things aren't right, call 911 or go to the ER. Only you know your body and what's normal and what's not. I would follow up with your family physician, neurologist and or headache specialist to see what they say about the new symptoms you're experiencing.

Good luck to you! :-)

Teresa

Hi AlaskanMom,

Anytime we have "the worse Migraine/headache" we've ever had, and/or new symptoms it is time to call 911 and get help. Slurred speech, true motor weakness should never be ignored.

We have a wonderful article that you may find very helpful:  When To Go To the Doctor Or ER.

Let me know if this helps.

Nancy