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Migraine Diagnosis?

Hi! I'm new here. 30 years old, and a couple weeks ago I started having pressure and pain in one of my eyes. I have a history of what I always thought were sinus headaches (pressure in one eye and headache). I went to the optometrist because this didn't feel like a normal headache, and then a transient blurry spot appeared in my vision. The optometrist didn't seem concerned but referred me to an ophthalmologist. I went to see the ophthalmologist late last week because my vision became worse (constant color distortion and a sparkly seeming blurriness - I compare it to the distortion that happens right after I rub my eyes). They did a full exam again and there's nothing physically wrong with my eye. They felt it was migraines and gave me a Medrol dosepak and sent me to my primary care doctor. My primary care doctor wanted to give me Pamelor, but said she can't because I'm on an SSRI. She wanted to up the SSRI, which I refused to do since I was planning to taper off it this month anyway. I ended up taking the Medrol dosepak and the pain/pressure are gone, but the visual distortion remains. It's been a week and I'm starting to lose hope that it will go away.

In conjunction, I've had tingling/numbness in one thumb/forearm since the end of January. I thought it was from a pinched nerve and was kind of letting it work itself out, but now I'm getting waves of periodic tingling through that arm and through both legs. I'm terrified that it's something other than migraines, but none of the doctors seem to be really concerned. I called a neurologist and they can't see me until the middle of this month. Are these normal migraine symptoms? Is it normal for doctors to seem to have no sense of urgency with migraines? I guess I just want to know I'm not alone.

  1. Hi itsjennatime,

    Thank you for sharing your story and welcome to Migraine.com!! We're glad you've found us.

    You are NOT alone! There are many of us who have symptoms such as you've described and its good to hear you'll being seeing a neurologist in a few weeks! The good thing is you are no longer in pain!! I'm happy to hear the medrol dose pack worked. I've used that from time to time.

    Tingling and numbness, along with visual aura can occur with a migraine attack but usually go away once the attack is over. I stress, usually. There is such a wide list of symptoms and we all get some many different ones it's hard to say what's "normal." Let me share this information on migraine disease that may help; https://migraine.com/migraine-basics/ and various aura symptoms; https://migraine.com/migraine-aura/.

    Is there someone you can take to the doctor with you? I've found having someone else with me seems to make the doctor take us more seriously. I hate saying that because that's not always the case, but if they see a friend, family member or partner acknowledging our migraine attacks, then they must be bad!

    Let me know what you think,
    Nancy

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