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Just Had My First Ocular Migraine This Evening

Fun times. I was sitting there after work, relaxing, watching shit on Youtube and all of a sudden, I noticed this weird pattern in the top right corner of my vision. Now, because of the location of my PC and monitor, I thought it was a weird reflection of the monitor on the glass panel of the tower. So I looked away and it was still there and had gotten bigger. See the below picture, imagine the pattern mirror flipped and located at the top right.

2a8c0010a15494eb00ce0c271af97a41--migraine-aura-seizures.jpg


Now I'm thinking I'm fucked. Close my right eye, still there. Close my left eye, still there. Closed both eyes, still there. I've never experienced this or even heard of it before so I think my number's been pulled. At this point it has moved a bit more central in my field of vision and is now causing a pretty big blind spot. I try googling it and pretty much immediately find what is happening. But reading is a chore because I can only see propery to the left of my field of vision, so to read what is directly in front of me, I have to look to the right and read through my peripheral. Thankfully they're short lived. Mine lasted about 35 minutes total, with the first 15 being the worst, followed by a very slight headache at the front of my scone. After that it just faded off. Fuck these things. Does anyone else get them? How did you feel the first time it happened?
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
I've gotten these a number of times, I went to the ER the first time where I learned about it, like regular migraines there's no real definitive info on what causes them. It is scary but I am now able to, for better or worse, diagnose it immediately and just try to relax for 30 minutes until it passes.
 
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BrettWeir

Member
It's an aura (I'm sure you found that out). Have had migraines for decades, all with an aura precursor. Sucks, especially when driving. Just gotta pull over and wait for them to go away.
 

Blond

Banned
You gave me some seriously flashbacks! The first time I got one of these was at work, yours was mild but my head was thumping so hard that I called an uber to get home and just fell asleep afterwards. Fuck those things!
 

TheMan

Member
I have gotten them for years. Sometimes the entire bottom half of the vision in one of my eyes will go out. They are sometimes associated with headaches but usually not in my case. If memory serves me right, caffeine makes it worse. There are medication options to treat, but if they aren't frequent you may be able to just tough it out. See a doctor.
 
I have gotten them for years. Sometimes the entire bottom half of the vision in one of my eyes will go out. They are sometimes associated with headaches but usually not in my case. If memory serves me right, caffeine makes it worse. There are medication options to treat, but if they aren't frequent you may be able to just tough it out. See a doctor.
I drink coffee every day, but normally only one in the morning and occasionally one in the afternoon. This morning I had three and then one in the afternoon. Can't imagine it had much of an effect because it's not the first time I've done that but I have no idea. I would be a bit of a worrier when it comes to health issues so this had me freaking the fuck out. Managed to calm a bit when I read more about them. Just glad I didn't get the thunderfuck of a headache along with it.
 

QSD

Member
That's freaky, never had that. I do get migraine like headaches sometimes and I always have some kind of weird light sensitivity along with them.

Jesus Christ! Did I read that properly, the anomaly was still there even AFTER closing your eyes!?!?

Here have some mushrooms
 

Kadayi

Banned
Yeah I had a couple of those before. First time really freaked me out. I thought I'd detached a retina or something. I just lay down in the dark for about 20 minutes and it settled down. Went and saw the doctor ASAP and they checked me out and explained it, just basically burning the candle too much and general mental exhaustion. The second time I was in work and initially I thought the monitor was malfunctioning because all the text was blurry and then these lined patterns started appearing., but then I looked away from the screen and realised it was everywhere . I went and lay down in a spare office until it settled down, but took the rest of the day off in case it started up again.

It's generally a sign that you should take some time off, hydrate and rest up (turn the alarm off for a couple of days and get that sleep debt paid back).
 

Stouffers

Banned
I had a coughing fit a few weeks back and had a shiny gray void take over about half of my right eye. It faded after 15 minutes, but everything had a shimmer from that eye for about 2 days. Ophthalmologist and Neurologist did a ton of tests.. even had the arteries in my neck imaged to make sure it wasn’t a blood flow
issue. They found nothing.

maybe it’s this. I suffer from regular migraines.
 

