An odd thing happened to me on Wednesday. It was late morning and I was sitting at my computer at work like I usually do and began to feel that my eyes weren’t working quite right. Within about 20 minutes I had a large blob in my left eye covering about a quarter of my field of vision, and soon after that I had pronounced tunnel vision in both eyes and felt a bit light headed. I have had ‘proper’ migraines with visual auras and splitting headaches twice in my life (a good 20 years ago) so I quickly concluded that it might be a migraine. So I thought back 20 years and seemed to remember that caffeine in the early stages could prevent the full-blown symptoms. So I had a shot of strong espresso, and a 250 mg Alleve (naproxyn) for good measure.
I was still surprised though when about 30 minutes later things rapidly improved. My vision cleared up, and I never got the headache. If I tried really hard, I was maybe able to detect a very slight ache in my right temple, but honestly, if not for the aura I wouldn’t have even noticed it.
So what do you think? Was it a migraine that I managed to preempt with the caffeine/alleve, or was it something else?
(hoping for a factual answer to this, but otherwise see you in MPSIMS!)
What I couldn’t quite tell (from that page or from a couple others I googled up) was whether it was an optical migrane or whether I managed to abort a regular migraine. I would actually like to think that the caffeine/alleve did their job and stopped that thing dead in its tracks.
I got this a few times as a teenager, just the visual disturbance, never got the headache. It did stop me doing anything useful because the zigzaggy thingy covered the centre of my vision, but no pain.
Apparently you can treat a migraine with LSD. As seen on House (which may not be the most reliable source of medical information (and in any case good luck finding decent acid these days)).
Ocular migraines…annoying, but no debilitating pain. For me they start with a shimmering visual disturbance. I describe it as sunlight on the surface of a lake. The disturbed are has no vision…a dead zone. It starts in the periphery…then moves right into the center of my vision. Very annoying when you are trying to read…or drive.
It only lasts about 20 minutes.
I’ve tried to mitigate the length with meds or caffeine, wine, water, etc…nothing really seems to help. I just wait it out.
I get one about once a month, and it only happens in my left eye. Probably means I have a honey of a tumour on the right side of my brain… Sunlight on the surface of a lake is a very good description. It’s never caused me a headache, but any information from me may be skewed as I am rarely without caffeine in my system.
My GF gets migraines without the headache quite often these days too, after years of mirgraines with headaches. They do come with the dizziness, nausea (inlcuding vomiting) and general unwell feelings, though, so I don’t know if that would be classified as an optical migraine.
Some years ago I had one of these. Not knowing what it was, and suspecting all sorts of nasty things, I was in to the doctor like a shot. After about 30 seconds of description he grinned and said “You’ve just had a migraine aura”. Then he explained that a migraine has three manifestations; Headache, nausea, and optical (the aura). And it’s possible to have all three at once, any two, or only one. Luckily the only one I’ve had is the aura.
Mine didn’t look anything like the animation. It instead was like a series of connected jagged lines, starting at the center of vision and gradually expanding outward in a roughly circular pattern - and as it expanded outwards, the vision in the center cleared up. When it reached the edge of vision, after about ten or fifteen minutes, it just kept going and then disappeared.
It looked sort of like a plan of a medieval fortification, with borders of flashing colored light. In fact, one of the names for this is “Fortress Aura”. Quite pretty, actually, as long as you realize what it is.
I had the occasional full-blown migraine from late teens through my 20s, complete with aura and severe pain.
But for years now it’s been infrequent auras with visual clouding and haloes around objects, lasting for 20 minutes or so, but that’s it. Maybe a slight, dull edge of a headache for a short while afterwards, but no real migraine.
Jumping in to concur that it could have been a painless migraine. I’ve had perhaps a dozen migraines in my life - they begin either with tunnel vision, or a flickering spot in my field of vision (like the pixel size got turned waaaaaaaay up in one small area). Now that I recognize the symptoms, if I get them I immediately down a bowlful of ibuprofen (well, 3-4 OTC strength ones) and if possible lie down and take a nap, which is the best way to get through a true headache for me.
A couple of times - perhaps 2 or 3 - I’ve had the visual stuff and have taken the ibuprofen, and the headache never really manifested. Whether it was pre-empted by rapid drug ingestion, or was simply slated to be a very minor one, who knows.
I had something similar when I was in my mid-20s. I kept having rayed vision and similar optical issues like the OP.
I went to my doctor who thought it might be a detached retna, so they sent me to the ER and they said I was fine. It came back and once again, my doctor thought it was a detached retna and sent me to the ER. They found nothing and sent me to an opthamologist. He assured me I was fine.
He said "Are you sure you’re not having a migraine. I said “I ought to know if I’m having a headache or not.”
The eye doc gave me some Midrin and in about a week it went away and so far it never came back and that was 20 years ago.
I’ve had them twice now. The first time, I thought I was having a stroke or a detached retina or something horrible like that. Then something about the experience seemed familiar, and I remembered having read about ocular migraines right here on the Dope. Thanks, anonymous Doper!
I did ask the doc about them next time I had a checkup though, and he confirmed my “diagnosis”.
It could well have been the coffee and Aleve. Excedrin which is caffiene, aspirin and acetaminophen (Tylenol) has been proven to alleviate migraines if you take one or two of them at the onset. It’s a lifesaver for me. I have Excedrin stashed at home, work, in my car and it’s in my briefcase when I travel.
"Migraines"and “migraine equivalents” commonly present with visual symptoms, with or without associated headache.
Common things are common.
Visual symptoms of any kind occasionally represent more serious underlying pathology. For this reason, remember the standard caveats around soliciting opinions from cyberspace.
I get pain migraines about once or twice a month, auras or nausea without pain less regularly and full blown migraines about once every two or three months.
I find that taking something early in the attack can prevent it - but not always.
That’s a cool way to describe it. My migraines usually don’t have a lot of pain associated with them, fortunately. I wish people would understand that “headache” and “migraine” are non synonymous.
The best description of a migraine I ever heard was “a neurological shitstorm.”
Whoa. I might have had a few of these. Interesting.
Every so often, one of my eyes will gray out or dim for a while. I don’t even notice it sometimes, except if something happens to block the good eye briefly. Then I will realize that the vision in one eye is compromised. No pain, thank goodness. And it’s temporary.
