I just came back from lunch, and as I paid my tab, I started getting a half-moon shaped blind spot just to the left of my vision. It was like a blind spot after glancing at the sun, but I was inside a dim restaurant! What could it be? Then the spot started getting jaggedy and pulsating and started expanding off to the left and above. This rang a bell and then I remembered - it was absolutely precisely like an animation a Doper linked to years ago to illustrate what an “ocular migraine” looks like!
Thank you, unremembered Doper, whoever you are. You saved me from completely wigging out there in the restaurant and calling for an ambulance or something. Had I not remembered, I would have assumed I was having some sort of stroke or detachment of the retina or something horrible. As it is, I’m getting no headache following the vision weirdness (which only lasted about 20 minutes tops), and after I returned to work, I googled “ocular migraine” and see that a lot of people get them with no headache associated with them.
I’m glad you knew what it was, teela. When it first happened to me upon waking one morning, I remember feeling my way to the phone, and realizing that the sound coming out of my mouth was “moaning”. I don’t remember what I asked her, but I got to speak with a doctor who reassured me about what was going on.
It reoccurred a few times, btw, and I noticed that for me, flickering bright lights (not even necessarily strobe lights) triggered it. I won’t go to IKEA alone anymore.
Like you, the first time I didn’t suspect it might be migraine because I had no other pain symptoms in my head. Anyone who thinks a migraine is just a bad headache simply has never experienced one.
Wow, that’s freaky. I had no idea such things could happen. Obviously I’ve never had one, and if I started getting some weird creeping visual blind spot without warning or any useful reason I’d probably start wigging the hell out too.
I’ll consider that my important bit of edumacation for the day and thank you and the unremembered Doper for the lesson – just in case this post gave my body an idea for something fun to try…
It is reassuring to have heard the description of migraine symptoms some time in the past, so that when something wild starts happening you don’t freak out totally.
Nevertheless, I wouldn’t dismiss it – just go calmly to the doctor instead of freaking out. You really want to make sure that your own case is, indeed, a migraine and not something more sinister.
Boy oh boy was I thankful for my boss when I was 18 who happened to tell the story of when he had a tunnel-vision migraine that made one side of his body go numb. Fifteen years later when the same thing happened to me, I remembered his story and was a bit calmer than I would have been. Got it checked out, though.
I was happily stuffing on kimchee at a Korean lunch joint just before it happened. I hope to gosh I’m not developing a sensitivity to kimchee! Up to now, it has been a guilt-free treat.
Seriously, it’s uber hot and very, very smoggy here in the bay area today. I wouldn’t be surprised if that wasn’t the culprit.
IANAD/N, though I both work in ophthalmology and get migraines with aura.
As others have said, I would still get looked at, but it does sound like you just had an ocular migraine. Now if you’d experienced a “light show” that didn’t really go away, then you have problems like a detached retina which is seriously important to get looked at ASAP.
Personally I prefer it when my conventional migraine’s start is heralded with an aura; it means I have time to take meds and hopefully avoid the worst of the migraine.
I’d had this happen a few times, when I can’t see out of the middle of my field of vision. Didn’t know what it was until I did some computer work for a neurologist. I described the symptoms and she told me that it was an ocular migraine. My mom used to get regular migraines and had to lie down in a dark room with a cold washcloth on her forehead. I’m immensely grateful that I have this type of migraine! I’ve not found anything to make it stop quicker, so I just sit down, relax and watch the cool light show.
I’ve had these. It seems they have let up over the last four months since I have been blissfully happy in my new job, so I don’t know what triggers them (stress?). I have heard though that they can have the same triggers as a “standard” migraine. Moodingo, I had thought bright lights might trigger them, but someone told me maybe lights just seem brighter when one is coming on. I dunno. I don’t get too worried unless I am driving and can’t see stuff in the area where the lights are flashing.
