Headaches-Migraines following surgery

[JimHurst]

How good to find this site. I had a mitral valve repair three weeks ago. I have a history of migraine with aura since my early teens, with stress being the major contributing factor. Prior to surgery I was experiencing an episode about every two months or so. I experienced an aura in the recovery room and five episodes the next day. Being on Morphine I was unaware of any headache.

After a few days of repeated auras I was allowed to use Sumatripan, when I came off the Morphine. After a week at home I challenged myself by not taking the medication and much to my surprise did not develop a headache. I am having from two to five auras a day. Most are of the zig zag type and last anything from ten minutes to an hour. I have had two “finger tingling” episodes followed by zig zag attacks.

Yesterday was the first day free from any episode but I have had two this morning.

The only medication I am on is Warfarin.

I am still not taking any medication and hopefully the episodes will decrease. I am not yet driving again so I am not suffering any major inconvenience except having to sit quietly until things come good.

 

[catwoman]

Jim:

My ophthalmic migraines started 2 days post-op. Never had them pre-op. I still occasionally get them. No headache, just auras.

 

[JimHurst]

Strangely there is a higher incidence of Mitral Valve Prolapse amongst aural migraine sufferers!

 

[Marcia58]

Strangely there is a higher incidence of Mitral Valve Prolapse amongst aural migraine sufferers!

I read that somewhere, too, Jim!

Deedub -
Back in my pre-op days, when I got migraines with aura and pain, I found that taking one 250mg magnesium tablet a day really dropped the frequency of my migraines. I also seemed to have much less craving for chocolate and sugar!

Marcia

 

[bodman25]

I also get the auras like many others. I began getting them after surgery. Some days they go away with no headache and other days its followed by the headache. It is so hard to judge which one will cause the pain and which will not. I rarely had headaches until after the surgery. Now I get them every week. So you are not alone.

 

[JimHurst]

Four weeks post surgery and My Auras are down to one every other day. Looks loke time is curing

Given the all clear to drive again....may help prevent that divorce

 

[SASKIA]

Hi guys,

I have been plagued by these visual migraines since my surgery in November last year. I feel like I have tried everything but it has been eight months now finally I am resigning myself to the fact I may have to live with this for the rest of my life. Of course I am extremely grateful to have had my surgery but the migraines can effect my life almost as much as my illness did - I still do not have a 'normal' life. I am taking an epilepsy medication called Topamax which has helped with the frequency, however the side effects are cabbage brain and painful pins and needles so I am not on as high a dose as suggested (which might decrease them further). It is really frustrating and I never expected this.

 

[New Guy]

Saskia,

I'm almost 4 weeks post op AVR. I never had headaches except perhaps with too much drink prior to surgery. Beginning day 3 post op I have been getting a bad headache, sometimes 2 or 3 per day and sometimes just once. I've had 1 day where there was no headache and this past week it is definitely better, but I have a bad one now as I type. I don't believe mine are migraines. My son has migraines and mine are not as bad as his.

I'm hoping they go away for good and soon.

Doug

 

[COLLEEN S]

Yep, me too. I had 'em before and after...but now, instead of full blown migraines, they are auras that go away...many more auras now than beofre surgery, but now not as many migraines.

 

[NealR]

Ocular Migraines (without the paid).

Yes, I have had these since surgery, coming up on my one year aniversary. Bright lights are a trigger, working out (when I over-do-it), once in a blue moon, for some other undeterminable reason. They always last less than 30 minutes. I get them about once a month, however, there are times when I will get them twice in one day....go figure.

No longer worried about them, seems like there is an abundance of others on this site, and for practical appearances, seems to be harmless...just a freaky when you first get them.

I did have my eyes checked just to make sure.

 

[Cherries4life]

I was right there with you! In the hospital I was fine, but when I got home that was another story. My homehealth nurse came and told me that I should stop drinking all caffeine so I did, cold turkey. Well I drink coffee and caffinated pop. After my second migraine in two days(I do suffer from migranes, but I had never gotten two in a row like that before), the nurse said I should go to the ER. My wife and I were thinking that the migraines were an symptom of something else, and had totally not connected the caffeine with it. Then he the ER, my wife finally put two and two together and asked the doctor if this could be the cause..........sure enough he believed that was the problem. The doctor then gave me permission to drink half and half coffee, with no more than two cups a day. Then like that they cleared.

