I Know and Live with Complicated Migraines

I have suffered from migraines for over 45 years. In the early days, the symptoms were simple; blinding headaches, sensitivity to light and sound, and nausea. As a child, these feelings were frightening. However, as I got older I learned how to cope with the pain, albeit not with the nausea. Luckily, the headaches back then were very few and far between.

After the birth of my son, I began to experience more frequent migraines. They became even more prevalent after the birth of my daughter. But after I had a partial hysterectomy, the headaches became something much more powerful. I developed what physicians refer to as "complicated" or "complex" hemiplegic migraines.

With the onset of each headache, I would experience impaired motor function on the left side of my body, accompanied by a feeling of numbness and tingling. I had to drag my left leg as I walked and my left arm was basically useless. The numbness usually remained for the full course of my migraine; anywhere from a few hours to several days. Sometimes, I would also experience a sense of confusion or dementia, partial memory loss, and/or aphasia.

As you might imagine, the onset of these new symptoms was initially troubling. Doctors in the ER were convinced that I was either "faking it" or otherwise psychologically impaired. To prove them wrong, I suffered through every psychological test known to man as well as every medical one they could think of - - Cat Scans, EEGs, MRIs (with and without contrast), spinal taps and more. General practitioners dismissed me as "drug seeking" even when I wasn't asking for pain medication. Specialists wanted to run a new battery of tests, certain that someone had missed something. Life at that time was totally miserable.