1.4.3 Migrainous infarction

A structural engineer describes an attack ten days ago that began with bright shimmering spots scattered across her vision. A few minutes later she noticed pins-and-needles creeping up one arm and into her cheek, the tingling arriving distinctly after the visual change rather than with it. The visual spots persisted for 62 minutes on this occasion, and once the tingling started it took about 16 minutes to fade, both well beyond what she normally gets. A severe headache developed as the tingling settled, arriving within the hour of the visual onset, and lasted into the evening. She reports this as her third such attack, all previously much briefer. She was later told that imaging had shown a small acute infarct correlating with the side of her symptoms, and this was felt to account for the headache.