My husband's suffering - Hemiplegic Migraines

As a boy, my husband was diagnosed with migraine disorder.
He always had "classic" migraines for years, he went through the whole process of brain scans and different drug treatments (none of which he could tolerate).

A couple of years ago, he had his first hemiplegic migraine attack, causing speech problems, confusion, numbness and tingling on the left side of his body. This lasted for only a little while, and then cleared up, only to leave behind some lasting "disconnected" feelings on the left side of his body.

Over the past few years, a couple more of these attacks occurred, until recently. about four months ago, he started to have these attacks on an almost daily basis.
The left side of his body will start to feel disconnected, and numb (though he can still feel pain), he will start to feel "out of body" like he isn't connected physically to the body he is in and it confuses him. For example, I will take his hand in mine and he will be confused as to who's hand is who's because he isn't sensing himself correctly and visually his perceptions of his own body are confused. He will feel mentally confused, and sometimes his speech comes out a bit confused as well. The sensory messages across his body also become confused, and crossed. Like during the attack his brain is unable to process more than one thing at once. For example: if I touch him and he has to process the sensation of feeling my touch, it makes him feel more mentally confused. His left side, arm and leg will feel heavy and effects him walking. His lips and tongue will feel numb and he will feel a crawling sensation in the left side of his face combined with numbness. He will be clumsy and will loose coordination as well.

Other than going through the attack of course, one of the worst parts is that the left side disconnected feeling will last beyond the attach for days or weeks at a time. and considering the fact that he is having an attack on a daily basis now, he is feeling constantly disconnected from his left arm and leg and it never gets a chance to clear up.

Has anyone ever had symptoms like these, especially the disconnectedness and out of body feelings? How long did the sensations last? Did if effect your motor control or coordination?

Also, when did the hemiplegic migraines set in for you? Did anyone start with classic migraines that then developed into hemiplegic migraines later in life?

My husband is only in his 30's and this started with only one attack every six months or so, and now it is a daily occurrence that is, to say the least, interfering with his quality of living.

Much thanks!

Dear drag on. I was diagnosed with Hemiplegic migraines about 1 and 1/2 years ago. I was actually thrilled to finally get a diagnosis...spent 25 years being missed diagnosed with everything from seizures, to mengitis to just plane "crazy...there's nothing wrong with me syndrom." My symptoms have increased and changed a bit as I have gotten older(I am in my 30's also), but when I told my doc about my symptoms even in my teenage years, it confirmed my diagnosis even more. My migraines can be very dibilitating and some of them have left me with months of feeling weakness on my left side (which also happens to be my prominant side...the hand I write with). Sometimes the weakness has cleared up within 24 hours after an attack and sometimes it lasts longer. I have had that disconnected feeling many times during an attack. Often times I can hear what others are saying, but I feel very confused and I can not usually respond coherently... a very disconnected feeling. There have even been times when I have lost consciousness completely and wake up with horrible head pain. Hemiplegic migraines are rare, so every time I have had to go to the hospital, they don't know what to do because they've never seen it before. I finally found a doc who DOES know what to do and he has been very helpful. I am currently taking calcium blockers and use some heavy duty pain medicine to try to abort the migraine when I feel it coming. He is hoping to get me to a point of not having to deal with these so often. Have you tried any maintenance drugs, like calcium blockers (blood pressure meds)?