Tuesday, December 22, 2009 Abi A asks

Q: What's your aura like?

I've talked with my specialist, and I know that my aura symptoms are just that, aura symptoms. Still, they can seem kinda freaky when they're happening. If it's OK, I'd like to ask what symptoms other people have during aura and kinda compare notes.

My auras usually have some of the "regular" visual stuff with little blind spots and some little blinky things that look a bit like multicolored lightning bugs. What just seems freaky to me is that I sometimes hallucinate smells or sound.

What are your auras like?

Shalom,

Abi

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Answers (14)

musibeth

12/23/09 3:13pm

Hi Abi, I think I've had about every strange/scary aura symptom that is possible!

I have the flashing light zigzags along with bright spots and a "snowy TV" looking effect, have also had auditory hallucinations, severe sentivity to sound, aphasia, difficulty in the physical act of speaking, brain fog, short-term memory loss (it's a well-known fact around my family that I am not responsible for remembering anything I'm told during a migraine!), numbness in hands or feet or face, very severe sensitivity to smells, altered taste perception, and dizziness/feeling of movement while being still. I usually don't have all of these, just some combination from among them, tho I did once have them all at once (I thought I was dying!).

The first thing I do if I had a new or unusual aura or migraine symptom is check in with my neurologist! So far he's always said, 'That's within the range of normal aura symptoms.', or 'I've had another patient who's reported similar.', but I always feel better after I've double checked!

Beth

princesspaulap

12/27/09 10:32pm

I have had all of this but without the dizziness. I find that I stumble alot and lose my footing too right before and sometimes during a migraine.

Spudgirl

12/22/09 10:06pm

Abi,

I've had menstrual migraine for what seems like forever (18 years) and just started having a "new" migraine about 13 months ago. This one is a different type of pain in a different location - and the frequency seems to be more erratic as opposed to my monthly friend kind of headache.

This new headache comes with major speech problems including an inability to form words, (I know what I want to say, but can't make the words come out of my mouth). Other times, I will stutter terribly and feel incredibly stupid. After the migraine subsides, the effects continue for several hours - including the verbal problems and often-times with the addition of an accompanying short-term memory loss.

Yeah, for me -- it seems strange all around, but the Drs say -- don't worry, it's just a migraine with aura. I thought "migraine with aura" was all about the lights, but apparently not. I too wonder what other folks 'get' for aura?

hemiswat

12/25/09 4:02am

Mine are like yours -- speech issues, stuttering, slurring words, word-finding problems, memory loss, the "stupids" as my son calls it ... can't-think-my-way-out-of-a-paper-bag. I'm very odor, light and hearing sensitive, but I don't see flashy lights. Symptoms start before the migraine and will end if I can abort it effectively or get adequate relief from rescue meds. They'll go on for duration of migraine episode otherwise.

Violet

12/23/09 10:40am

My auras can happen on either side of my peripheral vision. It starts as a little squiggly or pulsing light - like when you look at a bright light and still see the spot for a few seconds but with an aura it doesn't go away so quickly. It gets bigger and bigger until I can hardly see out of one eye. It's moving all the time like a ceiling fan but kind of colorful. It makes my eye water too. It's not painful, just annoying. It gradually fades after about 20 min. and a headache slowly replaces it. I take my Imitrex when it first starts.

Solaire

12/23/09 11:00am

I get visual trails, like what you'd expect someone on a hallucinogen would see. I usually notice it when I move my hand through my visual field. I originally thought this was a side effect from Topomax, but it seems the the Topomax only intensified the aura I was already having. At first I didn't believe this was an aura because it seemed so different from what I've heard described as a migraine aura, but I guess there can be many different auras from a migraine.

unsteadynana

12/23/09 11:44am

My aura starts as a sensitivity to bright lights and then I get colorful zigzag lines in my peripheral vision. As it progresses, I eventually lose my sight completely for 10-15 seconds and then my vision starts to return. I don't get the migraine pain, I get the aura and dizziness whenever the weather changes. Here in PA that is a lot of days where I am not feeling well. Headache specialist calls it a migraine variant.

