[Closed] Ocular Migraines

I find i'm better off outside, if it descends into pain then i'm afraid the old darkened room is pretty much the only solution for me.

I get them normally after I have pushed too hard at the gym or some such or when I am dehydrated.  I have not discovered how to cure them yet when they kick off but it is normally in an evening and I resign myself to looking at the half of the TV screen that is clear.

Optician and Doctor have both said there is not much that can be done about them which kinda seems like the easy answer to me.  Fortunately there is no pain associated with them and if they get too annoying I just go to bed.

I get them very occasionally, without the headaches. I don't know any way of making them disappear, other than waiting for 15 minutes, but I think they are possiby triggered by lack of sleep, and sometimes coffee.

I get them normally after I have pushed too hard at the gym or some such or when I am dehydrated. I have not discovered how to cure them yet when they kick off but it is normally in an evening and I resign myself to looking at the half of the TV screen that is clear.

Not been on the bike for over a week, so not that. I usually get them at work, in the mornings. Its gone now, never lasts more than 20 minutes and no pain involved. I have read there is a connection to strokes, which is worrying.

I usually have some water and sit in a dark room. Caffeine makes mine worse.

Had them for many years. They were far worse when my job involved sitting in front of a computer screen all day under artificial lights. In my case it's like I've stared at a sparkler being waved around, and all the trails stick in my vision.

Probably had one or two a week for 4 years when I was doing that job. I found that going outside, sitting quietly and doing some breathing exercises helped clear them quicker.

I tend to feel really drained for an hour or two afterwards as well.

I get them normally after I have pushed too hard at the gym or some such or when I am dehydrated.

Yup, i've had them from time to time.  Most common set of circumstances was too much red wine, dehydrated in the morning, coffee, then 6 mile ride to work - North to Central London, traffic light interval sprints.  Onset usually coincided with arrival at the Old Street roundabout!

I'd get off and walk for a bit until they subsided, then take it easy and drink plenty of water when I got in to work.

Not had one for ages now.  different commute, train and a shorter ride, less midweek red wine quaffing too!

^^^ same as that, and currently I do spend most of many week days in front of a screen.  I can feel them coming on, they usually last for about 15 mins, during which I tend to stare into space !

Top Tip: Missing out on the fun of Ocular Migraines? Simply drive a car with a Ford Quickclear  heated windscreen to recreate the effect without any of the inconvenient side effects.

Apparently.

My wife gets these occasionally. They are brought on by a muscle spasm in her neck/shoulder pressing on a bundle of nerves (caused by poor posture/deskwork). Deep massage relieves and prevents it. Took a long time to nail the culprit, and I'm convinced that there will be a lot of sufferers out there who have similar issues.

I got them for a couple of days after having ablation. A common side effect apparently, but thankfully didn't last long.

I get them if I get really badly dehydrated + stressed. Usually have to just abandon doing anything until the visuals stop and then just try to deal with the pain. I found that 3 ibuprofen as soon as one came on would make the experience a lot less bad. On really bad ones I also lost the ability to form sentences (spoken or written) and couldn't figure out the words I needed. Luckily not had one for quite a while now.

I find paracetamol and a 15 minute nap sorts them out. I don't get any pain with them but my peripheral vision goes like a kaleidoscope, not sure what my triggers are.

I've suffered with these since my early teens (25+ years).

The holy grail is to identify the triggers and avoid / mitigate as much as possible. Believe or not, I would say 9/10 times for me it is physiological and relates to neck and upper back strain. My solution is to do regular neck and back stretches (a couple of times a day). This has reduced the frequency from around once a fortnight to probably one every 4-5 months.

Once it has started, however, it is unstoppable for me. I just take two ibuprofen, two paracetamol and some water and lie down in a dark, cool and quiet room (as much as possible). I then usually fall asleep for anything from 15 mins to an hour and a half. When I wake up I usually have a pretty bad localised headache, but no visual disturbance. The headache usually lasts into the next day when it is more of a 'normal' bad headache. If I can get rid of the aura before the headache starts, it is usually a far milder headache.

