I was at high risk for a stroke now or in the future. Jessica knew all of this family and personal health history and potentially saved my life. I’d had a grandparent on each side die of stroke-related complications and still occasionally got migraines with aura. Sure enough, I should not have been taking hormonal birth control with estrogen. But, just in case, I mentioned it at my next gynecologist appointment. There’s this thing called student doctor syndrome where med students think they or their loved ones have the diseases they’re studying. Learning to identify an aura was key to figuring out what was going on with me. For me, it looks like the visual imprint when you look at backlit Venetian blinds or when you accidentally stare into the sun’s reflection in a shiny object. There are two main kinds of aura with migraine: positive symptoms (flashing lights, spots, lines, pins, needles) and negative symptoms (numbness, hemi-paralysis, visual loss). The aura looks different for each person and, at least for me, looks different each migraine, but the basic idea is that you have too much blood rushing to your head and it impedes your vision. I went back to the pediatrician after the third incident and she told me my headaches were classic migraines and the vision issues were an aura. I had aphasia (a loss of ability to understand speech) and the pain was worse than a normal tension headache. I couldn’t swallow pain pills at that age and couldn’t feel my tongue anyway. Sometimes only one side of my body would go numb. We chalked it up to a bug.īut then it happened again. I stayed home from school the next day and didn’t have any more symptoms. They told her to only call them if I stopped breathing. It was a Sunday, and there was a particularly bad flu that year. My mom put me to bed and called our pediatrician. I was having trouble forming words to describe my symptoms. Soon, I couldn’t see and my hand was numb. After her mom picked her up, I started feeling weird, spacy, sickly. I’d had a sleepover with my best friend, Jessica, and we’d eaten donuts for breakfast. My first migraine with aura was in seventh grade. Share on Facebook Facebook Logo Share on Twitter Twitter Logo Share on LinkedIn LinkedIn Logo Copy URL to clipboard Share Icon URL copied to clipboard
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