Speech Aura
Recently I had my most severe migraine, started with visual aura and then my speech became garbled, my hand was cold and odd. Ended up in the ER where they thought I was having a stroke so wouldn't give me anything (I had taken 2 doses of Ubrelvy which had no affect). Had the most intense pains in top of head which lasted a couple of days. In ER they showed me pictures but I couldn't say right word even though I knew what it was. After 5 hours my speech returned. However it took over 3 weeks to be able to think clearly and feel more back to normal, although I'm still struggling. My question is has anyone experienced this long a speech impediment & did they have any long term issues or damage?
that is a great question! I have not personally experienced this, but I have a friend who gets like this periodically with her migraines. She has even been in ICU due to them thinking it was a stroke. She has fully recovered each time. It does take her sometimes months. She usually gets physical therapy to help her. So far, no one has found things to stop them, but she is currently getting Vyetpi infusions. Did you see your headache specialist while at the hospital? Or, have you let them know of this occurring? This article here, may be of some interest to you: https://migraine.com/living-migraine/hemiplegic-awareness. Check out the comments on that article thread. I hope that things start to get better for you soon. (Tonya, migraine.com contributor). Tonya, thanks for taking time to respond, I’m sorry for your friend but reassuring to hear another case. And I appreciate the website which I’m going to check out.
Hope you found the resources helpful. Please circle back if you have any additional questions or thoughts to share. So glad you're with us. Warmly - Holly - migraine.com team
You're not alone. It's not unusual for me to loose the ability to use or understand language during migraines. I've suffered from various forms of migraine for more than 60 years, usually just identified as "atypical migraine" as the symptoms have been too variable to be identified any specific form. Then around 15 years ago I was diagnosed as having hemiplegic migraines, although in my case the pain doesn't seem to be as severe as it should be, and sometimes almost absent, so perhaps they are not really hemiplegic migraines at all - just another variant of "atypical".
My migraine symptoms often mimic a stroke or extreme intoxication so closely that it fools even the experts until the results of an MRI or toxicity screening is seen. I've found myself in ER on a number of occasions when I haven't noticed a pending migraine and been "caught short" so to speak, and I'm seen staggering in the street, one side of my face drooping, and an arm flopping around uselessly, crashing into people and objects and unable to speak coherently or effectively ask for help. I am also autistic and while I'm hypersensitive to external stimuli, it's the opposite for internal sensations, so I usually fail to notice such things as thirst or hunger or low to moderate sense of pain, or signs that I'm experiencing symptoms of a migraine prodrome.
I have had EEGs done but these have been done several hours or a day after being admitted and the results range from normal to "unusual", but not typically what would be seen if it had been a real stroke. I'm guessing the delays might have been because meaningful communication between myself and the clinician wasn't possibly or a shortage of resources, but I'm not really sure.
There are times when I'm also unable to understand what others are saying. I can sort of understand the meaning or broad concept of most individual words, but am unable to understand the meaning of a sentence as a whole. It's bad enough not being able to convey what I wish to communicate, but it's even more distressing when I'm unable to comprehend what others are trying to communicate to me.
The stroke-like symptoms can last for up to a day, and I'm mostly back to normal within a week. Some things such as motor memory do take longer. For example, the ability to tie shoe laces without having to make every move consciously and deliberately might take several weeks to return. And sometimes it has taken me a week or two to be able to walk and at the same time maintain a conversation.
Thank you for the links. I can relate to your experiences you describe in the video and to Amanda's experience of aphasia. They are very familiar. As an aside, most autistic people prefer to refer to themselves as being autistic rather than having autism. It's an integral part of who we are. It affects how we experience, interpret and respond to the world and society. While living in a society built on non-autistic expectations presents us with many challenges, very few of us would ever consider a "cure" for autism is desirable. On the other hand, even after more than 60 years, I still dream of the possibility that a real cure for migraines might be discovered soon.
Hi Barry- I'm so grateful you took the time to educate me as to the right terminology and how that relates to the overall feelings related to the condition of autism and those living with it. I'm thankful when people take the time to raise awareness in the way- not only for me personally but for our greater community who may be reading along.
I'm also glad you brought up the tie between being autistic and having migraine. There are some interesting intersections there. Our community continues to struggle with some terminology related to migraine. A few years ago, the term "migraineur" was widely embraced. Then, a pushback from many about not wanting to be identified as solely and only having migraine (being owned by it). Also the term "migraine sufferer" was used for a bit but some disliked that strongly and embraced "warrior" or "survivor" in place of "sufferer." So, now there is a push to utilize the term "person living with migraine." And then there's the actual challenge of talking about migraine. Is it "a" migraine or "migraine" - is it a "condition" or a "disease" - is an "attack" a "flare up" or simply a "migraine"? Lots to figure out and a lot of it comes down to what works for us personally. All this to say, I deeply understand the importance of getting it right when speaking of these "conditions" and am, again, grateful to you for taking the time to help me understand more about being autistic. Warmly - Holly - migraine.com team
