Migraine

One of my best friends just spent the weekend in the hospital. Her DBF took her in late Friday night/early Saturday morning with stroke symptoms. She had problems with her left hand and arm most of the day Friday and by Friday night the side of her face was numb. She had her boss touch her face to see if she could feel him doing so, and she couldn't. She also said her head felt tingly on the left side. They did all the typical tests (CAT scan, MRI, bloodwork, etc) and everything came up fine. She's concerned that it's possibly due to her birth control because she recently started smoking again. But when I heard about her symptoms the first thing I thought of was Hemiplegic migraines. She gets migraines maybe once or twice a month, and she can usually treat them with over the counter meds and sleep.

I'm sure there's no real answer right now, unless of course these symptoms reoccur... but I thought I'd run it by you guys and see what you all thought. For the most part she's been really supportive while I deal with my migraine troubles and I want to help her if I can.

Meli

Meli,

What kind of "problems" with her hand and arm?

Her hand was weak and she had a hard time moving/using her thumb. And her arm was weak and numb.

Meli,

True motor weakness, IF it is a symptom of Migraine, can only be hemiplegic Migraine. It's VERY important to distinguish between true weakness and numbness. Especially when people are frightened, they often think that numbness is weakness, but there's a hug difference.

It can also be very hard to tell a single hemiplegic Migraine from a stroke. Dr. Krusz has explained that CT and MRI can't truly rule out stroke either. When he's trying to rule out stroke, he sometimes orders MRA and MRV also to get good scans of the arteries and veins in the brain.

You're right that there's no real answer right now. I hope this info is at least a bit of help.