Hello Outlaw! Welcome to the forum yourself.

Thank You for the encouragement for me overcoming my addiction(s). The smoking thing is actually getting easier all the time. It is kind of you to be sorry about my health but as far as I can tell I can't complain compared to you. They did an MRI of my neck when they did my head and said they found something around c4 or c5, a bulge maybe, but they didn't make a big deal of it. It does sound like someone is crinkling a bag of chips between my ears when I turn my head slowly in the quiet. I don't share your pain though. I am also very sorry to hear about the new post op palsy. It must be hell.

I can't relate to all the physical pain you have gone through. What I deal with is mostly fear and anxiety brought on by something in my brain that no one seems to understand. Only about 6% of men suffer from migraines and only about 1/5 of those experience auras. How few is the number of those that don't experience the headache, what I am now finding out is more commonly called 'silent migraine'? I bet it is even more rare in men. I still get irritability and confusion, problems communicating, nausea, increased urination, thirst, chills, and diarrhea. Then comes the weird visual stuff jagged, colorful, wavy lights and flashes and sometimes double vision, chemical smells and numbness or pins and needles on one side of my face or arm. How could it be exactly the same thing if I don't get the terrible headache? I mean, I'm glad I don't, but it's very disconcerting being an medical anomaly. You know it's like you live next to the train tracks and when there's a heavy thunderstorm and a train goes by, how do you know it's not a tornado? The tornado in this analogy would be a stroke. My doctor says the auras are a risk factor so when it happens it scares the hell out of me. I have to take ativan to calm me on top of the depakote (an anti-seizure / anti bipolar) drug they're giving me because they don't know what else to do, and a statin to control my cholesterol.

I Would be interested in talking to others who have so called silent migraines if you come across them in your travels here. I am also grateful that you have reached out to me and took the time to read part of my story. I hope we can continue the conversation and I hope you can find some relief from your pain,

Well the sun is coming up now. Time for this vampire to crawl in his hole.

Fox