Not All Headaches are Created Equal
In the back of an ambulance sirens wailing, I was rushed to the hospital as parts of the left side of my body fell limp and immobile. I pleaded with the paramedic to tell me what was wrong, but my words were jumbled. Terrified, I didn’t know if I’d live or die, and even if I lived, I had no idea what life would be like. All I could think about was my children and what their future might hold without me.
At the hospital, a team of professionals rushed to and surrounded me. I was quickly wheeled into a room full of more medical equipment than I had ever seen in one place which was really saying something considering my complicated medical history. A large screen suddenly appeared and then a stroke specialist from the hospital’s center city teaching hospital affiliate started asking questions from his remote location. All the while, I continued to lose sensation and function on the left side of my body. Sheer and utter panic set in.
Ultimately, the medical team decided I was not having a stroke, but I was admitted to the hospital where I remained for nearly a week. Fortunately, the sensations in my left side started to gradually return as did the functions, but it would take at least a month before I was back to my baseline “normal”.
During my hospital stay, I was diagnosed with having a hemiplegic migraine. Later, my migraine specialist at the Jefferson Headache Center in Center City Philadelphia, PA told me it was much more likely to have been a migraine with unilateral motor symptoms (MUMS). Despite having suffered from debilitating migraines for the previous 13 years, I had never heard of either term.
I was very fortunate to have been taken to a hospital with a sophisticated stroke practice because patients experiencing MUMS are often told that they had a stroke. In one study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 38% of patients with MUMS were told they had had a stroke, and 17% believed they had had a stroke despite normal brain imaging.
After learning more about MUMS, I realized that I had likely had other, although FAR milder, episodes before the “big one” that mimicked a stroke so convincingly. Throughout my years of experiencing chronic migraine, I had several headaches where I experienced muscle weakness on one side and/or difficulty forming words or speaking. As I’ll discuss more in a later blog, I have sought help at the ER countless times with severe migraines that didn’t respond to my normal rescue medications. I needed emergency medical treatment despite taking multiple medications designed to help prevent migraines and receiving dozens of Botox injections in my head, face, neck, and upper shoulders, first every 12 weeks, then every 10 because the Botox wore off. During those other episodes when I had motor symptoms, by the time I got to actually see a doctor in the ER, the muscle and/or speech systems would have waned or the pain and/or vomiting were so severe that the motor symptoms took back stage.
For those who suffer with chronic migraines and others who know those impacted well, you understand how incapacitating they can be. A migraine is a disabling neurological disorder that is far worse than a typical headache, and it can last for days. Not all headaches – or even migraines - are created equal, and the differences can be profound.
Please stay tuned for Part 2 of my blog, “Not All Headaches Are Created Equal” to learn more about different types of headaches and when severe head pain requires emergency medical assessment and potential intervention.
