Real Life: I'm paralysed by strip lights in supermarkets, offices and hospitals

by **Tee** Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:48 pm

I am sure a lot of you will relate to this story......

Jan 1 2012 by Zoe Chamberlain, Sunday Mercury

MY FACE dropped, I couldn’t move my arm and I lost my speech. I was scared to death.

Everything happened at once and so suddenly. There was no pain, then an almighty headache.

My wife, Hilary, thought I was having a stroke. She called 999 and I was rushed to hospital.

It was September 2010, and I had no idea what was happening to me. That was the most frightening thing.
By the time I was halfway to hospital in the ambulance my symptoms started disappearing. I heard the paramedics say they didn’t think it was a stroke. That was good news, at least, but something was terribly wrong.

I was put on a ward and I was very fortunate that one of the few specialists in migraines was there. He said I was one of only three patients he’d ever seen with a migraine variant known as hemiplegic migraine. It’s a form of migraine that causes stroke-like symptoms.

Panic
My wife and I don’t tend to panic right away, but this was alarming.

My arm remained paralysed for about a week. The spasm when the migraine hit had been so great that it had gone straight to the nerve in my shoulder.

A physiotherapist worked on it and I heard a massive crack as it released.

I thought it was broken but I could move it again after that. It still took three to four weeks before I was able to go back to work as a fire prevention officer. Since then I’ve had almost permanent headache.

Fluorescent lighting is the worst trigger for me. It means I struggle to do simple things like go shopping.

http://www.sundaymercury.net/lifestyle-news/health-news/2012/01/01/real-life-i-m-paralysed-by-strip-lights-in-supermarkets-offices-and-hospitals-66331-30039334/