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Path: utzoo!linus!faron!wdh
From: wdh@faron.UUCP (Dale Hall)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Question -- Migraine Symptomology?
Message-ID: <489@faron.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Feb-86 18:40:01 EST
Article-I.D.: faron.489
Posted: Tue Feb 25 18:40:01 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Feb-86 20:33:43 EST
Reply-To: wdh@faron.UUCP (Dale Hall)
Distribution: net.med
Organization: The MITRE Coporation, Bedford, MA
Lines: 49

I have a question regarding whether the following lead to a preliminary 
diagnosis of migraine; I'm submitting to the net for two reasons: first,
the apparently large number of readers with either proper academic back-
grounds or (in)direct experience with a wide variety of medical disorders;
second, my inability to consult with a physician directly (as the patient
--my daughter-- is located in Minnesota, making such a consultation awkward,
to say the least).

The background:

	My 13 year-old daughter ordinarily enjoys excellent health. About
	a month ago, she told me of an episode which she had involving a
	brief clouding of her vision (her field of vision grew fuzzy and 
	faded), after which she was unable to retrieve a number of words
	in her vocabulary. Her example was telling her friend: "it's kind 
	of like a Kleenex, only more permanent" to get the idea of a hand-
	kerchief across. The words involved were of the everyday variety,
	and she was aware of knowing a word to express what she wanted to
	say, only having this "addressee unknown" experience when she 
	tried to recall the word. The episode lasted probably around an
	hour; the next day, she went to a physician who did the standard
	stuff: reflexes (knee,elbow,ankle), pupil dilation, coordination
	checks, plus a blood test. The word was that she had had a migraine.
	The episode was repeated last week, during a case of the flu; this
	time, she noticed the visual effect was limited to her right side,
	but both eyes (or was it just her right eye? I think both eyes).
	The vanishing words business involved the topic of conversation
	at the time -- this time, she had an idea of some of the letters
	of the words she wanted, but couldn't fit them into a word. This
	episode lasted between ten and twenty minutes.  

Other than being totally unfamiliar with this sort of memory disruption as
being characteristic of migraines, with the brief time spans involved, she
does have the "bright, perfectionist" personality that I've seen associated
with persons who have migraines. However, she remarked that there wasn't a
headache of any sort involved. The visual field effects also make the diag-
nosis appear reasonable, except that I had such effects as a teenager, mainly
associated with standing abruptly, and the effect always subsided after a few
seconds. I always interpreted this as being a transient lowering of cranial
blood pressure resulting from the rapid change of posture. Anyhow, I outgrew
this by my early twenties.

Needless to say, I'm concerned; if this is within normal ranges for migraines,
that's one thing. However, the real concern is that the diagnosis was just a
quick and easy interpretation of the visual portion of these events, and that
there could be something more going on. Does anyone have any ideas or related
experiences to shed some light on this? 

						Dale Hall