auras

[Lancashirelass07]

I am wondering if auras migraine. And neck problems can be caused by anxiety / stress.

been having more recently, but a lot of stress. Mum is 102 yrs we found a care home ,but she refused to go in. Therefore more stress on the family. Plus other family problems. It's never ending , doesn't seem like there's any where to turn.

Anyone else found stress is a trigger.

[StriatedCaracara]

I used to get a lot of headaches, and in similar situation too. We had little help as a family. Having carers coming in once a day only went so far. Social Services did not help and we had to rewrite their care needs assessment as it was so inaccurate.

Sadly mum then did go into a care home but she had a fall the first night. Various things then went wrong. GP did not help, and she went into hospital and put in ward were their was suspected noravirus. I thanked hospital staff for putting mum in a side room. Then was told that was because she had covid, which I suspect she must have caught during long stay in A&E. Glad had discussion otherwise would not have known Mum had covid. They were not going to tell us. My brother then went down with noravirus and covid. Infection control in NHS is not always wonderful, even after covid pandemic, this was Summer 2024.

Mum's health continued to fail, nobody cared about releasing mum back to a place where there were other vulnerable elderly people. It was left to us as a family to advise and make sure mum isolated.

My mum's death three weeks later was put down to multiorgan failure, sepsis and old age fragility. No mention of covid.

5 months later still getting migraines affecting my eye and one side of my body such that it affects movement and feeling for a while. Often triggered by.bright light and affect lesion in eye. Been eye hospital patient four years but learnt yesterday they discharged me when phoned as no doctor there when I had scans. GP and a specialist I see for something else. don't think it is their area either.

I known it has vascular cause and have found neck exercises and massaging scalp can help to elevate symptoms. I go swimming and think exercise ( but not breast stroke head out of water) in the water helps relax muscles. There are a group of us so good socially too.

Hope you find some answers in your situation. The best we found was a care company that refused to have anything to do with council, not working for them. Standards were much higher, staff were happy. In the end mum's needs too much though and we could not cope.

Hope the care home you found is better than what we ended up with, and there is a way for your mum to transition to care there.

I found CarersUK helpful. One person who worked for Local council carers group helped too getting me swimming, but the service beyond that did not help much and newsleter literature was self congratulatory, advertising companies by carer special deals, and was sadly rubbish.

[Lancashirelass07 in reply to StriatedCaracara]

thank you, definitely feel isolated ,it does help a little when you know your not alone. Mum is having none of it ,going in a home when I have 2 daughters. What the heck can you do , it's killing us. Think we are to soft . Guess we will have to plod on migraines , she doesn't care has never had a headache.

thanks for letting me get it off my chest.

[StriatedCaracara in reply to Lancashirelass07]

There was one CarersUK Zoom meeting with a brilliant session run by Relate.They had mentioned being very clear with everyone where you stood.

(I was my mum's sole carer, and my dad had just died and it was early 2020 and I caught covid in March before first lockdown. I had been working but only part time so could take my dad to his hospital appointments. He was dying on cancer.)

For me autonomic dysfunction things like POTS and joint pain with fevers I had in 2019, then after having covid my symptoms broadened out into a wider array of symptoms that are seen in Lupus but blood tests not sufficient to meet the SLE research criteria so diagnosed with 'Autoimmune Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease'..which yes can be linked to stress, infections, pollution, genetics, being female etc etc

Three doctors had said the caring had gone on long enough, a sibling living elsewhere in the UK then retired and wanted my mum to move. Mum was happy to move to be closer to them.

Three times whilst caring I had suspected GCA ( no matter how hard I tried my mum did not understand the effect of stress, refusing to use two hearing aids and things like that) but also opticians found small choroidal lesion in one eye - after 4 years of eye appointments after hospital referral it is still not clesr what it is, other than it might be a knot blood vessels - haemagioma which gets treated like diabetic lesions of retina. When light catches this part of my eye it seems to kick off the hemiplegic migraines, always affecting one side of my face and making me feel nauseous, but some times affecting my leg and arm that side.

My sinuses that side get blocked and the associated nostril gets runny. It could be a trigeminal nerve thing. I'm wondering if it is some form of vasculitis, after covid, other than GCA. It is something vascular. Exercising muscles, moving head gently around seems to help. Stress I think affects it all.

I have looked everywhere for an explanation. Discuss openly with doctors. No answers and they don't really engage, maybe not there area or pathways used in NHS don't align so not investigated, who knows. Therefore really nice to find here people can relate too.

[Mary1959]

Hi yes, neck pain and migran e can definitely be triggered by stress. My dad's 96 and in hospital. There's only me to look after him and he's also got dementia. I am receiving Aimovig injections which do help, and I keep a migraine diary, which shows, the days my dad's not good, are my worst migrane s and the stress travels right up my neck to my head. There's not much you can really do, although, massaging my neck with ibuprofen gel, can ease it. Hope you soon get some relief.

[Lancashirelass07 in reply to Mary1959]

thanks Mary, yes I have spent hundreds on different tubes deep heat , frozen gels. They work for a bit, then it's back to micro wave been bag etc. Think it's getting old. Thanks for replying ,guess we'll just plod on .keep taking paracetamols .

[Mary1959 in reply to Lancashirelass07]

I sometimes find cold Ice packs work better on my temples but heat better on neck and back of head. I'm 65 and suffered since my 30's but live in hope of a cure. Hope you survive the Christmas lights and stress. Take care x