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Ocular Migraines

Deep joy.
I just had my occasional Scintillating scotoma episode, whilst trying to watch the F1 qualifying at Monza, whilst also trying to eat my dinner.
Trying to coordinate a knife and fork when you can't make out where they meet is, er....challenging.
 
I remember when I was growing up people would dissolve ergotamine tablets under their tongue, but I don’t know if it gave the people any relief.

I think there are more fancy medicine for migraines today.
 
Trevp666 said:
Deep joy.
I just had my occasional Scintillating scotoma episode, whilst trying to watch the F1 qualifying at Monza, whilst also trying to eat my dinner.
Trying to coordinate a knife and fork when you can't make out where they meet is, er....challenging.
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I get those, really annoying when you're trying to do anything, I get some of the other aura signs as well, it can get a bit trippy, but luckily no headache. Ergotamine is still around, but had the disadvantage of very common side effects, including stomach cramps, nausea, dizziness - my Mum had migraines in the 70s and reckoned the side effects sometimes were worse than the headache. These days if paracetamol or an NSAID (e.g. ibuprofen) aren't doing anything, you'll probably be recommended to try triptans (e.g. sumatriptan (Imigran(r)), rizatriptan (Maxalt(r)) or zolmitriptan Zomig (r)) all 5HT-1 agonists if you're being technical . They're more effective than the ergot formulations, and have a much better side-effect profile, although they're still not an actual cure).
 
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I started getting aural migraines about 2015, not long after changing jobs due to the ridiculous time I was travelling each morning. My stress levels dropped but the migraines started.
I get the herringbone or zig zag visual disturbance that used to take a long time to clear, but back then I didn’t get any pain. Now the visual disturbance passes quite quickly but I get a heavy dull pain in the back of my head, and sometimes across the forehead and down my neck. I can head off most of the pain by taking cocodamol as soon as the zig zags manifest but it still leaves a heaviness in the head.
I assume it is another sign of getting on along with all the other little niggles.
 
Adding my self to the scintillation club, although reading back through the thread I didnt realise SSRIs might prompt them. I take 100mg of Sertraline a day, and have for what 15 years now, and I must admit I struggle to remember getting onsets of Scinty much before this dose was prescribed.
 
Mine are pretty much the same as yours @Tempest63 - wiggly lines and 'blank spots'. I always take pain killers immediately and quite often no headache results. Although I now get extreme migraines from drinking alcohol, without the visual disturbances but with all the other accompanying unpleasantnesses.

I also think it's age.
 
There isn't any pain of any sort that accompanies my SS. Just the visual disturbances which moves from the initial noticeable effect, through to passing totally in about 20 minutes.
More of an 'inconvenience' than anything else really.
 
catseye said:
Mine are pretty much the same as yours @Tempest63 - wiggly lines and 'blank spots'. I always take pain killers immediately and quite often no headache results. Although I now get extreme migraines from drinking alcohol, without the visual disturbances but with all the other accompanying unpleasantnesses.

I also think it's age.
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Arent they called hangovers? :p
 
catseye said:
I wish! Last one brought to me to my knees for twelve hours and I'd only drunk one individual tiny bottle of Prosecco.
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I had a severe migraine condition that plagued me from my late teen years up into my early thirties. At one point I noted that multiple severe attacks occurred immediately after drinking red wine. I was advised that nitrites and / or sulphates in wine could serve as triggers for migraines (something to do with blood pressure), so I discontinued drinking any red wines. Later attacks correlated with white wine intake, and this was taken to result from the relatively lower levels of these triggering compounds in white wines. I therefore discontinued drinking any and all wines. It didn't eliminate the migraine condition overall, but the frequency of attacks noticeably dropped during my "no wine" boycott period.

YMMV ...
 
EnolaGaia said:
I had a severe migraine condition that plagued me from my late teen years up into my early thirties. At one point I noted that multiple severe attacks occurred immediately after drinking red wine. I was advised that nitrites and / or sulphates in wine could serve as triggers for migraines (something to do with blood pressure), so I discontinued drinking any red wines. Later attacks correlated with white wine intake, and this was taken to result from the relatively lower levels of these triggering compounds in white wines. I therefore discontinued drinking any and all wines. It didn't eliminate the migraine condition overall, but the frequency of attacks noticeably dropped during my "no wine" boycott period.

YMMV ...
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I have been wondering whether this may be the case for me too, and have debated trying again with spirits (I don't recollect ever having an attack after drinking gin or vodka). But the last incidence was just so awful (I actually thought I may vomit so hard that I would choke and die) that I've reasoned I may as well not drink at all rather than risk it. It only happened sometimes, not every time I drank, but the frequency was increasing.
 
