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Ocular Migraines

Don't know how I managed to miss EG's post from February: I've suffered experienced these for decades, but only discovered maybe six or eight years ago that they are migraine auras. I didn't know an alternative term is ocular migraine.

Swifty: Your experience reads like ocular migraine to me. The only thing you don't mention is blurred vision in or around the jags. I always get the blurring before other symptoms.
 
Phew , glad i read the previous posts. I have had C shaped auras that have the oil on water colour. they are still present even when covering the eyes individually. Confident that I wont go blind now I can now continue with some habits i have put on hold.:cool:
 
I get those now, thankfully in place of the nasty kind of migraine. I get a complex zigzag pattern of vivid, pulsating geometric shapes in many intense colors. It's pretty wild, and beautiful, but often so distracting as to make things like driving a car unsafe. It's usually the same shape and pattern, but sometimes it slowly moves around my field of vision in an arc. The first one I got scared me a bit, since I'd never heard of them and thought I might be having a blood pressure spike or something. I felt fine otherwise though, so I relaxed and enjoyed the show. Apparently they are fairly common, but in all the doctor visits and research I went through in dealing with the headaches, no one mentioned them and I never came across anything about them in the literature. Seems odd.

Migraine headaches are evil and strange. The symptoms vary a lot, and can be very difficult to describe. I tried pain meds, chiropractic, deep tissue massage (OUCH!) and acupuncture. Acupuncture seemed to help the most and it was a fascinating experience. I kept track of everything I ate for about two months, along with when I got headaches and what they were like. No pattern emerged. Like other things I have survived, I simply managed to outlive them.
 
I too experience what my wife calls "crackle vision", painless but quite annoying.
In many cases I find I am dehydrated, so that a big glass of water or two or other (non-alcoholic, non-sweetened) beverage, some deep breathing, and not looking at anything in particular (especially computers, mobiles, or tellys) clears it up within a half-hour.
 
Swifty said:
I've never suffered from migraines but last week I was working in our store and the 'psychedelic zig zag' thing happened to me that people report .. no pain, no nausea, it's never happened to me before and hasn't happened since .. tbh, I quite enjoyed the ocular distraction at the time, I think it was just a random stress/tiredness reaction .. 'trippy' though. I only knew what was going on because other members of this forum have posted computer generated pictures of what they look like so I'm glad I didn't skip reading that thread.

My brief experience (about 5 minutes) looked exactly like this even down to the angle except with washing detergent boxes in the background and a customer trying to talk to me. I wonder what makes the brain turn them into sharp zig zags? ..

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I get these all the time. Not so much the 'traveling, shimmering zig-zag' these days as little flashes of light passing down the side of my eye.
It happens mostly when I get up and turn my head quickly. Most noticeable at night.

I've more or less got used to them. Doesn't bother me.
 
I get the odd visual disturbance which I don't mind one bit. It is HEAVEN compared to the vice-like headaches and projectile vomiting of years ago.
 
I once told a doctor that after having a few migraines, an ordinary headache was like having a pebble in your shoe. A minor annoyance that's easily ignored.
 
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Austin Popper said:
I once told a doctor that after having a few migraines, an ordinary headache was like having a pebble in your shoe. I minor annoyance that's easily ignored.
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I've felt the same about other pain after having the kidney stones .. I can mostly shrug other types of pain off now.
 
I get a long curved herring bone effect that starts at the top of, usually, my right eye then slowly moves down until it drops off the bottom. I get a headache once the aural effect is gone. The headache isn’t too severe, more like that you get with a chill or a head cold. They only started about 5 years ago and after getting a few quickly in a row, they come very infrequently now. One started on the train station platform only last week but seemed to stop and go away within a couple of minutes.
 
Swifty said:
I've felt the same about other pain after having the kidney stones .. I can mostly shrug other types of pain off now.
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Ain't never had no kidney stone, and hope things stay that way. They sound horrid!
 
I've been getting the visual disturbances for some years now, probably at least a couple of times a year.
As other people have noted, it starts as a tiny disturbance in your vision, usually in the place that you're looking directly at, and then gradually, over the course of about 20 minutes or so, expands from that central point, a zig-zag, criss-cross, pattern that seems to be moving within itself, much like looking into a kaleidoscope, with the central point increasingly returning to normal, as though the visual disturbance is expanding like a wave-front.
I believe it's actual term is a scintillating scotoma.
I don't get any associated pain.
I do have FMS though (Fibromyalgia syndrome) so it could be linked in some way.
I don't bother the doctor with it. They've got better things to spend their time on i'm sure.

Ah - it's on wikipundia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scint...ommon,occur acephalgically (without headache).
 
