neurological event
“The increased risk of stroke in subjects with migraine compared to the
general population is because they have a higher prevalence of large arial
shunts and hence an increased risk for paradoxical embolization.”
Wilmshurst: Am J : Cardiol 2006; 98:831 831-833
I had a particularly bad migraine yesterday and I think I may have experienced some kind of neurological event. My right side is a bit shaky and weak. My thinking seems to be ok. I've also got some ringing in my right ear. That's kinda weird; never heard of that before. Might be a aural aura, though. (say that ten times fast) Before people start screaming at me, yes, I thought of going in to the doctor, but the only place I could go in to, not having a lick of insurance, is the emergency room, and the possibility that I'm experiencing something that could be treated at this point is pretty low.
I had to look up "paradoxical embolization":
a condition in which emboli (blood clots) from the venous system reach the systemic arterial circulation (the arteries that go through the body) by passing through an abnormal communication (a hole) between the chambers of the heart, leading to a systemic manifestation such as stroke, kidney infarction, or acute limb infarction.
A "shunt incidence" is when blood moves between chambers of the heart through a hole. I've known for a while that I have a small heart murmur, so this whole scenario makes sense.
"A possible mechanism of ischemic stroke (stroke caused by loss of blood flow) in migraine patients with aura/TIA symptoms is paradoxical embolization. Brain imaging studies, shunt incidence, and shunt severity in these patients all lend support to this concept."
So what all of this is saying is that the migraine might have caused my blood pressure to go up enough that a clot was pushed through a small hole in the wall between my ventricles (the lower two chambers of the heart) and this small clot lodged in one of the small blood vessels in my brain. Maybe. Or something like that. Right now, my brain might be busily working around any dead patch of glial cells that might be there.
My paternal grandmother had TIA's throughout her later years. I doubt she knew them for what they were. She lived to the age of 98, though in her last 15 years she was pretty senile. Time to hit the over the counter blood thinners, though -- fish oil, flax oil, gingko, vitamin E, St john's wort, ginger, and tumeric all work to decrease blood clots. Catechins do this too, so I'm gonna work on increasing my catechin intake; that's dark chocolate, tea and red wine.
Again, please don't urge me to go to see a doctor, because I really can't. And I'm fine for now; if I was stroking, I wouldn't be able to write this post.
general population is because they have a higher prevalence of large arial
shunts and hence an increased risk for paradoxical embolization.”
Wilmshurst: Am J : Cardiol 2006; 98:831 831-833
I had a particularly bad migraine yesterday and I think I may have experienced some kind of neurological event. My right side is a bit shaky and weak. My thinking seems to be ok. I've also got some ringing in my right ear. That's kinda weird; never heard of that before. Might be a aural aura, though. (say that ten times fast) Before people start screaming at me, yes, I thought of going in to the doctor, but the only place I could go in to, not having a lick of insurance, is the emergency room, and the possibility that I'm experiencing something that could be treated at this point is pretty low.
I had to look up "paradoxical embolization":
a condition in which emboli (blood clots) from the venous system reach the systemic arterial circulation (the arteries that go through the body) by passing through an abnormal communication (a hole) between the chambers of the heart, leading to a systemic manifestation such as stroke, kidney infarction, or acute limb infarction.
A "shunt incidence" is when blood moves between chambers of the heart through a hole. I've known for a while that I have a small heart murmur, so this whole scenario makes sense.
"A possible mechanism of ischemic stroke (stroke caused by loss of blood flow) in migraine patients with aura/TIA symptoms is paradoxical embolization. Brain imaging studies, shunt incidence, and shunt severity in these patients all lend support to this concept."
So what all of this is saying is that the migraine might have caused my blood pressure to go up enough that a clot was pushed through a small hole in the wall between my ventricles (the lower two chambers of the heart) and this small clot lodged in one of the small blood vessels in my brain. Maybe. Or something like that. Right now, my brain might be busily working around any dead patch of glial cells that might be there.
My paternal grandmother had TIA's throughout her later years. I doubt she knew them for what they were. She lived to the age of 98, though in her last 15 years she was pretty senile. Time to hit the over the counter blood thinners, though -- fish oil, flax oil, gingko, vitamin E, St john's wort, ginger, and tumeric all work to decrease blood clots. Catechins do this too, so I'm gonna work on increasing my catechin intake; that's dark chocolate, tea and red wine.
Again, please don't urge me to go to see a doctor, because I really can't. And I'm fine for now; if I was stroking, I wouldn't be able to write this post.