My first migraine?

[Sugarplum1811]

Hi everyone,

I’m new to this community and am writing this post after spending 6+ hours in A&E last night with what doctors said was a migraine.

I was just on the train back from visiting friends when all of a sudden my vision went weird. I had blurry spots in my vision and a weird zigzag rainbow swiggly line in my vision. A few minutes after that a terrible headache hit me on my left side near the temple and eye. Thankfully the train journey is only 20 minutes and I got off and went straight home to lay down. My head was still hurting as badly at this point, but my vision had cleared, when all of a sudden my right arm felt numb and I got pins and needles all throughout my arm! I thought this can’t be right and called NHS111 who then directed me to A&E! After all the wait and a few paracetamol tablets the pain died down and I was seen and given the okay! I’m only 19 and that was my first A&E experience going for myself.

Has anyone had a migraine that has caused numbness and tingling/pins and needles before?

[BitBrokenBrain]

Definitely a normal, or at least common symptom of migraine. The silver lining is that if the tingling starts before the head (and other) pain, you can prepare for what's coming. The tricky part for me was learning not to ignore the signs, no matter how busy I am. I've known people who have only experienced 1-2 migraines in their lifetime. Here's hoping you'll be one of those, instead of a chronic migraine sufferer.

[Sugarplum1811 in reply to BitBrokenBrain]

Hi there, thank you for your reply, I feel more reassured now about my symptoms as in the train I was also having a panic attack thinking I was going blind because of the visual disturbances! Luckily managed to calm myself down! I do suffer from chronic tension headaches and I guess now migraines are just added to list!

Take care x

[bamboo89]

Oh yes, I'm afraid what you describe is not uncommon. Hospitals panic because the symptoms mimic those of a stroke when it affects limbs, so they usually want to make sure that;s not what's happened. I once had an attack so bad I 'lost' my left arm completely for a few minutes - I could see it there, but it didn't belong to me, really weird, couldn't move it at all. Fortunately for me, that's only happened once, but because I'm a lot older than you, I spent many hours in the stroke unit but hadn't had a stroke. More usually, I get pins and needles and tingling down my left arm and sometimes all the way down my left side, including the foot.

Having the visual disturbance you describe may be your warning signal that one's on its way - when I have that, I know I've got about 5 minutes before the zig zag lines and flashing lights obscure my vision completely, so if you're driving, you need to pull over and park up somewhere till it passes. I will say, though, that I gave up dairy last year, particularly cheese, and I have not had a single visual disturbance since, though I still occasionally get a one sided headache and the tingling down my arm and up my face.

The only thing I will ask is if you've had a knock on the head or an accident or a problem with your neck recently - vertebral misalignment in the neck can cause migraine symptoms, and these can often be resolved by seeing a cranial osteopath.

Miriam

[Sugarplum1811 in reply to bamboo89]

Hi miriam, thank you so much for your response. Friday was a very hot day and I had just eaten a feta cheese salad and was sweating from walking back to the train station so I think my migraine was triggered from the heat/dehydration and possibly cheese! Thank you for your advice about possible neck injuries, my neck has been hurting quite badly for a few days and think I might’ve strained it. I do get headaches regularly and I am going to the GP this Monday to discuss this. I hope you are well, take care.

[bamboo89 in reply to Sugarplum1811]

Just to say the GP might not be much help with your neck, unless you're very lucky its not something they're very good at, other than maybe referring you for physio. My advice is to find a good cranial osteopath and stump up the cash - should only take 1, maybe 2 visits at most, that's the great thing about osteopaths, its not weeks and weeks of treatment. Good luck

[TrustnGod]

Hello Sugarplum1811. I’ve been experiencing those same symptoms for a month. It wasn’t until my face looked droopy that I decided to go in. After scans and testing, I was told it was a migraine. The doctor said that before migraines, it’s normal to experience vision changes like you had. She called it migraine with aura. I have severe anxiety so I’m just going to put this down as another unfortunate symptom of that.

I hope things look up for you! Did they put you on any medication?

~Lia