complicated migraine

[visions133]

My daughter has weird symptoms before she gets a migraine headache. She gets a stiff neck or painful ear canal and then gets a strange floating feeling and then her face goes into severe spasms and her tongue swells up and sticks out of her mouth on one side. This time her arms and hands froze. The episode lasts about 4 minutes, everything relaxes for a few minutes, and then it starts again. This time she had 3 full episodes and one small one. Her migraine and nausea has been constant for about a month. She takes Topamax and Indural. She also takes other medicines. Has anyone heard of anything like this? The doctors don't know what it is. One doctor in the ER said it was complicated migraines.

[Dr_Aparna]

Hi,
Complicated migraine is a type of migraine in which migraine attacks are accompanied by persistent neurologic deficits, such as paralysis.
Complicated migraine is is a variant of migraine. Familial hemiplegic migraine is an example of this. Complicated migraines are rare, again probably less than 1%. They tend to reoccur in the same people rather than being scattered randomly across all migraine occurences.
The treatment is the same as migraines.It is important to avoid the triggers.Common triggers include certain foods (eg, chocolate, cheese, oranges, tomatoes, onions, monosodium glutamate [MSG], aspartame, red wine, alcohol), hormonal changes , head trauma, physical exertion, fatigue and stress.
ref:http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic517.htm

[bhups1]

Hi, it seems based on your description of symptoms that she is having extrapyramidal syndrome. What are other drugs she is on? As this  is due to side effects of some anti psychotic or anti vomiting drugs. Please consult doctor for diagnosis and treatment. Drugs like phenergan can control or treat these effects. Please visit website
http://www.hubin.org/publicfamilyinfo/treatment/side_effects/side_effects_6_en.html