DogofWar

Member
Migraines are a bitch.
While never as visual as yours (mine is just a black spot in my vision) I have headache migraines. Like to put it in non-adult way all of a sudden getting a skrewdriver stabbed into my right (most of the time) eye. I can't do anything at all and if I don't take an aspirin (or whatever paracetamol-medicine is actually called in English?) in time it wont help and I am bed ridden for 2-3 hours. It usually comes in stressful situations as well, which of course makes it even worse.

Hopefully it wont happen to you too often. They are really annoying.
 

Mossybrew

Banned
Hah. Experienced this for the first time a few months back. I thought I was having a stroke or something. Thankfully a quick google search described exactly what I was seeing. Whew, had never heard of this before then.
 
Have these about once a month unfortunately.

Now I know that as soon as one starts coming on to lay down, close your eyes for 15 minutes, then hit the Tylenol before the headache sets in.
 

MastAndo

Member
Had that once years back out of nowhere - scary stuff. In the days following, I had a weird, multi-colored spot right in the middle of my left eye's vision that just wouldn't go away. The ophthalmologist ran the gamut of eye tests, and told me everything seems fine and that it was probably stress-related. It basically never went away, despite feeling that I'm not under any unusual amount of stress, but I've gotten so used to it that I don't really notice it anymore.
 

BrettWeir

Member
Had these for years since I was a kid. They suck.

giphy.gif

Perfect representation! I get these typically about 15-20 times a month. Thanks 5606 hydraulic fluid from the Air Force.

If you get these (or any advanced warning of a migraine headache), as soon as you see/feel the aura coming on, drink a liter of Gatorade, or half a bottle of Pedialyte and take two extra strength Motrin/Tylenol. It can oftentimes make it so the actual migraine doesn't set in.
 
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nemiroff

Gold Member
Had it for decades, and many years without knowing what it was. Used to freak me out. . In my case it's even worse, basically about 80% of my vision gone and flashing. Still have about one every two or three months. Now when I know what it is it's relatively easy to get through it. Its weird how it doesn't go away even when closing my eyes..
 

Evangelion Unit-01

Master Chief
I’m sorry OP. I get them on occasion. I lose my vision as well. The vision loss is slow and gradually gets worse over an hour. Head pain is intense and I’m incredibly sensitive to lights and sound. I’m usually get completely knocked out for a few hours. I have to lie down and try to sleep. When I do recover I’m usually not back to 100% until the next day and can still feel a dull pain even then. Only get a handful each year. Haven’t had one in a while so I’m probably due up soon. They’ll never be pleasant but best advice I can give is learn how to make yourself comfortable and be prepared for it to happen. Keep some aspirin in the house.
 

Tschumi

Member
Had this twice in my life, freaking trip! Don't get too freaked out about it, i researched it and it's just a thing, usually caused by stress and too much salt and such.. don't let people give your vision a eulogy or anything.
Ps. In neither instance did i get a headache.
 
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My mum has always suffered from traditional migraines. I think I had one when I was like 14 then never had another occurence. This latest episode was so weird because I kept expecting the headache pain but it barley ever came. On a scale of 1 to 10, it was about a 1 for me.
 
I once had everything I was seeing freeze, then blend and start moving again like a bad video. Pretty scary since I was driving
Shit like that freaks me out. If I experience any alarming body situation like that, I immediately expect the worst. I'm fully expecting the lights to go out.
 

