migraines and pfo

Hello my name is Christina, I have been a migraine suffer all my life, as a child i was told i was putting it on to try to get time of school, i would have black outs being told i was holding my breath, Being sick at school, I have auras,numbness face, arm hands, and my tongue feels swollen, loss of memory and not understanding whats said to me, in 2000 i had a T.I.A The headaches are violent, after being sent to a neurologist and telling him of my symptoms i was sent to Kings Collage hospital for a bubble test, as test were being carried out for hole in the heart and migraines especially as ive suffered all my life, The test consists of saline, blood and air being injected in the blood stream, and then the heart scanned for any leaks....The test was positive i was a good candidate for closure,a hole had been found
Well my next appointment was with a cardiologist at Kings, after speaking with him it wasnt guaranteed it would stop the migraines or another T.I.A that asprin was showing the same results so i declined the op. I am 100mg asprin a day
Maybe you should ask for the bubble test it could be your heart thats causing them just like me...Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migraines_Associated_With_PFO_Heart_Defect
http://my.clevelandclinic.org/heart/disorders/congenital/pfo.aspx

Hello there

And welcome to the forum

Firstly I am so sorry you were treated so bad as a kid ....

Re the PFO - you are quite right, it is something that everyone should have checked out - and there have been some good results from having the op - but again everyone is different. The only downside is but they do not seem to do this test as a standard for just migraine.

I had the test done a few years back following a TIA like yourself - in my case a floppy valve was found but no hole.

I am interested to know what has convinced the doctors that you had a TIA - did they find anything on the scan?

My big attack (5yrs ago) was put down to a TIA, and I was treated for this for 3 years before massive migraine was thought of. I just did not seem to get any better, when fellow TIA victims where.

My current neuro thinks I may not have had a TIA, but in fact had a massive hempelgic migraine. Or even both.

Tee x

Hello Tee,
I spent a week in hospital but was left with impaired vision for months which slowly got better, The T.I.A Was different then the migraine it looked like someone had thrown black paint in front of me which covered the whole of my vision and only vision i had was around the outer edges, This was blood behind my eye, at the time they called it a implosion which now my neuroligist said he'd never heard of it called that, Nothing showed on the scan but believed it was'nt my brain but the bleed was behind the eye, It would of meant more test to discover the bleed I still had the same as a migraine Pain,weekness in my arm and slurred speach, but lasting a week instead of days xx

Oh Christina that sound awful - did they say what could cause a bleed like that?

Christina, just wondered how you were getting on, have things settled?