First up:
One of my WORST Driving Nightmares happened yesterday - basically I was driving to work, minding my own business, when BAM! the whole of my vision on the left hand side just vanished. No warning. So I’m stuck in LONDON rush-hour traffic (eep!), going rapidly blind (I loose all my vision and only have little shifting “windows” of clear eyesight left. And add to that the zig-zaggy flashing lights…) and getting the monsterous migraines that I occasionally suffer from.
THANKFULLY I was less than a minute from home, so I was able to VERY CAREFULLY AND VERY SLOWLY get myself safely home.
But that got me thinking: what the HELL are you supposed to do in circumstances like that? If I was further away from home, I could in no WAY be able to drive home! Apart from anything else, if I crashed, I would surely be liable for a “driving-while-unfit-to-drive” kinda charge. I would in no way be in full control of either me (I get disoriented and would turn left instead of right, etc.) or my vehicle. I would feel VERY unsafe abandoning my vehicle and getting home on a train or bus coz a. I can’t see and b. I go “word blind” too! (i.e. I’d probably read “Fulham” as “Flumahmn”!) So I would be feeling VERY vulnerable to say the least!
So… What is a person supposed to do if taken ill suddenly while driving? Do I phone the emergency services (police?)? Or the AA (Automobile Association)? None of my friends or family live near me so THEY couldn’t help… (And I freelance, so I kinda doubt a client could be asked to help out…)
Secondly:
Although I’ve had migraines on-and-off for most of my adult life, I don’t fully understand the “mechanics” of them. (I know it’s the restriction of blood vessels, but that’s about it…) What makes migraine sufferers blind? I can only imagine that the “washed out” watery blindness is the brain trying to interpolate SOMETHING useable from the information that it (isn’t) getting, but what makes - for example - the centre/peripheral vision vanish in the first place? How does it happen?
The only person I know who can understand what I personally"see" during a migraine is my mother who has lost her peripheral sight due to Glaucoma and therefore has damage to her optic nerve. So is the loss of vision in a migraine due to something similar? Albeit temporarily?
Any help and advice would be SO much appreciated!!!