LynnT

12/23/09 12:03pm

My auras start with a short spell of shakiness and I feel extremely hungry. This sensation is followed by an extreme brightness in the room and noises sound "tinny". I then see small purple spots around my peripheral vision followed by large "blacked out blobs" in my field of vision. The black blobs have a purple jagged edge to them. Within 15 minutes I get a tingling around my lips and the headache starts. I'm not sure if every one of my migraines start with this aura, because often I wake up with a migraine in full progress.

Pauline, Raleigh

12/23/09 2:46pm

My aura is just like I've been looking at a lightbulb filament and then have looked away - a bright zigzag line somewhere in my field of vision. Usually in the bottom right quadrant. My headaches are usually in my left eye.

smgibson

12/23/09 2:54pm

I have different auras. The most frequent one is inability to speak properly in the form of stuttering. I also have facial and hand numbness, a red flush on my chest and face, and sometimes violent vomitting.

I've never had any of the 'classic' visual aura that most folks associate with migraine.

hemiswat

12/25/09 4:05am

I had responded to an earlier message, but yours reminds me that I also get numbness from eyes down to hands, red flush on chest and face, white fingers or toes, nausea and other gastrointestinal problems. Barometric pressure and strong odors are my worst triggers.

chronic migraine sufferer

12/23/09 5:59pm

mine appear like ice at the edge of a pond.

Pauline

12/28/09 9:13am

First I have blurred central vision or a blind spot and then my aura is zig-zag lines. I started having migraines at 16 and now at 85 I still have them. I have never taken any medication for them. When I was an adolescent I had nausea but now they are fairly frequent, but not severe, still they interrupt my life. I know I should not eat chocolate and why do the TV programs and movies have all that flashing? Don't they know that is a killer for a migraine sufferer. Wearing dark glasses helps. Bright sunshine and bright lights are also troublesome.

Ann

1/ 5/10 2:08am

I'm 27 and didn't start having migraines until about 8 months ago. The first aura was an uncomfortable numbness then pins-and-needles and over-pressurized feeling in my left arm that spread down my whole left side. I had problems forming words,even though I knew what I wanted to say, and, unless I was looking at them, my limbs didn't really feel like a part of me. I had 12-15 migraines over the course of about a month, and they haven't come back since then. Most of them were preceeded by the same numbness/pin-and-needles, but it would start at random locations. I often had speech, cognative, and short-term memory problems, and sometimes had difficulty understanding what other people were saying, as it sounded like they were talking in a cave. The stuttering and speech problems would make me very frustrated. The aura would last from 15 to 60 minutes, gradually decreasing in severity, then usually be followed by a headache on my right side.

Rachel

10/ 3/10 12:51am

I'm 35 years old, and have only had this happen to me 4 times over a course of about 7-8 years. One just hit me tonight, and since I've always been afraid to get it checked, decided to enter my symptoms online, and found you all. Anyway, my symptoms are a slight to moderate headache; tingling in my left hand (with the inability to hold anything in it); inability to speak properly--like others, I know what I want to say, but it doesn't come out right, or not at all; a zig-zaggy blinking light that is always just a little off-center; and if I'm reading something, a portion of the letters in the words seem to be invisible. It doesn't last long, especially if I turn down the lights, but it has freaked me out so much! After all the horrible things my friends/family members have guessed that it could be, I'm so glad I checked here so I don't have to freak out anymore!

Chris

10/ 3/10 2:37am

I call my aura the two headed dragon. It starts with a sensation of dropping, or dizzyness. Then I see a spot in my vision that develops into a jagged line that is curvy and makes me think of the dragons at S.F.'s Chinese New Year Parade. So, I call it my two headed dragon. Sometimes I have numbness that will start on the side affected, usually in my fingers, and slowly work its way up my arm into my face. I find that since I am on Topamax, I have less numbness. I cannot type and have trouble speaking during the aura phase. It usually lasts 45 minutes to an hour.

lynchic

10/ 3/10 12:21pm

I have problems with speaking too, can't find the right words. I'll look at a spoon and forget what it is called! I even start to get dislexic. This can come on days before I get a headache, and sometimes afterwards. But unfortunately there isn't an exact pattern for me to predict when the pain will hit. I also get these pins of light that shoot across my vision. These usually happen within a day before it hits. I get the trails of light and snowy vision, but I have those every day so I don't think they are related to the migraine.

Q: What's your aura like?

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