syrinx

Thank you for this. It just firms up what I have suspected for so long. It is a new age we live in now. The contrast from when I used to seek med help 20 years ago is staggering. Sadly I have significant post traumatic stress from these bad encounters, and do not go easily to new doctors. I am working on being better about it, but the old school is still out there.
I do remember one doctor, who I only saw once, about 20 years ago who was very enlightened and asked some of the most unusual questions about my condition. When I first met him, I thought he was the janitor, not a doctor. He was not at all self aware. But very patient aware.
He asked if I noticed a pattern of yawning prior to onset of pain. He asked if I could recall the day before an attack if I had strange food cravings. He asked if I noticed when I was underwater (swimming of course) if my eye sight improved (the answer to that one is yes btw).
He also wanted to know if I had spikes of intellectual insight and generally felt "smarter" a few hours prior to an attack. I was floored by that question because it was something my father talked about too. How we are so smart just before the worst attacks - he used to think it was punishment for being a smarty pants, (his words) but the doctor had a different idea on that.
As I understand it, our brain stem has an influence on all the stuff I just mentioned. Could be the dr. that looked like a janitor, just may be right.
Oh... and my father was a smarty pants - just for the record.