My First SS, While Driving! Questions about BC safety.

[channa...@gmail.com]

Hi all, what a relief to find out about all of this. I am 27yo
female. I have had migraines since I was 16, though they have really
laid low for the last year or so.

I have been under some intense stress the last few days (work, law
school, moving, insomnia, bleh). Today, after an incredibly stressful
morning at work, I hopped in my car to go to the beach with a friend.
Ah, relaxation!

We stopped at a local coffee shop, and I noticed that I as having a
hard time reading the menu board, but I thought I had just "burnt" my
eye from the intense sun reflecting off the car windows. We got back
in the car, checked my mirror, put it in reverse, and hit a picnic
table! No one was injured, the picnic table had only a minor scratch,
and the beach was waiting. I put it off to my crummy parking in tight
spaces.

We pulled into traffic and I felt sort of strange as we pulled into a
nearby gas station. I attributed my lightheaded spaceyness to insomnia
and my first hit of a double hazelnut latte. I sat for a few minutes
rubbing my eyes, then confided in my passenger that I was experiencing
a serious blind spot and that I couldn't read the gas station sign.
This didn't alarm me too much at the time because it was so novel. I
think my conversational tone frightened my passenger because she asked
if she could drive; drive me to the hospital! We sat for about 5
minutes. I described a very pretty arc that went from 8 o'clock to 1
o'clock in the middle left area of my left eye, all shimmery rainbows.
I made a crack about needing a unicorn to complete the pretty
picture.

After a few more minutes, it faded away and I had a dull headache,
but it was completely tolerable. My fuzzy head felt pretty sharp
within minutes of the arc fading, so I continued to drive us to the
sandy shores. Then I started to panic. I counted off wiggling each
of my fingers and toes and ran through relevant bdays and phone
numbers in my head to assure I wasn't having some sort of neurological
breakdown. But the drive was uneventful, the conversation enjoyable,
all my fingers, toes, and birthdates are present and accounted for.
Though I had a dull headache, my body was sort of energized.

The rest of the day was spent at a beautiful beach, but I was nagged
by the idea that I may be having some serious brain defect. One friend
mentioned aneurysms, and another, pregnancy induced hypertension!
Like I need anything else to stress out about, lol. I did some
poking around online when I got back (and got the sand out of my
hair!) and boy am I happy to find this site! If my migraines want to
manifest as a rainbow I'm more than happy to let them, so long as I
have a chance to pull the car over!

I do have a question: Are any of you ladies on hormonal BC and do you
know about correlations to stroke or safety risks? I started BC again
just a few months ago because my migraines had reduced significantly
in frequency and I was having less aura associated with the
migraines. I'm really enjoying the BC, and I don't want to give it
up! But if this is an indication of an associated stroke risk. . .
Please inform!

Thanks a bundle of shimmering rainbows!