LOL. I DO have halloween candy downstairs...
So I had a scary morning. I went in to work, completely fine, and after about an hour and a half, just pretty suddenly started losing the right side of my vision, and then getting a headache. I couldn't make it go away, but it was like everything to my right side was dark and blurry... like after you come in from really bright light, and you can see shapes, but you can't focus on anything? Anyways, so I sat for a bit, waited for it to go away, it didn't, and so I made the decision to call DH to come get me and go see the Dr. Then as I was finishing up some stuff to pass on to a co-worker, I was trying to explain something to her... and it was like my brain and the words I was trying to say just weren't cooperating... I felt like something out of a medical drama- I was flitting my eyes around at the people with me, all while this poor girl is like "it's ok, don't worry" and my brain is thinking "no it's not, I know this stuff, I know exactly what I want to say to you... but when I try to speak, I'm just talking gibberish..." it was like words in the wrong order, and even words mixed up... I would try to say something like "arrivals" and it would come out "rrrrevom" or something else equally undistinguishable.
So that's where I officially was like ok... vision is one thing, headache one thing, but not being able to form sentences-- now I'm freaked. So off we went. The doctor checked me out, said everything looks normal, I could either go home and try to sleep it off, come back if it gets worse (my speech was back by then, just the vision was a bit off still, and headache remained) or could go directly to triage, where they would send me for a CT, and probably an MRI, and a whole schwack of tests. Since it was getting better, we opted ot go home, and I slept.
I woke up, and my vision is 'normal' now, and my speech back to normal, just have a killer headache. But at least after sleeping I was able to get on the computer and do some searching, it looks like it was a "Complex migraine", which totally presents as a stroke, but obviously doesn't have long term effects. Good to know. I found this blog entry that totally sounds like it:
Quote:
Hemianopsia is just a fancy word for having one side of your vision gone. This is also an "evolving" symptom, sometimes starting with little flickers of light far off to the side. And then they get brighter and grow stronger, sometimes as white sparkles, sometimes as yellow lightning bolts, until they take over half of what I can see. Then at some point the flashing lights fade to a still gray or black, and then I am just basically blind on one side. I find myself a dark, quiet place to lie down, and try not to use my eyes. Simple tasks like texting become extremely difficult.
Expressive aphasia is the strangest of the little monsters. The migraine takes over the part of my brain that controls speech, and, if I choose to open my mouth, it would be easy for a listener to pick up on the short-circuits or random firings. And this is, hands down, the weirdest part of the whole experience. It is also the one thing I have some control over. "Even the foolish man is considered wise when he keeps silent." If I don't try to talk, my mouth can't misbehave. But as soon as I open my mouth, there is a foggy disconnect. Like I'm trying to think through a pillow. The feeling is similar to the one we get in the middle of a bad dream, when we're trying to run, but can't, or yell, but can't, or fly, but can't. Only this isn't a dream. It's my tongue. And it doesn't work. And I really, really don't like it.
Anyways... feeling much less scared and more normal now, but wow, was that not fun! And I'd love the headache to go away anytime now...
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