I forgot to update. She's much better with the headaches now. How this all came about:
Maybe a couple times a year, she gets a migraine, sees floaters (colors, shapes, etc.). On Friday, 7/22, she felt pain in the rear left side of her head and neck, and saw a flash of black in her right eye. Thinking this was similar to any migraine she might normally encounter, she took some Advil and laid down. After a while the pain went away. Vision was a little funny, but she felt perfectly fine otherwise. Went to bed, got up Saturday morning, still having trouble seeing out of the right eye. Looking straight ahead, about the right third-ish of her right eye's field of vision was not working properly. Did our errands, got more concerned and went to the ER.
Did lots of visual acuity tests and her outer right eye peripheral vision was just not there. They'd hold things up and bring them into her field of view and it would almost have to be in front of her before she'd start to see it. They did a CT scan and blood work, etc. CT scan showed some sort of questionable specks of some sort in the occipital lobe, and ordered an MRI for Wednesday, 7/27. Turns out the specks on the CT scan were a red herring. Nothing but some sort of something about the way her brain is shaped or something. I didn't get a clear explanation. However it's lucky that that prompted the MRI, which showed a mild stroke in the visual cortex. The neurologist showed us on the MRI scans. Scheduled lots of blood work, an echocardiogram, a carotid Doppler, and the aforementioned spinal tap/lumbar puncture.
So now we wait for the results to come back. On one hand, you hope they find something that can explain what happened and if anything can be done, but on the other hand, you hope nothing show up, because you don't want there to be more problems. She has considerably lessened how much she smokes as a result, which is good. Hopefully it will be the impetus for her to be able to quit altogether. Driving to work, downtown in the middle of the state capitol, and parking in a fairly narrow 11-story garage with a Chrysler Town and Country might be daunting for most people anyway, but with her reduced vision she's even more scared.
Looking back, I absolutely can not believe that I did not immediately clue in to the left side/right side link and force her to the ER on the spot. Not that they would've been able to really DO anything, but still.