 

[carlmeek]

I know this is an old thread, but i found it so useful i wanted to add my contribution for future sufferers who find it.

With my bicuspid aortic valve, I have suffered occular migraines for around 10 years. I remember when i first got them, they were very scary - usual thoughts about brain tumors etc. My symptoms were like clockwork, always EXACTLY the same. I would get a tiny twinkly bit in the centre area of my vision, often i would feel i spotted it before i could focus upon it. Usually it blocked out a word on a page or screen. This would last exactly 20 minutes, getting bigger and bigger during that time, eventually ending up where it was a large twinkly circle around the outside areas of my vision. It would then disappear, leaving me a little groggy, clumsy. I may or may not have a headache, never bad one anyway. I tried everything under the sun, including migraine prevention drugs, but nothing would alter this cycle. I got them, say, 20 types per year - but sometimes, if i was run down or a little sick i could get them on 2 consecutive days.

The trigger for me was very reliable, and i could predict them. It was late eating and over exertion. I became VERY fussy about my meal times. I must have a good breakfast, and must eat at 12:00 exactly. Even leaving until 12:45 could trigger symptoms. Quite simply, if my stomach told me i'm hungry, then i'm at risk of a migraine. The absolute trigger would then be exertion - exercise or stress. Either of these things on a late meal, and the migraine would come.

Dealing with them - at first i used to go to bed, and rest. I later realised this had NO effect, and I might as well just try and continue the activity until it got so bad i can't.

SO- that was before. I sit here 13 days post-op with an ON-X mech valve fitted. My heart is still running at a very high resting heartbeat, usually around 108-112. I have had the first signs of occular migraines several times each day, but they have rarely developed on the full 20 day cycle. Something that NEVER happened before. I'm finding if i eat every 2 hours, i keep them off. One started yesterday, i ate quickly, and within 5 minutes it was gone. Then another one a few hours later..... went just as quickly.

I am convinced that Bicuspid Aortic Valve has a link to ocular migraines, as I researched them a lot over 10 years, and never found anybody report their symptoms so closely as mine other than heart valve patients. Even the 20 minute thing, reported reliably by others.

I will report back in a few weeks what my long term looks like on these

 

[auricula]

Thanks, Carl, for resurrecting this thread. My visual disturbances started in the hospital as soon as my awareness returned after aortic valve replacement. Since my vitreous membrane separated in one eye about 10 years ago I have had rather frequent floaters that look like little explosions of silver. The day after surgery the floaters were black and looked like big fuzzy wolf spiders. If I was looking at the floor and then shifted my gaze the "spiders" moved. I saw them everywhere. We have them at home in the winter and they move very quickly so what I was seeing was very familiar. The next day they were gone, replaced by the silver bursts, which have continued. My first ocular migraine was in April, 13 weeks post-surgery. I was watching TV weather to see how bad an approaching storm was anticipated to be. A combination of bright yellow arteries on a highway map and the garish colors of a pulsating weather radar screen shown below the highway map triggered bright silver zig-zag auras, followed by a severe headache. My first cardiac rehab appointment was later that morning and I postponed it because I didn't know if the headache would continue when I was driving and if the auras would return. Several other episodes of auras have occurred since then and I've had daily headaches (something new since the first episode last month). Tiny bursting silver floaters are frequent but not bothersome any more. I've also had twinges of vertigo. I'm grateful to have read this thread because I was considering seeing my retinal specialist and my ophthalmologist but I'm going to wait a bit longer and see how this evolves. Please let us know what happens with you over time. I hope NormoftheNorth will post as well and elaborate on the "golden horseshoes" he experienced following surgery. Pat

 

[Greg a]

.............I hope NormoftheNorth will post as well and elaborate on the "golden horseshoes" he experienced following surgery. Pat

He has been PM'd

 

[normofthenorth]

I don't think mine are similar to yours, auricula, but mine are similar to others' who have posted here. In fact, I think I stole the phrase "golden horseshoes" from another poster here. Basically, when it's dark, and often when I'm over-tired and finally going to bed, if I turn my head rapidly (maybe especially if I turn "limit left", then when I start coming back to straight ahead), I get a "golden horseshoe" of light around the left side of my field of vision. I THINK it's neurological and not optical, and that it happens whether my eyes are open or closed, though I've had trouble making it happen recently with eyes closed. (I think there's a Murphy's Law about symptoms not appearing when you're TRYING to produce them.)

