Mine is that shortly after my auras fade, my left hand and forearm go numb for about fifteen minutes.
I get a weird metallic taste in my mouth like I’ve been sucking on pennies. I will occasionally have olfactory hallucinations too. They’re usually chemical like smells.
Finally, someone else who has olfactory symptoms! I get an odor shift, with everything starting to smell sour, and sour odors becoming really intense, just before the pain sets in. I can’t stay in same room with someone eating a mustard-laden hamburger at that point.
<knocks on wood>
Fortunately, my migraines stopped almost completely while I was in college. I’ve only had two since I graduated some years back.
My weirdest symptom is the absence of the main symptom of a migraine – pain. I go blind for a few minutes (seeing white light), then I see auras, get nauseous, and am bothered by bright light for a few hours…but I feel no pain.
My doctor says this is an “acephalic migraine,” but I haven’t been able to find any information about these kinds of “headaches” using Google or anything.
(Um, let me admit to being an idiot – I had been searching Google for “acephalic migraines” with no luck, but I just searched on the singular form and came up with 3 pages of results.)
The sensitivity to strong odors is my weirdest symptom. I guess the puking your guts out symptom is normal, right?
I used to get these as well. We called them “silent migraines”. The bitch of it was, when I was getting them frequently, my mother thought I was on some heavy-duty drugs.
I used to also get this weird euphoria after the pain of a regular migraine went away. That was pretty cool, but didn’t help with the drug accusations at all.
Oh boy! I always wanted to tell someone about my weird symptom!
First my right pinkie goes numb. Then the numbness spreads across my hand and into my thumb, and then. and travels up my arm. By the time it’s partway up my arm, my pinkie has gone back to normal, and the rest of my hand follows suit. The numbness goes up my neck and into my face, and then my tongue goes numb.
I also get the auras and light sensitivity, and the other usual stuff, but the numb pinkie is usually my first tip-off that I’d better take 4 Advil and get into a dark room. (I’m lucky that my migraines are rare and relatively mild. Well, they don’t feel mild to me, but compared to other migraine sufferers, I’ve got it easy!)
A sudden urge to go to the bathroom, then…
OK, let’s just say that I know that warning sign when it happens.
If you look up “visual migraine” or “ocular migraine”, you’ll get even more hits. I got those for a couple years as a young adult. Weird.
Ugh. Just got rid of a screamer a half hour ago and I am here by the grace of St. Zomig. Mine is that my nose gets ice cold and a vein in my forehead pops out so I look like Harry Potter.
This isn’t a symptom but was weird, so I’ll add that my late Irish Setter could figure out which side my headache was on. She used to sniff my head and try to lick the affected side. Maybe I should ask the teeming millions in GQ what was up with that.
Other than the usual aura, aversion to sound and light, and pain that brings on nausea I also list drunkenly to the left when I walk (and I’ve never been drunk).
I get 'em once a year. I don’t get much pain, either, so I consider myself lucky. When I was a teenager, though, I had them more frequently and with a LOT of pain.
My weirdest symptoms are that my speech slurs and half my body goes numb. Not pins-and-needles numb, but numb numb. I’m now on Depakote for an unrelated problem, so migraines at all will be a thing of the past. Yay!
Robin
Whoa. I have the “listing to port” symptom, too, AbbySthrnAccent.
The only other unusual thing is neck stiffness and occasional slurring of words.
In addition to the auras, nausea, and mind-blowing pain, I used to shake uncontrollably and would frequently black out.
I say “used to” because I haven’t had a migraine in two years. They hit me out of nowhere in my sophomore year of high school and I averaged three or four a month for the next three years. On three occasions I was “under attack” for over a week straight. They gradually tapered off over the next five to six years and have disappeared entirely since then. I think I was on every possible drug, made every possible change in diet and habit, and saw every specialist in a 500-mile radius. Nothing ever really helped. I have no idea why they went away. Good riddance though.
I get a pounding pain in my ears, and my jaw feels like it has swollen out to five times it’s size. I can count on the pain coming in about 15 minutes to half an hour. Actually, whenever I get even the smallest headache, my ears hurt.
Grey aura dots that slowly blot out my vision, numbness in left arm (at least its not a heart attack…), and numbness around the mouth and left side of the face. Bah, bloody headaches.
I get flashing lights and everything looks like it’s at the end of a tunnel. That only makes me nauseous… But then there is the ice pick in the brain sensation that always accompanies it. shudder
I also get teh metalic taste in my mouth about 7-8 mins before one comes on, I usually take a pill when I get that taste, but usually it is too late and I need to sit in a VERY QUIET room with NO LIGHT. They can laste 15 mins to 3 hours, they are horrible, but I am lucky that they are few and far between
What gallows fodder said – I get optical migraines (I think this is a more correct term, not sure), I’m blind for 15-40 minutes, seeing visual auras. Then after that no pain, just achiness, light sensitivity and nausea for 6-12 hours afterwords.