Rawker

Member
What kind of surgery did she have? As in, was there something that needed removed, corrected, destroyed, etc.
Laser eye surgery, they shot her open eye with a laser and she was fine after about 6 hours. I'm not sure othe technical aspects of it but it worked. I'm Canadian and we have a lot of laser eye surgeries up here so it's common but I read a lot about others traveling here to have it done so I assume it's not as common everywhere else.
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
In my very small sample data, I felt that dehydration was a factor. Perhaps caffeine + dry weather + not enough water = ocular migraine. Thankfully, it doesn't happen every time I am in that situation, but it just seems to be a factor.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Yea i get them. It started out of nowhere after i trained a lot. Just random weird pattern always the same banana shape that becomes bigger until it blurs everything. From what the doctor told me its a migraine on the eyeballs. So i rather have this then actual migraine.

It fucking sucks if you train on a bike outside tho, because u simple can't see shit anymore.
 
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Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
Yeah I get the migraine with aura maybe a few times a year at most.

The aura is the easiest part although you can't really do anything when it's happening because you can't see shit. Then the stabbing pain starts along with crippling nausea for about 4-6 hours.

Luckily, mine have eased up once I gave up caffeine of all things. Now they only last maybe a couple hours instead of an all day affair.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I've never had a migraine ever. In fact, the only headaches I've ever get is maybe once every 5 years when I get a flu bug hitting the shitter every hour and my head feels heavy and stuffy like it's going to ooze out of my skull. But it then goes away after a couple days.

But I got to say I feel bad for you migraine sufferers.

I know friends and coworkers who get it. And it seems to happen at random times. It doesn't seem weather related, flu bug related or anything like that. One day they are fine. Next day at the office they seem fucked their eyes are shot, and have to head home to rest.

Hoping you guys feel better.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Laser eye surgery, they shot her open eye with a laser and she was fine after about 6 hours. I'm not sure othe technical aspects of it but it worked. I'm Canadian and we have a lot of laser eye surgeries up here so it's common but I read a lot about others traveling here to have it done so I assume it's not as common everywhere else.
I got laser eye done years ago. Overall, it's been good.

Tips for all if you're thinking about it.

BUT for anyone considering it, there is a chance it fucks you up. One person I know got it, and I don't know the exact details as she's not a close friend or anything (an old coworker I barely spoke to) and maybe it was a botch up, but her night vision was fucked. The statements they say is that laser eye can cause some haloing of headlights at night, but not serious. Its true as that affects me. But her case seems like a total fuck up for night driving.

Also, your eyes still age and regress. And doing re-touch ups only go so far. And it gets to a point they will not allow touch ups because it's not like a human can get their eyes re-zapped over and over again.

My eyes are overall decent vision but not crystal clear like the first few years. It's not bad enough to get a re-touch up (they won't even do it if it's just minor 0.25 blurriness), but I bought a pair of the cheapest glasses I could get from my optician with that prescription in case I need it for crystal clear night driving.

When you get laser eye, your vision will also fluctuate a bit. When you wear glasses, it's the same clarity all day through lenses. With laser eye, it can be clear most of the day, then suddenly for an hour it seems to blur to 0.25. Then your eyes refocus and it's back to clear sailing. My eyes waking up seem fucked for the first minute too until it refocuses. When I wore glasses, I'd just throw them on and boom. Crystal clear vision right away.

Also, your eyes might dry out because that laser zap does something to your eyeballs. So you got to buy eye drops every once in a while. You can actually feel your eyeballs being dry and stiff. Your clarity isn't affected, but your eyes just seem weird unless you put some drops in. Then it goes away after a bit.

One more thing to consider is your vision might get reversed. I'm naturally near sighted (far way stuff is blurry, but jam a magazine in my face and it's eagle eye vision). So when they correct people's vision in my situation, it kind of reverses. Far way vision is now good, but things up close are now super blurry. My vision is clear if something is maybe around 8-12 inches from my face. Any closer and it's blurry. So using a laptop or holding a phone a foot away is fine, but a cell phone really up close is impossible to see.

But having laser eye is still worth it. Don't need glasses and I can wear normal sunglasses (no prescription needed).

It's also a claimable expense in Canada income tax. So claim the whole thing and you'll get a bit of money. I got back around $500.
 
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