Not long after my first two concussions, I had a strange experience that I never understood until I was formally diagnosed by a neurologist in 2017-2018.
When I was in the back seat of the car with my ex, brothers and my dad, I felt strange. My left arm started going numb. It traveled through my arm up into my neck and the left side of my face and tongue. I then lost the ability to form sentences. I tried to communicate what was happening but couldn’t form words. Everyone in the car thought I was messing with them and were cracking up, telling me to stop playing. I ended up writing in the texts in my phone to my ex that something weird was happening and I couldn’t speak. At this time, we had no idea what this was, but it was over quickly. Afterwards, I felt tired and weak with a major migraine, not like my usual ones. I slept it off.
This was the first aura I ever had. An “aura” is a “sensation perceived by a patient that precedes a condition affecting the brain. An aura often occurs before a migraine or seizure. It may consist of flashing lights, a gleam of light, blurred vision, an odor, the feeling of a breeze, numbness, weakness, or difficulty in speaking.”
Again, at this time, I had never heard of this term or really shared my true experience because they had joked about it.
A few months later, I was in my Geology class at Salisbury when I got the same feeling. My roommate was next to me so I quietly told her that I thought I knew what was happening and that I would need to go home immediately after class to sleep this off. The same pattern repeated, this time with blurry vision and sensitivity to light. My left arm went numb, up through my arm, face, tongue, and then I couldn’t speak. I wrote out to her on my phone whatever I needed to say. She made sure I made it back home safe and I slept the rest of the day/night.
When I finally found a new neurologist, they introduced me to the term “aura” for the first time. Over the course of two years during college, I had 8 auras. My total is either 13-14 as of today. This is something that takes me out of commission for days at a time. My whole body and head feel heavy and throb. At one point I did go an entire year without an aura! I am currently at 152 days aura-free.
Bluntly Bookish in Baltimore 