migraines and owls oh my

my husband suffers from complicated migraine syndrome.

The term "complicated migraine" is no longer used. It commonly referred to attacks of prolonged aura symptoms that could last hours to days or opthalmoplegic migraine where patients developed a partial or complete paralysis of the nerves that are needed for eye movement.

Other unusual types of migraine with aura include hemiplegic migraine and basilar type migraine. Familial hemiplegic migraine can be inherited and has been linked to one of several chromosomes. During attacks, patients develop stroke-like symptoms with sensory and/or loss of strength of muscles. Rarely, this type of migraine occurs without a family history. In basilar-type migraine, patients have migraine aura with neurological symptoms related to the base of the brain called the brainstem, including dizziness, hearing changes and visual disturbance. Unlike migraine with typical aura where numbness can occur on one side of the body, in this form both sides are affected. Sometimes, patients will loose consciousness or pass out with these headaches.

Another form of migraine is retinal migraine where the patient's visual symptoms occur in only one eye, stemming from the retina itself versus the portion of the brain involved in vision, as is the case for the typical migraine aura.

Migraine can also be associated with serious results such as aura lasting longer than a week with or without brain infarction (stroke), and migraine-triggered seizures.

Patients with these types of unusual migraines should be evaluated and treated by a specialist. Because the cause of these migraine types is not fully understood, patients with these symptoms should not use triptans for acute treatment.

on march 4th of last year, my husband was driving to a meeting in LA. as he was driving he started feeling tingling in his hands that led to his feet and his face. he pulled over and called his mom who is a nurse. she called the paramedics. they called me. they told me that it looked like my husband had had a stroke and that his brain wasn't working correctly. i freaked out. they told me which hospital to go to. i called friends and neighbors who watched the kids and took me to the hospital. i thought he was going to be dead or brain dead. it was the scariest time of my life. i got to the hospital and they had told me that it seemed as if my husband either had tourettes or was highly intoxicated because of the crazy way he was acting and speaking. they put him in the ICU for three days as a neuro patient. during that time they ran test after test to see what was wrong. they couldn't find anything. they finally told us that he suffers from complicated migraine syndrome. 

complicated migraines do not run in his family. however, normal migraines do. he has had a constant headache since that day.... it is now nine months later and he still has it.... every. single. day. we have had to take him to the ER about five more times due to an "episode" or "attack" and last night was one of them. 

my sweet husband planned a date night for me last night. we hadn't been on one in quite a while... that's what happens when you have three kids.... he got babysitters (our good friends adam and alisha) and he took me to sushi. we were planning on seeing a movie but during dinner his head got really bad so we came home. he went to bed early and woke me up at 4am this morning. i got the kids up around 5am and we all went to the hospital. they gave him drugs through an IV and monitored his blood pressure. he slept. i went home and got the kids ready for school. the hospital discharged him and now we are home. he is still in so much pain but trying to sleep it off. i pray every day that the Lord would take this headache from Dan... but for some reason He is allowing this trial to happen in our lives. God is the Ultimate Healer and i know that some day He will relieve Dan of his pain. i just pray it's sooner rather than later. i hate seeing my husband in so much pain day after day. 

thanks for reading. your prayers are appreciated.

on a lighter note, yesterday i spent some time making owls inspired by some i saw at anthropologie the other day... i'll post pics of them later but for now here is a pic of my inspiration. 

xo,

kass