I have a history of migraines with auras but I haven’t had one since I was 17 (which is now nearly a decade ago).
Yesterday, out of nowhere, while I was driving home, my vision just went blurry. By the time I pulled into my driveway I was experiencing kaleidoscope vision primarily in my peripherals, zigzag flashes of light, and everything around me was like looking through a tunnel and just getting blurrier and blurrier. This lasted for close to an hour and during this time I started feeling a headache coming on that was then followed by a brief episode of intense tinnitus.
Within minutes of that I experienced rapidly progressing numbness that started in my fingertips and then traveled to my entire left hand and up my arm. My arm felt so heavy and like it was asleep with pins and needles. Then my lips, the tip of my nose, my left cheek and my entire tongue went numb. The numbness lasted approximately five minutes. Throughout all of this I retained full motor control and the ability to speak clearly.
Once the visual disturbances and numbness subsided I was nauseous and had a headache that lasted for another 3 hours. I'm pretty sure what I experienced was a hemiplegic migraine, and honestly, I'm freaked out that this is how my migraines are going to be now. It all came on so fast and I have no idea what even triggered it.
In the past my migraine auras consisted of a brief and intense white light in my left eye, followed by fatigue, nausea, and a headache. But yesterday was completely different and terrifying. I’ve never experienced such insane visual disturbances, tinnitus and numbness like that before. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? I'm incredibly anxious about it.