I'm new to this site and new to trying to learn about seizures.
I was first diagnosed as having migraine w/aura without the headache. This diagnosis was made because I would have episodes of colored dots in my vision and nausea as my primary symptoms. For some reason motion has always been one of my triggers--driving, train, passenger in any vehicle. I never had motion sickness as a child. None of these symptoms happened until I was about 17 (I'm now early 40's). I was asked if anyone in my family had migraine and I said my mother did so the Dr said, "you have migraine"---that was the extent of my "medical workup" initially.
For years I've questioned the migraine diagnosis because it just didn't fit. Occasionally I've had a bad headache and I definately have an aura. After reading that some people do have migraine with no headache I accepted thee diagnosis of migraine but it never fit in my gut---it just didn't make sense to me.
About two months ago I started having other symptoms in addition to the usual spots of color and nausea. I get illogical strange thoughts that pop in my head out of nowhere and seem to be triggered by nothing. These thoughts are not rational; it wil be something like, "The purple cats need to bake donuts and the blue ones need to sing"---stuff that is kinda humorous in a weird sort of way. These thoughts will be accompanied by colored dots in my vision or bright flashes of light. I get lightheaded.
Other symptoms that are new that started a few weeks ago are temporary paralysis of a specific part of my body (occasionally a whole side of my body). The paralysis just lasts 30 seconds to a couple of minutes. It stops and then I have a few seconds to maybe a minute of no symptoms other than feeling "fuzzy" and then this is followed by about 30 seconds to a minute of burning neuropathy type pain. Sometimes after all of this, about 10 minutes later, I will have a headache (but not always). In the morning upon waking I have a different set of symptoms that consist of dreaming only instead of anything being visual it's just me hearing myself say a bunch of sentences using words that in my waking world I don't even know what they mean. I wake up and actually have to look some of the words up in the dictionary! I'm a well educated person with an extensive vocabulary so this is a really odd symptom. When I wake up like this if my eyes detect any daylight (even before I've opened my eyes) I will get an immediate headache.
I went to the ER who said this must be some strange migraine variant. CT scan was normal. I can't have an MRI. Carotid ultrasound was normal. Blood work has all been normal. They sent me home and told me to follow up with neuro. My neuro. said this sounds more like seizure than migraine. I was told paralysis with migraine tends to last hours not seconds to a few minutes, the thoughts and problems I'm having while falling asleep, waking up and the pattern, in general, she says sounds more like seizure.
Triggers seem to be being on the computer, playing game on the computer, eating (can't tie it to a specific food but rather the mere act of eating seems to be the trigger. It is more likely to happen with dinner meal and never has happened with breakfast), Motion is one of my biggest triggers. I definately notice this gets much worse with lack of sleep and stress.
I had EEG done today; I don't have results but I think it will be normal. I didn't feel any of my symptoms during the test.
I am extremely sensitive to medications. I am unable to take migraine abortive or preventative meds. We did try a heavy duty anti-inflammatory but it did nothing but give me GI distress.
Does this kind of thing sound familiar to anyone?? I just feel alone and overwhelmed right now. I know you guys can't diagnose me but after reading a bit I really do feel like at least some of these episodes really are seizure and not migraine but I'm confused because the EEG test today didn't seem to cause or trigger any symptoms.
Thanks for reading and I will try to keep future posts SHORT
Ruthie
I was first diagnosed as having migraine w/aura without the headache. This diagnosis was made because I would have episodes of colored dots in my vision and nausea as my primary symptoms. For some reason motion has always been one of my triggers--driving, train, passenger in any vehicle. I never had motion sickness as a child. None of these symptoms happened until I was about 17 (I'm now early 40's). I was asked if anyone in my family had migraine and I said my mother did so the Dr said, "you have migraine"---that was the extent of my "medical workup" initially.
For years I've questioned the migraine diagnosis because it just didn't fit. Occasionally I've had a bad headache and I definately have an aura. After reading that some people do have migraine with no headache I accepted thee diagnosis of migraine but it never fit in my gut---it just didn't make sense to me.
About two months ago I started having other symptoms in addition to the usual spots of color and nausea. I get illogical strange thoughts that pop in my head out of nowhere and seem to be triggered by nothing. These thoughts are not rational; it wil be something like, "The purple cats need to bake donuts and the blue ones need to sing"---stuff that is kinda humorous in a weird sort of way. These thoughts will be accompanied by colored dots in my vision or bright flashes of light. I get lightheaded.
Other symptoms that are new that started a few weeks ago are temporary paralysis of a specific part of my body (occasionally a whole side of my body). The paralysis just lasts 30 seconds to a couple of minutes. It stops and then I have a few seconds to maybe a minute of no symptoms other than feeling "fuzzy" and then this is followed by about 30 seconds to a minute of burning neuropathy type pain. Sometimes after all of this, about 10 minutes later, I will have a headache (but not always). In the morning upon waking I have a different set of symptoms that consist of dreaming only instead of anything being visual it's just me hearing myself say a bunch of sentences using words that in my waking world I don't even know what they mean. I wake up and actually have to look some of the words up in the dictionary! I'm a well educated person with an extensive vocabulary so this is a really odd symptom. When I wake up like this if my eyes detect any daylight (even before I've opened my eyes) I will get an immediate headache.
I went to the ER who said this must be some strange migraine variant. CT scan was normal. I can't have an MRI. Carotid ultrasound was normal. Blood work has all been normal. They sent me home and told me to follow up with neuro. My neuro. said this sounds more like seizure than migraine. I was told paralysis with migraine tends to last hours not seconds to a few minutes, the thoughts and problems I'm having while falling asleep, waking up and the pattern, in general, she says sounds more like seizure.
Triggers seem to be being on the computer, playing game on the computer, eating (can't tie it to a specific food but rather the mere act of eating seems to be the trigger. It is more likely to happen with dinner meal and never has happened with breakfast), Motion is one of my biggest triggers. I definately notice this gets much worse with lack of sleep and stress.
I had EEG done today; I don't have results but I think it will be normal. I didn't feel any of my symptoms during the test.
I am extremely sensitive to medications. I am unable to take migraine abortive or preventative meds. We did try a heavy duty anti-inflammatory but it did nothing but give me GI distress.
Does this kind of thing sound familiar to anyone?? I just feel alone and overwhelmed right now. I know you guys can't diagnose me but after reading a bit I really do feel like at least some of these episodes really are seizure and not migraine but I'm confused because the EEG test today didn't seem to cause or trigger any symptoms.
Thanks for reading and I will try to keep future posts SHORT
Ruthie