Swifty said:
I've felt the same about other pain after having the kidney stones .. I can mostly shrug other types of pain off now.
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In the course of a traumatic bereavement some years ago I took my dogs for a walk in t'woods without covering my skin from head to foot in horse fly-proof clothing, being somewhat distracted. I thought 'I don't care if I'm bitten, things can't get any worse!'

I WAS bitten and it WAS worse; covered in huge hot painful lumps to which I had an allergic reaction with a fever. Marvellous.

I'd still take any amount of physical pain over grief though.
 
escargot said:
In the course of a traumatic bereavement some years ago I took my dogs for a walk in t'woods without covering my skin from head to foot in horse fly-proof clothing, being somewhat distracted. I thought 'I don't care if I'm bitten, things can't get any worse!'

I WAS bitten and it WAS worse; covered in huge hot painful lumps to which I had an allergic reaction with a fever. Marvellous.

I'd still take any amount of physical pain over grief though.
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I was wondering when you'd find your pencil X
 
Austin Popper said:
Ain't never had no kidney stone, and hope things stay that way. They sound horrid!
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They're not enjoyable. Someone here put things into perspective when I was whinging about them : "More painful than having your arm ripped off?" .. that wouldn't be much fun either.
 
Trevp666 said:
I've been getting the visual disturbances for some years now, probably at least a couple of times a year.
As other people have noted, it starts as a tiny disturbance in your vision, usually in the place that you're looking directly at, and then gradually, over the course of about 20 minutes or so, expands from that central point, a zig-zag, criss-cross, pattern that seems to be moving within itself, much like looking into a kaleidoscope, with the central point increasingly returning to normal, as though the visual disturbance is expanding like a wave-front.
I believe it's actual term is a scintillating scotoma.
I don't get any associated pain.
I do have FMS though (Fibromyalgia syndrome) so it could be linked in some way.
I don't bother the doctor with it. They've got better things to spend their time on i'm sure.

Ah - it's on wikipundia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma#:~:text=Scintillating scotoma is a common,occur acephalgically (without headache).
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I've had a few over the years and this accurately describes my experiences. Interesting to know there's a term for the visual disturbances! Incidentally, I had one at work years ago. They tried to send me home: "But I can't drive right now..."
 
It is extremely weird when it happens. Mine doesn't have pain, but more an uncomfortable feeling associated with it. I'm always afraid I'm going blind until I remember what it is. It's weird to see the pulsating image traipse through my field of vision, that is for sure!
 
Coypu said:
If you want true horse fly pleasure let one bite your "clam digger".:eek:nick:
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Being the owner of a clam rather than a digger, can still empathise. :eek:
 
escargot said:
Being the owner of a clam rather than a digger, can still empathise. :eek:
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The use of clam digger comes from a very old "joke"
A chap has been shipwrecked on a desert island for several years when a woman sails past the island and goes to rescue him.
The woman asks how he managed to survived etc then asks what he did for sex, the chap being a virgin asks what sex is, the woman then makes love to him and when finished asks what he thought about it. He replies it was amazing but then looking down on his flaccid member exclaims oh no its ruined my clam digger...:omg:

Ok getting coat.
 
I also have the visual disturbances, as does one of my two sisters! Either they're way more common than recognised, or we're a VERY odd group (oh, wait... ;) ) I'd love to do a series of drawing or paintings based on them, but I can't seem capture them the way I want :/

Luckily we don't get the headaches; my mum does, especially if she drinks alcohol or eats chocolate.

I got stung by a hornet on the back of my hand (I was having a Bank Holiday Monday morning lie in, I heard it buzzing madly, so I burrowed under the duvet and tucked my hands under the pillow, the damn thing was under my pillow) My hand was so swollen, I thought the skin was going to burst, and it hurt so much, like being prodded by a red hot poker. I've been bitten by horseflies, and stung by wasps and bees, and they were nasty, but nothing like the hornet
 
I also get ocular migraines - not very often - 4 maybe 5 times a year, this started about 4 years ago, i had no idea what it was and luckily i was at home so no real danger. I googled the symptoms after the first attack in a state of panic - thinking i was having some strange kind of seizure or stroke?
My symptoms are completely painless but affects both eyes with a roughly circular shape which has a zigzag type edge (dont know how to describe it better?!) the worst bit is the fact that inside the zigzag "circle" my vision disappears completely whilst outside of it i can still see normally - it is rather unsettling but now i know what it is i just sit down and relax and let it go of its own accord - usually last about half an hour or so, i have so far always been lucky enough to have not been driving or even worse riding a motorcycle when it happens
 
Fluttermoth said:
I got stung by a hornet....etc
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I was staying at my GF house, and in the middle of the night I got up to visit her bathroom, walked in there barefooted and was suddenly treated to an extreme redhot poker stinging in the ball of my foot. I had stood on a hornet that was (for some reason) laying in wait on the bathroom floor.
As I recall I made quite a bit of fuss about it.
 
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