My migraines started in my late 20s and just faded in time. These days I get a spot of blindness in one eye or a patch of paisley-patterned scintillation which I can live with.

Earlier attacks had me prostrate with pain and nausea. I became very good friends with a bucket.

We may have other threads on this because I remember describing being caught unawares at home and walking round the house throwing newspaper on the floor to vomit on as I went.
 
escargot said:
My migraines started in my late 20s and just faded in time. These days I get a spot of blindness in one eye or a patch of paisley-patterned scintillation which I can live with.

Earlier attacks had me prostrate with pain and nausea. I became very good friends with a bucket.

We may have other threads on this because I remember describing being caught unawares at home and walking round the house throwing newspaper on the floor to vomit on as I went.
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I usually had a little bit of warning, a sort of malaise that is hard to describe. If I took three or four ibuprofen tablets in time, it would often mitigate the symptoms to the point I could keep functioning. Of course taking lots of ibuprofen can lead to other problems, which I had to learn the hard way.

The ocular sort just comes on, the only symptoms being visual except for an occasional feeling of calmness that arrives after the light show is underway. The colors are incredibly vivid and the shimmering is exquisite. Other than not being good for much while it's going on, I don't find them unpleasant at all.
 
Hi All,

I've had severe migraines pretty much my whole life. Sometimes so bad, I end up in the ER maybe once a year because of the uncontrolled vomiting... not fun! Most times, a 400 mg liquid ibuprofen (extra strength Advil) will reduce it to a normal headache, or nothing at all, but only if I get it into me early enough.

Though I don't get to much visual aura, one of my tells of an oncoming episode is light sensitivity. Screens, bright lights and reflections can also be a trigger for me. And any light at all literally explodes my head during an episode, so that I'm effectively blind.

I was always told that it had something to do with dilated blood vessels, but newer research is showing it's more a neurological condition of the sympathetic system. This is obviously not just a headache!

I found this video helpful to better understanding what's going on with my body, as he does a good job of explaining in fairly simple terms what they think is going on. However, it's not for the squeamish, as he uses real human anatomical specimens to explain.

Hmm... can't post a link to Youtube without the thumbnail being posted here, and that is "graphic". Shows a human brain, so...
YouTube, What is a Migraine, Institute of Human Anatomy. You can look for yourselves if you like. (or just listen if you get grossed out)
 
Gizmos Mama said:
Hi All,

I've had severe migraines pretty much my whole life. Sometimes so bad, I end up in the ER maybe once a year because of the uncontrolled vomiting... not fun! Most times, a 400 mg liquid ibuprofen (extra strength Advil) will reduce it to a normal headache, or nothing at all, but only if I get it into me early enough.

Though I don't get to much visual aura, one of my tells of an oncoming episode is light sensitivity. Screens, bright lights and reflections can also be a trigger for me. And any light at all literally explodes my head during an episode, so that I'm effectively blind.

I was always told that it had something to do with dilated blood vessels, but newer research is showing it's more a neurological condition of the sympathetic system. This is obviously not just a headache!

I found this video helpful to better understanding what's going on with my body, as he does a good job of explaining in fairly simple terms what they think is going on. However, it's not for the squeamish, as he uses real human anatomical specimens to explain.

Hmm... can't post a link to Youtube without the thumbnail being posted here, and that is "graphic". Shows a human brain, so...
YouTube, What is a Migraine, Institute of Human Anatomy. You can look for yourselves if you like. (or just listen if you get grossed out)
Click to expand...
Somebody I know had to get training for diving, but had to have a thorough medical before she could be insured.
She'd had migraines all her life, pretty bad.
Medical check-up found that she had a hole in her heart - a 'patent foramen ovale' - and an operation fixed that.
This also fixed her migraines!
 
EnolaGaia said:
I had a severe migraine condition that plagued me from my late teen years up into my early thirties. At one point I noted that multiple severe attacks occurred immediately after drinking red wine. I was advised that nitrites and / or sulphates in wine could serve as triggers for migraines (something to do with blood pressure), so I discontinued drinking any red wines. Later attacks correlated with white wine intake, and this was taken to result from the relatively lower levels of these triggering compounds in white wines. I therefore discontinued drinking any and all wines. It didn't eliminate the migraine condition overall, but the frequency of attacks noticeably dropped during my "no wine" boycott period.