For me, it's a new thing since my OHS/BAVR, as is intermittent tinnitus and a bit more trouble finding the exact word than before. OTOH, I've also recently turned 67, so it's hard to be sure what's "clinical" and what's "normal".

 

[epstns]

I haven't noticed any change since surgery, but I also had vitreous membrane separation some time before surgery (like a couple of years). This not only resulted in the "floaters" that seem to come and go, but also the flashes of non-specific light at the edges of preipheral vision when I rapidly moved my point of focus from edge to edge. The edge flashes subsided, but the floaters remain intermittantly. My eye doc says that the floaters are common and harmless (unless they get in the way of your sight) but that if the flashes of light at the edges of preipheral vision may be harmless or may be signs of trouble with the retina. So, he advises me that if the flashes return, get to an eye doc quickly to have it checked out.

 

[jdsmithii]

I can't believe I stumbled on this thread! It makes me feel so much better to hear others have suffered through the same things I have dealt with. I started with migraines when I was 12, and they started with the aura increasing in my right eye for about 30 minutes, then facial and hand numbness, then the most intense headache. They came roughly once every 6 months, to the day, all through high school. I had the Ross procedure in 1997, and after that, I had 2-3 migraines a day in recovery. I went to the ER, and they gave me Imitrex in a needle, and then I didn't have a migraine for 5 years.

After my March 21'st AVR, I had a few migraines in the hospital, then a week of silent migraines, then two weeks of nothing. Then, one Saturday night, after my first 2 recovery beers, I had a TREMENDOUS migraine. This was a real head smasher. Two days later, I got another. At that point, I cut my caffeine, drank more water, tried to eliminate other triggers, and I have only had one silent migraine since. I hope they get less frequent and less intense, and from what I hear, they should.

What I don't like is that when I take the Sumitriptran, I get very tired, and I have an odd ache in the glands in my neck.

Oh, and one other thing: Am I the only one that gets really, really, mad when someone says "Oh, I have a migraine," when they are just having a headache? Yeah, you are standing up, your eyes are open, and you aren't whimpering in the fetal position. I am pretty sure it isn't a migraine.

 

[heartman77]

i had gotten migraines with brutal auras...the zig zag flashing bolts.....and lights.........for year b4 aortic valve surgery......the incident that let to them finding i needed my valve replaced..was when i woke up one night and noticed a blind spot in my left eye...from about 3 oclock to 5 oclock......the next day after tests they showed me a small piece of calcium that had broken off my diseased and calcified valve..and traveled to the artery in the back of my left eye.....it remains there to this day.....but that set in motion a 24 hour period of tests , diagnosis and the news i needed heart surgery....if i were you Id want to know if this is what happened in your case......I do tend to get the more silent migraines now than before surgery....just the visual disturbances without the bad headache....

 

[jennifer]

I have a history of migraine with aura, but they had gotten rare before my surgery. I attributed it to starting CO-Q 10 and magnesium a few years ago at the advice of a neurologist. I had OHS surgery on 5/9/11 and then two "migraines" the next week. I thought it was because I had stopped my supplements, but now I think I was actually having the aura-only headaches that others are describing here. I didn't wait for the pain, I took my med (Relpax) right away. Now, I may hold off and see (those pills are very expensive!

 

[texasmike]

A conversation about this issue is what initially drew me to this web site 6 or so months ago. I was suffering from ocular migraines on a frequent basis, and when I told my cardiologist at Mayo about this the response I got was basically a shrug and raised eyebrow.
My situation was also kind of strange. After my Ross Procedure in late 2001, my migraine headaches were completely eliminated for over 2 years. I thought they were gone! Then, they slowly started to return, but only at the rate of 4 or 5 per year, with minimal headaches. But then when I had my re-op in April, 2010, soon afterwards I began having very frequent ocular migraines. Now I am having 2 to 3 per week. Just the aura, no headache (thank goodness!).
It seems that the common denominator of all of these threads on this issue is OHS. Some for AVR, some MVR, some aortic root replacement, but all involve being on the pump. Does anyone else see that connection? Also, it seems as if most of the people affected by this have a previous history of migraines.
With as many OHS performed each year throughout the world, I am surprised that there is not a body of professional literature on the subject, but I sure have not been able to find this!