headache symptoms

Does anybody have symptoms of "not all here", reading things incorrectly and the other symptoms that you can get with an arura but not actually have an arura?

Yup, usually a precurser to a M. Bizarre when it happened. Using the wrong words and not being able to express myself usually goes hand in hand with it.

Charlotte

Kate, I forget now but are you on preventatives for migraines?

Since starting topamax, even though almost all my stupidity has gone away in the last couple of months, during my aura I get that feeling more so than I ever did when I wasn't on medication. I don't know if this has any connection. That disconnected feeling is so much more apparent when I get an aura than any other time unlike when I had first started titrating on topamax.

Migraines and auras also change constantly in life. Almost every time I get an aura it is different. I've seen stripes, dots, lost vision completely, lost vision partially, lost vision in one eye, both eyes, gotten tunnel vision, seen things falling in front of my face, and even more odd things that I can't begin to describe. That doesn't even include the physical things I experience...it's just the visual! I swear that drug addicts would pay good money to see and feel the things that I do during my aura phases LOL

Hi lovegia, I`m not on anything. I use to be on Topamax. It wasn`t a good drug for me because I lost a lot of weight. I went down to 85lbs. I had all of the symptoms that come before and during an arura, but no arura.

Yeah no kidding Kate! I have lost 30lbs in the a little over 3 months so far. I am not unhappy with it and it is not unhealthy for me so I'm not complaining at all. I started out at 178lbs and am now 149 so it is definitely a happy time for me. I am loosing my "baby" weight that I gained during pregnancy. I cannot wait to be my normal 130-140 again! 85lbs is definitely not where I want to be though, and if I went anywhere that low I'd stop taking it too, no matter how well it worked.

When I first started I battled such horrendous side effects. I felt pretty much stoned all the time. I forgot my words, forgot where I was going, used the wrong words, tingled, cramped. One night I was laying in bed and knew I could use my legs but couldn't will myself to move them. My brain wouldn't make that connection. I was so out of it, it was almost like being a zombie but the way I looked at it, it was very similar to the way I acted when I was sleep deprived during the first month or so after the birth of my daughter

Now I don't have too many problems. I feel safe enough to drive during the day as long as it is a few hours after taking the medication. I only have tingling occasionally and when I get angry. I forget my words occasionally and use the wrong ones sometimes. I still have no appetite but thats A-OK! I do get horrible leg cramps every week and a half though. It is a rare side effect but oh man, it is HORRIBLE!!!! All day leg pain where you can't do anything! EEP! Nothing helps including vicodin, codeine, aleve, tylenol, advil, excedrin, asprin, nucynta, and percocet.

Seems like with this drug though, every week something changes so next week a new side effect or whole different thing could happen. I never know what could come up. I guess you can say in some way it adds excitement to my life.

I haven't had Aura since I was 5. But, I feel not "all there". Lately I've been suffering from EXTREME mood swings. Let me tell you, My husband has been very shocked since we've only been married for a month and didn't live together before marriage. This is all so new to him.

I've had trouble seeing things, had some white blurs too...

Kate,

I'm not sure what you mean by not actually having the aura. Maybe that is your aura.

Teri

lovegia,

My Father used to take some med with the side effect of leg cramps. To offset the severe leg cramps he was prescribed quinine. He said that the quinine was extremely bitter, but did help with the cramps. Quinine is usually used to treat malaria.

I read up on it and while it sounds wonderful for leg cramps, in 2006 the FDA issued a warning stating physicians should stop prescribing it off label for leg cramps because it's side effects are so severe that the risks outweigh the benefits in regards to the treatment. It is still in use for malaria treatment though. Here is the link.

It's probably especially bad for us migraneurs with aura who are already at a slightly higher risk of stroke as it is.

Whereas it is a PITA to get the leg cramps, it is nowhere as dehabilitating as M pain because it is in my legs and not my head. I think the pain is actually just as severe but for some reason head pain bothers me a lot more. I manage okay with heat pads, rest and light massage. I am lucky because I am a stay at home mom so if the house doesn't get clean that day, it's not like the world is going to fall apart. There is always TV dinners or something fast and easy for my husband to cook and although I don't like to do it often, my daughter is entraptured by the TV so for those days it's noggin channel 123 LOL! I worry about carrying her but thank god she is more sturdy and no longer an infant. Soon that stage too will pass, although I will miss it and be sad that I wasn't very healthy during that time.

Still, I'm pretty lucky that I live the life I have..at least I don't have a demanding job like most of you have otherwise I'd be pretty screwed.

My father passed on from a stroke in June of 2006. Mom and I thought that it was because he was taken off of the blood thinner Coumadin (warfarin) for a skin cancer operation. Maybe, from what the article you linked to says, the quinine also had something to do with it.

When I googled it, the first thing that came up was a law suit case because of stroke and heart problems.

I am so sorry to hear about your dad, I hope you find some answers. I am very sad to know that he passed but it is good to know that they discovered problems with the medication so others wont suffer. I'm sure he would be happy to know that too.

The first thing I notice is burning eyes. Then the stiff neck creeps in, followed by pain in the back of my head migrating to the top. From there on it will either ramp up into a thumper or sit there as a dull headache that never leaves me. As it was all weekend.

Statistically Saturday nights are supposed to be "The night of passion". Ain't happening.
Take my pain meds, start feeling good: Still ain't happening, but for other reasons.

Like my signature say's - It's my gradual descent into a life I never meant.

I didn`t think of that but maybe it was an arura. Typically with my aruras I have the zig zags,etc.

Auras can be anything sensory. My daughter smells weird things, gets numb on her face, and loses her peripheral vision. I get the smell thing, a weird metallic taste, visual disturbances, etc. I kind of figure that when my senses go haywire and it lasts less than an hour, it's an aura.

Alli