Question for DMD (Deb Dailey)

[elsie3]

Hi:

I was reading your post and was wondering if you could expound on this Migrane Aura thing. I always am numb in my right arm (and sometimes right leg) and sometimes when I exercise particularly hard I get the kaleidoscope lights in my eyes followed by a killer headache. You mentioned going through several tests. I was wondering how you were diagnosed, and what the symptoms are. I used to have to supplement with iron before my hysterectomy, but that isn't a problem now. But I am very interested in the hormonal issue, since my arm first went numb when I was pregnant with my second child, 8 years ago. I'm 37, and I still have my ovaries, but my hormones have never been exactly stable.

Thanks,

Carol F

 

[dmd]

Hi Carol,

Wow, your symptoms sound like an aura to me. In fact my neurologist asked me if I had seen spots during the numbness espisode I described in my last post. I do remember having what looked like lint in my vision...not kaleidoscope lights. It was as if I had trouble blinking the spots away. They did subside however, and I regained feeling in my arm after a couple of hours. Strange. I did not feel numbness on my legs at all. My neurologist also mentioned that he often treats pre- and post menopausal woman for migranes and auras all the time. Apparantly very common. He said that when I go through menopause I should NOT take HRT because it would very likely throw me into full migrane headaches. So, I am reading allot about other ways to go through menopause without HRT. I am 43yrs. old, in the best shape of my life ( thanks Cathe),still have normal cycles, and am just noticing this year that my hair is thinning, I have some hyper-pigment on my face and am starting to lose pigment on my hands/feet/and corners of my mouth..a condition called vitiligo ( the Michael Jackson skin disorder). Great huh? Don't you just love hormones? Kind of need them though don't we?

The other thing that came up later was the fact that the day that I had this episode (in my Kickbox class) it was the first day of my period. I was very tired that morning. I was also at the time a vegetarian and was feeling generally well and strong. Anyway, I had allot of blood drawn ( this is when they found I had a hemoglobin count of 7-8) and was found to be very anemic. I quickly added beef, vitamin C rich foods in conjunction with it, and began taking an iron supplement. The cardiologist put me on 320mg. of asprin just to make certain I would not form clots and pass one through the little hole ( Patent foramen Ovale...is what it is called)between my two top chambers of my heart.

The period I had the following month was a monster. I passed allot of blood clots and slept for half the day. I NEVER have allot of bleeding, odd cycles or extreme sleepiness during a period! So, there I was: back on on red meat, taking asprin, a hole in my heart, and what was thought to be hormonally induced migrane auras. I have not had another numbness episode since that one.

The tests I had were: many blood panels, sonograms to check for internal bleeding ( they wanted to make sure I wasn't losing blood some other way), MRI ( to make sure I didn't have a stroke), Ecco-cardiogram and esophogial cardiogram to check my heart. I still have blood drawn every other month to keep watch on my anemia. It is sloooowly coming up. I hate eating meat. I felt so much better when I didn't.

I hope all this helps. If you have more questions, feel free to ask.

Deb Dailey