QuestionLet me begin at the beginning. Yesterday, around 4pm I began having some mild muscle pain in the back of my neck. At approx. 4:30 it suddenly spiked and could barely move my head. It began in my right shoulder and came up through my neck. Gradually it subsided a bit and I ignored it (I get a lot of aches and pains).
About a half hour later I was walking into a store and it was like I had looked directly into the sun or had an extremely bright camera flashed in my eyes. I say circles of light everywhere I tried to focus (also kind of like if you squeeze your eyes shut for a REALLY long time and it screws up your vision). The light let up a bit but I couldn't really focus my vision... somewhere between double vision and these light spots..... I was really scared.....
I decided to go to my mom's which was only about a 5 min drive away.... as I drove it got worse... I started getting head rushes.... like all the blood rushing to my head ( ok this is graphic, but to explain... it was like what may happen when you're bearing down during a bowel movement) and I could feel my pulse pounding in my head..... and this vise like grip throughout my face and forehead. What came to my mind? Ok I admit it... I thought I was having a stoke....
I stopped at the pharmacy next to her house and took my BP.... normal 126/76 and my pulse was 72.
That eased my mind a bit, but the pain kept getting worse. I got to her house and was in tears. I made myself eat (I hadn't eaten anything all day) and even though the muscle spasms and pain were making me nauseous at this point I downed half a sandwich.
I took on of my migraine pills, Axert, even though it didn't feel like any migraine I'd ever had aside from the location, and laid on her bed and cried. I was SO scared. After about 45 I decided I needed to go home and take a muscle relaxer and so I drove home, carefully... took a Soma and 2 Aleve and went to bed.
I'll be honest with you.... I've not been that scared medically in a long time. I don't know what it was all about.... I'm SURE the muscles had a lot to do with it..... I don't know what was going on with my vision.....
AnswerHi Amanda,
This could have been a migraine headache brought on by muscle spasm in the neck. Some migraines come on with bright lights and wiggly lines etc. These are called scotoma. Just because this wasn't a usual migraine for you doesn't mean it wasn't a new type of symptom onset. I would have your eyes checked though to be sure that the retina are OK.
