# fortification spectra, whee. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 7, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortification-spectra-whee/448450 "2008-05-07T17:14:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortification-spectra-whee/448450/1 "2008-05-07T17:14:11Z")
I’ve got a migaine coming on. I haven’t had one of these in about a year. My vision is about 50% blocked by scintillating migraine aura as I type this. I’m lucky in that I generally don’t get an actual headache after the optical part is over. I just feel awful, photo and noise sensitive for about 8 hours. How’s your [scintillating scotoma](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma) today? ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortification-spectra-whee/448450/2 "2008-05-07T17:34:47Z")
Egads! How’s mine today? Thankfully, nonexistent. I can tell just how bad the headache is going to be by the size of the thing. If I get to the 50%-of-vision-blocked stage, I know I’m gonna be out of commission for about 12 hours. I’m glad you don’t get the headache part! :shudder: ETA: oddly, the patterns I see are remarkably similar to ones I’d see as a child when I rubbed my eyes too hard. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortification-spectra-whee/448450/3 "2008-05-07T19:33:01Z")
It freaked me right the heck out the first time I got one. Fortunately, I was sitting in front of the computer at the time, so I just googled (with one eye closed) until I figured out what it was. It went away after about 15 minutes and I didn’t get a headache. The second time I was more prepared, although that time it was in both eyes. It came on when a fast-moving storm was coming in, so I had a cup of tea and a couple of advil and didn’t get much of a headache that time either. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortification-spectra-whee/448450/4 "2008-05-07T19:44:07Z")
I get those! Or at least I used to. I haven’t had one for quite some time (knock on wood). They showed up as an arc, about half to three-quarters of an inch wide and probably a foot long, about 6 or 8 inches in front of my face. I could see through or around it, but it always felt like eyestrain to do that. Lasted about a half hour and left me with a dull ache in the headband area of my head. Right across the top. It was hardly enough to call it a headache, but it made me tired. I always wondered if it had something to do with my eyesight, which isn’t very good. Guess I should have asked somebody sooner. I did figure out several years ago that they were a migraine thing, but oddly enough, even though I’ve had more migraines episodes recently as a menopause issue, I haven’t had the little light shows. ---
**Author:** ![Elysium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@Elysium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysium)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortification-spectra-whee/448450/5 "2008-05-07T19:53:39Z")
Ugh, I hate these. The first time it happened it was about 25% of my vision and I was freaking out, so I of course called the doctor. They said they were busy that day and that I should go to the ER. That day sucked. 4 hours later after eye stains and dilation and finally being sent from the ER over to a private opthamalogist: “oh it’s just an optical migraine.” Now I just lay low and try to rest my eyes and hope it’ll pass. I’ve never really had a full blown migraine headache, but I am just WAITING for the day it develops that way. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortification-spectra-whee/448450/6 "2008-05-07T20:26:13Z")
Yeah, it freaked me out my first time. I just calmed down and it passed in 15 minutes or so, and then it was fine. I think I figured out it was migraine aura by googling my symptoms, but I honestly don’t remember. I used to get them more frequently, maybe 3-4 a year, now not so much. Now I just wait it out. I did get the migraine aura in a restaurant one time, dining solo. I could only sit there and wait for it to go away, while pretending to read my newspaper. My aura today passed a couple of hours ago, now I’m all light and sound sensitive, so I’ve drawn the blinds, and turned down the brightness on my monitor. If I venture outside my office, the bright glaring light from the windows in the house hurts to look at; I walked past my wife’s office a little bit ago, and she crumpled some paper into the trash – ouch, that was loud! ETA: **Elysium** , you may never get the actual migraine headache. Some percentage of people don’t. My Father got migraines, but like me he only got the aura and not much else. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortification-spectra-whee/448450/7 "2008-05-07T20:44:09Z")
the first and only time i ever had one of those was about six weeks after my first lasik surgery. i freaked out. OMFG my eyes are going to fall out of my head! at least that’s what i thought. called my eye doctor and bent his ear for ten minutes before he could get a word in edgewise i was so hysterical. :rolleyes: it was scary at first because i didn’t know what it was but once i was educated, it became interesting more than anything else. i think i did have some mild eye-strain-like symptoms, but within a few hours, i was fine.