YMMV ...
Click to expand...
Red wine, port, sherry and brandy will give me an absolute whopper of a headache, even smelling them can set one off. White wine doesn't seem to have any effect but as I don't really like wine I hardly ever touch it.
I do get the occasional ocular one - usually in the form of a circular saw with red and green teeth which starts small and gradually gets bigger. Usually paracetamol or something similar can nip it in the bud if taken early enough.
 
I’m loathe to give any medical advice but need to share this because it it profoundly changed my life. I had conventional debilitating migraines since my early 20s. They were primarily brought about via work stress but there were odd environmental triggers too (poorly-burnt petrol fumes, viewing sharp objects, worst of all delicious hoppy IPAs…). Conventional medical remedies didn’t work and sometimes had unpleasant side effects. I mentioned this to my doctor during a physical and he asked if I had tried vitamin B2 (riboflavin). I could tell by his attitude that this was an obvious question like the IT guy that asks if you’ve plugged in your computer. It was like flipping a switch. I’ve probably gone 15 years without a hint of migraine and the best thing is I don’t even take the stuff anymore. 400 mg riboflavin once a day. Cheap, safe, effective, no side effects that I’m aware of. Again, I don’t have any evidence other than my own experience.
 
I do not have migraines, but has anyone tried prescription medicine such as sumatriptan ?
 
i had one of the ziggy-zaggy visual things yesterday for about half an hour. It’s a bugger when you’re working because you can’t read anything on the pc screen while it happens, apart from about a third of it by looking sort of sideways. Starts as a tiny bit of scintillation then becomes a big arc of zig-zags like that fractal art stuff. I’m very lucky i just feel a bit odd for a few minutes afterwards, no headache no nothing. They started when i was about 40 and occur every so often. I spend more time trying to see if they look different if you close one eye etc than is probably sensible but it just shows you can’t really trust what you see .
 
Spare Parts said:
I’m loathe to give any medical advice but need to share this because it it profoundly changed my life. I had conventional debilitating migraines since my early 20s. They were primarily brought about via work stress but there were odd environmental triggers too (poorly-burnt petrol fumes, viewing sharp objects, worst of all delicious hoppy IPAs…). Conventional medical remedies didn’t work and sometimes had unpleasant side effects. I mentioned this to my doctor during a physical and he asked if I had tried vitamin B2 (riboflavin). I could tell by his attitude that this was an obvious question like the IT guy that asks if you’ve plugged in your computer. It was like flipping a switch. I’ve probably gone 15 years without a hint of migraine and the best thing is I don’t even take the stuff anymore. 400 mg riboflavin once a day. Cheap, safe, effective, no side effects that I’m aware of. Again, I don’t have any evidence other than my own experience.
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I just tried to order some B2 Riboflavin from the Web: don't mean to baffle you with science but apparently "Riboflavin is used to treat or prevent deficiencies of riboflavin"
 
charliebrown said:
I do not have migraines, but has anyone tried prescription medicine such as sumatriptan ?
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Techy once sent off for a golf club from New York and it came packed in newspaper which of course I smoothed out and read.
There was an article about sumatriptan/Imigran which was at the time brand new.

I cut it out, took it to my doctor and demanded he prescribe it for my then-terrible migraines. He was stunned because he'd only recently read about it himself!

I had the prescription and it helped a lot.
 
I've had migraines on and off since I was 15; the first time I had one I genuinely thought I was going to die as I lay weeping in my bedroom because it wasn't dark enough despite having the light off and the curtains shut. Now more often than not I get so-called 'silent' migraines which involve all the fun symptoms like visual disturbance, feeling weird etc.. but without the pain. I do still get classic headsplitters sometimes, though only perhaps 2 times out of 5.

As I've got older I've noticed that the sure sign of an upcoming migraine, for me at least, is an upset stomach. I get a strange churning nausea about six hours before the migraine erupts.
 
Spare Parts said:
Can’t argue with that logic.

I was getting it from Amazon. About $15 for a 4 month supply.
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You forgot to mention that within 3 hours of taking the first Riboflavin dose, you start peeing fluorescent yellow printer ink.
Will save a fortune on my Epson though.
 
My warning signs are head prickles. One side of my head will feel as though there's a source of static electricity next to it; my hair pricks as though it's trying to stand on end. After that I've got up to 24 hours before the headache starts or I get the weird visual effects (not usually both though). And if I can get the painkillers in fast enough the headache can be mitigated.

Apart from when I was drinking alcohol, I don't get the full-blown vomiting, aversion to light, dreadful pain thankfully. My mother was a martyr to migraines, so severe that she lost at least two days every month to them. Middle daughter used to get them too, but only around puberty, and the occasional one now. None of the others inherited the tendency, thankfully.
 
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