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Partial Seizure or Aura Migraine? Or just a weirdo?!

Mon, 09/29/2014 - 16:31

So background...

Back when I was 21 (26 now) I was working at the mall and my vision started getting blurry while I was at work. At the time I thought it was just my contacts, but now I realize it's a 10-20 min warning before the rest happens. After that I end up getting what look like scratches across my vision - looks as though somebody scratched a computer monitor and the pixels are blinking and messing up the picture.

Then after that my face (specifically around my mouth), arms, and hands feel numb. Not all at once - tends to travel thru those spots though. That last for 5-10 mins depending on if I'm standing or sitting (standing makes everything worse).

Then for 5-10 minutes ( during numbness) I develop aphasia. The first time this happened I was trying to tell someone that my face was numb, but couldn't think of the word for numb. It's not a total inability to understand people, but I can't understand random words and can't think of the word I'm looking for. This varies each time in how bad it is - but I have to listen carefully to understand people and can't think of at least 1 common word in every sentence.

Eventually that wears off and I'm just dumb for an hour. Lol, sorry I dont have a better way to explain it, but it feels a lot like how your brain tries to process information when you're drunk. 

By the end I'll get a headache, nothing special in terms a length or strength.

Dr visit...

Visited the doctor, at the time I thought it was an allergic reaction. Did an MRI (not a stroke) and before I did an EKG I talked to the neurologist. She told me it was an aura migraine and that it wasn't likely epilepsy. But also that there wasn't a lot of info to go by so not too much for her to say also that there wasn't much to do about it if I didn't want to take medication daily on the off chance another one happens.

This was already a couple months after it happened, I had no car so each dr visit took an entire day away from school or work. Also, the neurologist didn't seemed concerned and it didn't seem like there was anything to do. (I also had been diagnosed with ice pick migraines back when I was 13 and didn't want to take medication for those either - even though they were much more frequent).

Fast forward to today...

I just recently had another "episode" and afterwards for whatever reason was on this site. I only get these migraine/seizures once or twice a year so I always try to pay attention to the symptoms, possible triggers, and warning signs. So far I know (some of this is weird)...

1) It happens 1-2 times a year and 1 of those always occurs in the fall    2) I've also noticed that a few weeks before it happens I start to forget words randomly a few times a day ("what's the word for that time period in the medieval times when everyone was dumb? The black ages? The..."   Also, whenever I imagine myself speaking - whether it's thinking of what I might say in a hypothetical situation or remembering a conversation, I have this really strange feeling around the outside of my right eye and a strong urge to put my right hand up to my eye like it's a telescope. That one is so weird! And the image of myself talking in my head always does it - it's just a strange urge to feel my hand on my eye, but specifically not covering it.

 I know it's about to happen because anything in the bottom lefthand side of my vision disappears (blind spot). Then the pixelated scratch happens, numbness & can't think of words, drunk/dumb, headache.

Now whenever this happens I just go to sleep as soon as I see the scratches, because I know I won't be able to do anything else for the next hour.

Question?

I think this might be a migraine because of how long it takes, but a lot of people seem to have similar situations. Just wondering at what point should I be concerned? should I urgently schedule an EKG? does this sound familiar to anyone or just crazy? does this sound more like a migraine or a seizure? what should I except going forward if these are seizures? 

- Sorry it was so long! And thank you for any responses - please respond if you have something similar!

Comments

An EKG is for the heart. An

Submitted by just_joe on Mon, 2014-09-29 - 17:28
An EKG is for the heart. An EEG is a brain wave test done by neurologists to see if there is seizure activity and what areas of the brain thay come from. What you posted could be several types of seizures. The dark ages was a long time ago. MId evil times were about the time of king author.  I also know that many EEG's come back normal. Many people have seizures without anything showing up on their EEG's. I had 20-25 before one I fell asleep in which showed abnormalities (seizure activity.  If it were me I would be talking to the neurologist and discussing this issue with him/her. There are lots of good medications out today that can help control seizures. Also understand that if they are seizures the longer yo uwait the harder it will be to get them under control. The longer you wait the seizures wil get stronger and more frequent. I do hope this helps and you get your issue resolved

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