In case anyone's interested, I've come across this podcast on new advances in the understanding and treatment of migraines. Apparently this brings into question the old understanding that they were caused by vein constriction and rebounding, and it appears now there could be a similarity between Migraines and Fibromyalgia. https://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/...-the-understanding-and-treatment-of-migraines
I thought I had migraine some years ago because I regularly experience headaches. It's a good thing that those headaches were caused by the ill-fitting lenses of my eyeglasses. When I got a new pair of glasses, the headache magically disappeared. The physician explained to me the constriction of the blood vessels as @Diane Lane has mentioned. It's quite scary to me particularly when the doctor said that migraine is usually a symptom of a bigger health issue. Oh, oh, that really scared me that's why I felt like winning the lotto when the new pair of glasses did the job.
One thing that sets off my migraines is fluorescent lighting. We had huge overhead fluorescent lights that coincided with my other triggers when i was in 5th grade, and like you @Corie Henson , eyestrain was also a part of the package. I was straining to see the board, and that's when I was diagnosed with nearsightedness. I definitely need an exam and new glasses, but not until I take care of a few other issues. Allergies are a big part of my problem it seems as well, so the issue is worse at certain times of the year than others.
Chrissy, how long do your auras last? Do they affect your balance? I've had severe migraines where I lose peripheral vision. I was driving when it happened one time, and it was quite frightening. Since I do get the aura, I would prefer the aura with no pain, but of course, I'd prefer neither. I worked with a girl before who would get hemiplegic migraines and lose sensation in half of her body. Talk about scary. We thought she was having a stroke at first, and she was a young girl.
My auras last about 20-30 minutes, Diane. Nothing but my vision is affected. Kind of a white out at the end of a sentence or whatever I'm looking at. Then I close my eyes and I see a tiny jaggy half circle and it gets bigger and bigger til it's gone. Then it's over. I have gotten it when driving but could drive through it. My daughter gets them really bad sometimes. Her first one had us thinking she had a stroke at 16. She'll feel a numbness in her hands and lips and can't get a word out right. This doesn't happen always, in fact it's rare but she has to take some advil and take a nap. She's had scans done of her brain etc but everything is fine. My auras didn't start til I was about 47. I get them less and less now but even without the headache, it drains me. I will sometimes know I'm going to get one because of the lighting somewhere.
Wow, your auras are totally different than mine. I get floaties (usually black dots) and flashers, sort of like small lightning, as well as sometimes white threads that float around in my vision. I don't know how to describe it, but if you're familiar with horror flicks, they will sometimes do a thing where the picture becomes distorted with sort of a Z and shimmers, and that's something I experience with my auras. I wonder if the person who designed the effect has the same auras? I also tend to lose balance. It seems our auras don't have much in common, other than the resultant fatigue. Do you get ice cream headaches?
Yes, on occasion I get an ice cream headache. My daughter's auras are like mine. I thought they were all similar...guess not.
This is what my auras look like. When my eyes are closed the zig zag is very similar to the pic but not so perfect. When my eyes are open the closest pic I could find was the one with the whiteout but mine isnt jaggedy and it's always at the end of something not in the middle.
I do not have a history of migraines and am not certain that this is what's going on now since my problems include only a few of the signs of a migraine. Of course, I have heard of migraines and have known people who complained of having migraines, but I had never had the problem and this wasn't something that people called the ambulance for, at least not in my experience, so I didn't know much about them. However, a few weeks ago my eyesight suddenly became blurry, so that I could barely read a computer screen. Besides blurriness, there were tiny black dots. At first, that was the only symptom but, about five or ten minutes later, I had a headache on both sides of my head, at the temples to the side of my eyes. Closing my eyes helped, but placing a dampened warm towel over my eyes helped more. After closing my eyes for a few minutes, it clears up. Today, I am tired. I had very little sleep because I went to bed about 2 am and couldn't sleep. The sun was up before I fell asleep but it was my shift at the recovery center today so I had only a few hours of sleep. I don't remember if that was the case the first time I had this problem though, so it's possible that it's related to that. The headache is a throbbing headache, but not severe. My eyes are blurred, with sensitivity to light. I don't think I'm having any of the other signs or symptoms of a migraine. It lasts maybe fifteen minutes before my vision clears and the headache goes away, although the sensitivity to light sticks around longer. Probably unrelated, about six or seven years ago, I had a more severe headache in both temples accompanied by what I can only describe as visual crackles, with flashes of light kind of like fireworks. At that time, the pain was worse and the visual disturbances were a lot worse. If I didn't know my way around the house in the dark, I probably wouldn't have been able to find my way to a chair. That lasted only a few minutes, though, and went away suddenly, like an ice cream headache. That was entirely different and much scarier than the problem I had today. Maybe I should take some grape seed extract... that was a joke, I'm not trying to be mean.
I use to get the auras, neurologist said silent migraines. Luckily, never got the painful kind of headaches. Rarely get them now. I have had a few that were so bad with the neon light show - is what I called them that could not drive until they were gone .
however these could be symptoms of detached retina. that is what i was told many years ago. i was checked out though and that was nota problem.
I used to get migraines but don't anymore. I would get my eyes checked first. I always worry about my eyes.
Ken hu8bby and I have had some weird visions over the years, sometimes flashers and partial blindness on one side. Sometimes our eyes play tricks on us. I hope its nothing but just crap happens sometimes, .Maybe see an eye doctor. Till then google?