Doctors seem to call any headache that really hurts a migraine. The literature says there are two common types, tension headache and migraine headache, but I am convinced that the situation is more complicated than that.

In the last ten years, my "migraines" sequed into what they called "migraine equivalents" - slurred speech, optical auras, numb hands. Years ago, a neurologist told me that these symptoms occurred because part of the brain was not getting enough oxygen.

Now the docs have found that a big artery feeding my heart was 99% blocked. I have a stent now. I shall be interested to see if the so-called migraine equivalents go away, now that my heart is more efficient and my brain is getting more oxygen. Certainly they haven't occurred since mid-August, when the stent was put in.

What I am trying to say is that the migraine bone is connected to the migraine-equivalent bone, and the migraine-equivalent bone is connected to oxygen in the brain. Also that, in my opinion, these links are not well understood by the medical profession.

If I were you, I would try to get the PFO and the valve fixed. But only after checking the reputation of the doctors and the hospital who would do the work.