Migraine

my 9-year old niece seems to suffer from basilar migraine. her symtops are temp blindness, passing out, memory loss, tremors, involentary movement, not the same sym all the time, varies). docs in Boston (stayed for a week) cannot figurer out why she is passing out and has temp blindness. she seems to get a migraine that last 5 minutes ad then you would never know it happened. it has been interfering with her everyday carefree life. She was in a tree and she passed out and feel out of the tree (poor girl). She is getting scared to do anything. i went to a seminar on migraine and this is the first time i heard of basilar migraine, after some research i have realize that this may be her problem. why the docs didn’t figures this out or veer to this direction is beyond me (we have severe migraine family history). has anyone heard of this and does you child suffer from this? i have an appt with this nurse practitioner as she was so knowledgable about migraine she blew my mind. i like my neuro but he doesn’t give me answers or info when i ask. i am a "have to know why" person to see if things can be prevented and not maksed by meds, if possible. if anyone can help it would be much appreciated, this has been going on for her about 2 years now. not sure if it could be related to onset of puberty, as she is developing very early as did my daughter. thanks.....

Hi, Roastys Mom, and welcome to the forum family!

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Okay. Onward to your questions.

Yep. There is indeed such a thing as basilar migraine. It's a kind of migraine that kicks off in the brain stem, and it can have a dramatic effect on the migraine event when that happens. We've got a nifty info page on Basilar-Type Migraines.

The most important thing to do is to get a firm diagnosis on which type of migraine your niece is suffering from, be it basilar or otherwise. Some medications are contraindicated in certain types of migraine. Triptans, for instance, can be contraindicated in basilar migraine.

As for the temporary blindness and passing out issues, both have been known to occur in migraine. I've never dealt with blindness myself, but I am a veteran at passing out with migraine. Luckily, I haven't passed out in good long while with a migraine. Hopefully I "outgrew" it. I do know that it can be a huge WHOA! moment when it happens, though, and can be frightening if you don't know where it came from.

The next step for your niece is to get a definitive diagnosis, and a confirmation that the temporary blindness, passing out, and other issues are related. It sounds like you're not impressed with the neurologist you've seen. It sounds like you are impressed with the Nurse Practitioner, though it's likely her expertise will only go so far, particularly when it comes to diagnosing a rarer form of migraine, like basilar migraine. In a best scenario case, it would be time to seek out a true migraine specialist to help you get to the bottom of things. I'm going to give you a link to our Patient-Recommended Headache and Migraine Specialists.

Hopefully others will be along shortly to add their own input. If you're looking for certain information and have trouble finding it, feel free to ask away, and we'll do our best to help you out and point you in the right direction.