migraines with aura after PFO closure

[LITTLEMOMMABEAR]

I am 25 and had a stroke in July. I had heart surgery just in September and since then I have been suffering from migraines with aura. They are so unpredictable... They normally last 25 min for me. I never had migraines before this. I see 4-5 different doctors and they are all contradicting each other. I have not been able to work or anything because these episodes make it where I can not see. Then I am left with a sever head ache so bad sometimes lasting 4 days. My lips even go numb. This is all new to me so if anyone could shine some light on the matter I would greatly appreciate it. I am at my wits end and need some help.... Thank You!  -Amanda

[Chrissy19982]

Hi my name is Christine and exactly as explained above my migraines started after a traumatic experience, I was raped in university and that summer 2 months after the attack I started getting 20-25 migraines a month my longest one was 5 days I had to go to the hospital now I go after 2 days.  They hook me up to saline, benadril to stop the anxiety of the drug called stemityl ( aka app prochlorazine).  That would get rid of the migraine for a day or two then I would get another... This went on for 6 years over 30 doctors and no one could provide relief or an explanation.  I was being seen by a team of neurologists.  Finally one day while lying in bed exhausted from a migraine that only lasted 6 hours ( those are the good one... If you want a positive spin to my meaningless painful existence I turned on the show The Doctors and discovered migraine surgery!  What is happening to me and many migraine sufferers is the muscle in your temple ( there are numerous spots on the head this occurs) is wrapped around or close to the nerve and when you use those muscles the nerve is pinched and boom migraine.  It is more complicated then that but I am tired.  If you type migraine surgery American migraine centre you will find them to hopefully be able to help you.  They used Botox on me as they do on all their patients to see if it will be successful.  I got about 19 injjections all around my skull and in my traps huge nerve there.  I had no migraines only one from my period but 1 in 6 weeks compared to 20 is amazing! I cried with joy I couldn't believe it had worked.  It has now worn off and I am getting 6 a week.... I would have ended my life a few years back if it wasn't for my husband saving me and I got someone who understood psychologist to help me deal with this.  No one knows what it is like until they have lived it and I would never wish on anyone.  I am going for the surgery in July!  I am full of hope, I can have kids work!  Oh my god I can work!  Okay sorry getting excited.  I would recommend you get doctor to prescribe Botox injections for severe migraines and calm the centre they could give you your life back.  If you want to have a contact with someone that understands you can email me at ***@****

I hope some of this was helpful.  The med that works sometimes for me is zomig nasal spray but not always.

Good luck I hope you find help soon

[marileew]

Hi there,

Well, I am not a doctor or a medical professional of any kind... so, I can't really give you any medical advice, but, I can tell you what I know as a fellow migraine sufferer.

It is interesting that your migraines started after a PFO closure surgery because PFO closure surgeries are actually a type of "migraine surgery" to stop migraines. There are times when a migraine sufferer will have migraines and a patent foramen ovale, in these cases sometimes a doctor will suggest surgery to correct the patent foramen ovale in order to stop the migraines.So, if anything, the surgery should have helped the migraines, not triggered them or made them worse.

BUT! With that said... ANY type of surgery can trigger a migraine attack or a series of migraine attacks temporarily.

You are born with the neurological disease migraine, although you may never experience an attack until a later point in life. What may trigger your first attack might be related to your age (you say you are 25... some people who have migraines will experience their first attack in their 20s, so your age could be a factor) or it might be related to being exposed to a trigger for the first time (a major surgery, which is a major stress on the body, can be a trigger). So, what is important to know is that although you have never experienced an attack until now, you have always had the capability to have an attack, migraines are a genetic neurological disease we are born with. It is just very unfortunate that something has trigger active migraine attacks.. and now it is important to get these migraine attacks under control.

There is no cure for migraines at the moment, although there are lots of very effective ways to control migraine attacks and some people are able to prevent migraine attacks entirely. One of the best methods of controlling migraines is recognizing triggers and trigger avoidance. A good way to do this is by tracking your migraines in a migraine diary. Medhelp has a migraine tracker that you can use if you would like.

The surgery is a major stress to your body and could have triggered these attacks. I do not know how long the recovery time is for a PFO closure surgery... although, if you are not fully healed yet, that may be why the migraine attacks have no stopped. Even if you are up and about now after the surgery, it can sometimes still take months to be fully recovered after a surgery... your migraines may completely stop after you are fully recovered, especially since the PFO closure surgery should eventually help the migraines in the long run.

Other things may be triggering these migraine attacks as well that are completely unrelated to the surgery. Things in our diet are often major migraine triggers. Cheese, chocolate, alcohol, caffeine, sulfites and MSG are all known migraine triggers. Stresses to the body such as skipping meals, changing your sleep schedule and intense exercise are also known triggers. Birth control pills are a trigger for some women. Emotional stress can be a trigger. Bright lights and strong scents (like perfumes) can also be triggers. Triggers that are really outside of our control are things like weather changes... and weather changes are a major factor in triggering migraines. So, if you think there is any possibility that your migraines could be caused one of these other triggers, or could be amplified by one of these other triggers on top of your recent surgery, I would suggest avoiding that trigger if possible. Some triggers are completely out of your control... such as your recent surgery and the weather... don't stress about these since they are out of your control, but just recognize that they may be factors.

Right now it is important to stop the individual migraine attacks once they start. Normally, acute migraines are stopped with a type of medication called triptans, although since you have recently had heart surgery a triptan may not be appropriate for you. You can talk to your doctor about alternative medications to control individual migraine attacks or if it is possible that a triptan would be safe in your condition (although I am not sure that it would be.. triptans do not usually mix well with heart conditions).

If you are getting migraines more than once a week, it is important NOT to take over-the-counter pain killers such as Advil or Tylenol to control the pain. It is alright to take these types of medications for the occasional migraine or headache, but you should never take them on a regular basis. They can cause rebound headaches if taken often and that will make your situation worse. If you do need to take a pain killer multiple times a day or multiple times a week, then talk to your doctor about a more suitable type of pain killer than over-the-counter pain killers... preferably a pain killer that will not cause rebound headaches.

Out of the 4 or 5 doctors that you have already seen, has one of them been a Neurologist? It is important that you see a neurologist. If you have seen a neurologist, what has the Neurologist said about the headaches? What sort of treatment did the neurologist suggest? In your case, I would listen to the advice of the doctor who was responsible for your heart surgery as you do not want to do anything that would put you at risk for complicating your recovery or your heart condition. And, I would also listen to the advice of your Neurologist. If I was in your situation, these are the two doctors that I would listen to if I was being given a lot of contradicting information... because, it is important to get better from your surgery and in order to do that you need to follow the instructions of the heart doctors and surgeons, and a Neurologist knows the most about migraine headaches.

Hope that helps! Let us know how it goes.