Ocular migraines

[robfosters]

Im not asking for medical advice, I have already had it.

Who else gets these? They are so random. Suddenly I’ll get a small blind spot in my vision, then slowly over a few minutes, my vision gets worse and I get horrible swirling kaleidoscope patterns in my vision. After about 20 minutes they start to move into my peripheral vision and then eventually disappear. I sometimes get a mild headache after it.

Spoke to my doc and he just said it’s nothing to worry about and totally harmless. They are bloody annoying though. Lately been getting them quite a bit. They seem to be aggravated by bright LED light. Mum gets them too, so they may be hereditary.

 

[Firestar_3x]

Stress, diet, allergy or a combination of all these, you need to work our your trigger this took me 5 years, was caffeine.

 

[agnes]

Ohhhh, I've only had this once and it was recent, I was at my PC and suddenly, I was back on an acid trip! My wife was laughing at me in utter confusion at what was going on. And agreed, it's insanely uncomfortable and the headache is... blinding...

 

[rmuir]

Yep suffered with these on and off for years, became unbearable and somewhat distressing during a period of anxiety a wee while back. Co enzyme Q10 once a day seems to have done the trick, that, exercise and relaxing.

 

[Rroff]

This is going to be very difficult to keep from being a medical thread.

I get them, very rarely, myself but I get a whacking great headache after the visual aura fades and for 24 hours after the headache has gone I feel like I'm badly hungover. Fortunately quite rare it would be horrendous if they happened regularly.

9/10 it is due to being under some kind of stress usually because I've spent a few hours completely focussed on one task but dark chocolate will trigger them for me almost every time for some reason if I avoid that I rarely get them.

 

[Diddums]

Energy saving lamps, fluorescent lamps, monitors, tvs. These all used to give it to me badly when I was a wee lad. It used to go to programming lessons on Fridays after school and always, every single week, ended up with a massive migraine.

 

[Rroff]

Energy saving lamps, fluorescent lamps, monitors, tvs. These all used to give it to me badly when I was a wee lad. It used to go to programming lessons on Fridays after school and always, every single week, ended up with a massive migraine.

Reminds me - 60Hz CRT monitors used to do it to me spent quite a bit of money back in the day for high refresh CRTs and it sucked if I had to work somewhere with poor quality, low refresh monitors. I've never had an issue with lights or even TVs though.

 

[sim0n]

I believe I had one of these last week. Never had one before. Started off a small area of my vision was distorted, this gradually grew and I developed blind spots. I would describe the blind spots as like having a few pieces of a puzzle removed but the puzzle pushed together leaving no gaps.
It lasted for about 30 minutes then shortly afterwards I developed a headache that lasted the night. At the time it was quite frightening as it had never occured before. Obviously this is a computer based forum and I will be seeking proper medical advice from my G.P.

 

[Randomface74]

It's called an aura and it's common.
https://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/what-is-a-migraine-with-aura#1

 

[ElliorR]

I get this, without any pain, once or twice a year. Damn annoying when it does happen.

 

[Hades]

I got them as a teenager. It would start as you describe and after about 10 mins I was completely blind due to the colours. Then the pain would start but mine was very strong. After another 10 to 20 minutes my vision would start to clear and the pain would ease. I stopped getting them into my early 20's and I've not had one for about 20 years now.

 

[robfosters]

I got them as a teenager. It would start as you describe and after about 10 mins I was completely blind due to the colours. Then the pain would start but mine was very strong. After another 10 to 20 minutes my vision would start to clear and the pain would ease. I stopped getting them into my early 20's and I've not had one for about 20 years now.

Yeah, I had them in my teens, then they stopped for years and now they have started again.

 

[itno]

I used to get these types of headache a lot when I was younger. The first one I remember clearly because it was accompanied by the mother of all pain, felt like my head would explode. Was fifteen at the time and had about one a month until about 30 when they started to get infrequent. Always had pain with them that lasted from a couple of days to a week.

Last headache I had like this was in 2014. Didn't know they were called ocular migraines though. The last one I had was when I was in hospital but the doctors and nurses didn't know what it was.

 

[Duke]

I've had about 3-4 of these but only in the last 12-18 months. Luckily don't get a headache with them.

 

[ci_newman]

This is going to be very difficult to keep from being a medical thread.

I get them, very rarely, myself but I get a whacking great headache after the visual aura fades and for 24 hours after the headache has gone I feel like I'm badly hungover. Fortunately quite rare it would be horrendous if they happened regularly.

9/10 it is due to being under some kind of stress usually because I've spent a few hours completely focussed on one task but dark chocolate will trigger them for me almost every time for some reason if I avoid that I rarely get them.

This sounds exactly like mine, though usually my trigger is bright lights when I'm very tired. Thankfully mine are rare too.

The hangover is worse than the 20-30mins of the aura

 

[Diddums]

Reminds me - 60Hz CRT monitors used to do it to me spent quite a bit of money back in the day for high refresh CRTs and it sucked if I had to work somewhere with poor quality, low refresh monitors. I've never had an issue with lights or even TVs though.

It was time based for me. Monitors were an hour or two and it flared up. Tellies was many hours (amazing the pain I suffered to play Mario), and fluorescent lamps were an hour to many hours depending on how bright, how many, how long I was near them, etc. The problem was that once I noticed it starting, I'd already passed the point of no return and there was no avoiding it, regardless of how careful I was. Those old screen cover things people had on CRTs helped delay it but it still hit me like a truck. Horrible, horrible feeling. I'd rather grow a lego brick on the sole of my foot than go through that again.

 

[Bassmansam]

If i am sat in my lounge which has white walls. I will occasionaly see flashes of white dots/things in my peripheral vision. I was concenred i was having retina problems but my optometrist had a look and all is fine. I do suffet slightly frok visual snow and some people have reported seeing similar flashes/bright dots. They dissaprar as soon as they come though -within a couple of seconds.

 

[Matthew.M]

I get this followed by a horrendous migraine.

Dairy products can be a trigger. Took me years to work out that it was cheese for me and as soon as I cut it from my diet they stopped. If I ever slip up I’ll have a migraine like clock work.

Might be worth discussing with a consultant who specialises in migraines and listing your routine/diet to try and find any possible triggers. This is how I got to the answer for me as they were crippling me almost every day.

 

[Screeeech]

I get them but very rarely, maybe once or twice a year, think it might be caffeine or stress related, they’re pretty frightening the first time though!

 

[ci_newman]

If i am sat in my lounge which has white walls. I will occasionaly see flashes of white dots/things in my peripheral vision. I was concenred i was having retina problems but my optometrist had a look and all is fine. I do suffet slightly frok visual snow and some people have reported seeing similar flashes/bright dots. They dissaprar as soon as they come though -within a couple of seconds.

What you just describe sounds like eyefloaters. I notice them occassionally too