1.2.1 Migraine with typical aura

A 41-year-old graphic designer reports that this is the third time in her life she has had one of these episodes. Each begins with a shimmering, jagged arc of light confined to the left side of her visual field, accompanied within a minute or two by trouble getting the right words out, so that she sounds momentarily muddled when she tries to speak. Both disturbances stay on the left, and she has never noticed anything on the right side of her body. A pounding headache on the right temple starts within the hour, usually while the visual disturbance is still fading. She denies any weakness or clumsiness of the limbs, denies vertigo, double vision, or ringing in the ears, and has never lost vision entirely in either eye during these spells. This is the pattern she now recognises reliably each time it happens.