I only ever had one of these in my life and it was definitely stress related. It was the weirdest thing, though. I remember feeling like I had put on ‘Picasso glasses.’
I had one of these, a few years ago, and it scared the heck out of me, because I thought it might be a detached retina. I was standing in someone’s office at work, having a calm conversation, not stressed or upset at all. It was a flashing, candy-cane shaped spot that just slowly floated out of my line of sight over about 30 minutes. Later when I googled “ocular migraine” I got an exact picture of what I had seen.
Same here! Another herald of a migraine in my case is a craving for chocolate. Chocolate is good, but I don’t normally crave it, so when I do, I know it’s time to take meds-- and a cup of coffee.
You are so not kidding. I can tell I’ve got a migraine coming on, and although mine usually get brought on by stress and lack of sleep (adding a fun new dimension to insomnia), the heat and all the blasted smoke from the fires hasn’t helped. It’s too hot to sleep.
Aren’t you near Morgan Hill? It was 105° there today. Stay hydrated!
Yeah, I totally wigged out the first time it happened to me. It was the horrible end to a stressful week. ER visit, followed by optometrist visit, all in the pouring rain and I had no car and relied on busses, all the time worrying about my brain.
But now I know what they are, it’s just annoying. don’t be surprised if you get other typical migraine aura symptoms. I will feel dizzy and nauseous with it sometimes, and often get a mild stress-type headache afterwards, usually on the opposite side of the head from the visual symptoms.
The folks whose doctors recognized this are lucky. I had my first ocular migraines during a high-stress computer project. I described them to my own doctor and a friend who is a doctor, but neither of them recognized my description. This was pre-Internet, so it was only some time later that I stumbled across a drawing of a migraine’s ocular aura in an old Scientific American and recognized it myself. My description didn’t match the classical one, so that’s probably why two doctors didn’t pick up on it.
There’s also a family history of migraines, so I guess these are my share of it. Luckily, I don’t get the headaches. I do get headaches from too much meat preserved with nitrates (like bacon), which could be related.
I adore my aura, I take my midrin and if I catch the timing just right not even a twinge. If I am delayed to the bare beginning of the pain, it might take 2 midrin about 45 minutes apart to whup.
Now, do you just get visual, audio, or scent, or a combination? I can have any of the 3 but I know if I get the visual it is going to be living hell if I dont catch it in time. I have never had 2 at the same time yet <knocks wood>
I had quite a few ocular migraines while I was in peri-menopause and going through menopause. I also had a few actual painful migraines. Interestingly, now that I’ve made it to the other side of menopause, I haven’t had either type of migraine in quite a while, I just realized, thanks to reading this thread.
I had them for several years before finding out what they were, but since they always went away in a few minutes, I decided not to worry about them. It’s not till I got here on the Dope that I learned not only what they were but that so many people have them.
They always seem to be in my left eye, too. Does everyone else get them one-sided?
I do have an upcoming appointment for something unrelated. I’ll mention it to the doc so that at least he gets it down on paper in case it develops into something more serious. ::knocks wood – I hope to hell I never get a full-on migraine::
In the meantime, someone has developed a newer animation of an ocular migraine, or a “scintillating scotoma”. It’s pretty accurate.
That’s pretty close to mine, but a lot more simple. I get triangles that have the same coloration as an oil rainbow. It looks a lot like the growth of the “Andromeda Strain” from the original movie… It occurs in the middle of my vision in both eyes. I usually retain some peripheral vision, so I can get to a place and sit down.
I haven’t ever noticed an audio or scent component. I do sometimes get a tight feeling in my forehead like my skin is too dry or something. Also I can occasionally have a grouchy or “off” mood up to a couple hours prior, but that’s hard to pin down as a warning sign unless it’s in combination with other things.
That video isn’t bad, but like gaffa, mine are a little more pointy-edged and more of a rainbow coloration. The border is wider too. Still, it was similar enough that I just showed it to my husband as a demonstration of what one is like, and he was stunned.