I have used Triptans in the past, but they just speed me through the symptoms quicker and have some fairly odd side effects - making my arms feel like lead and sometimes like my hands are floating in front of me.

I always give myself a good 15 minutes after the aura subsides to get up and carry on - I have tried to get going again too quick in the past and just started the whole thing again. I once spent around 4 hours asleep in a car park in the Peaks when one came on during a ride - I then managed to set it off again twice, by trying to get going too soon. I didn't get home until nearly 10pm having finished riding at 4pm!

I get them randomly and for no apparent reason.  Its been maybe once a year for the past ten years or so but if i bang my head (like crashing my bike) then i'll have two or three a day for a few weeks.  Migraleve as soon as I see the dots stops the headache for me.

I started getting them a few years ago.  First one came out of the blue, scared me to death.  Had one every few weeks for maybe a year, then they just stopped again.  Weird.

The only thing I found that made any difference was Imigran Recovery.  Take one as soon as possible with the initial symptoms and it usually averted it.

Thats exactly what happened to me.Loads out of the blue for six months then suddenly down to one a year.

I got a lot of these last year, I had an Mri scan and a 24hr hr monitor on. nothing out of sorts was found. it turned out through trial and error to be high5 energy powder in water as I was do I g a lot of riding and running at the time and was using quite a bit. stopped it and never had another migraine since. it used to freak me out. I would loose some vision and the flashy test card colours. I'd be completely knackered after having one and could sleep for hours afterwards.

Water, something sugary and away from vdu/fluorescent lights usually makes mine go a bit quicker. I dread getting one if I have to drive somewhere, touch wood it's not happened yet.

I get them, like some mine mercifully aren't accompanied by a headache. They're zig-zaggy lights in my vision. A feeling of being dehydrated often follows. Going into a dim room and avoiding VDUs and florescent light seems to help. I don't get them often and I only discovered that they're a form of migraine a year or two ago.

In the past I have had more traditional migraines and they were at least sometimes preceded by other visual artefacts, like coloured filters being applied to parts of my vision. I last had that sort of migraine over 15 years ago and I'm glad I'm just getting ocular ones these days.

I get 2-3 full blown migraines a week all of which start with my vision. Learnt to live with them and over the years have worked out all my triggers, some of which are unavoidable but at least I can time them so the worst of the debilitation coincides with night time. Not uncommon to wake up in the morning and be unable to get out of bed never mind drive to work. Can last 4hrs right up to 48hrs, most in the 8-12hrs region though. I don't take anything for them really, occasionally paracetamol and/or ibuprofen to take the edge of it, but the long term potential side effects of taking medication for me is not worth it.

Triggers are:

Noise/commotion/motion

Bright lights during darkness (driving at night is my worst trigger)

Fluorescent lighting and computer screens (excessive use)

Exercise (anything intensive enough to put on a sweat)

Certain foods or combinations of food

Stress/intense concentration on a task

mine mercifully aren’t accompanied by a headache. They’re zig-zaggy lights in my vision.

"Mercifully" is the operative word there.  A few minutes after the zig-zags went away, it felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to the back of my skull and I'd to go lie down in a darkened room to have a bit of a cry.

So that's what it was! (Just googled it)

I had one of these about 1.5yrs ago driving back from a stressfull welding job. Started as a small blob just out of centre vision & grew substantialy larger over 5 mins or so , kalidescopey diamond type sparkles round the edges of the hazey blob. Luckily I was passing a hospital & pulled in as I thought I was having a stroke!

I pat my shants big time when my vision started blacking out , by the time I was seen to it had cleared & occular migrane was mentioned , but I never looked it up for fear of a terminal google diagnosis : )

Often wondered if it was a T.I.A , another mystery solved by the STW colective.

I used to get these until I had a small stroke (caused by small hole in the heart, no lasting damage) and was put on anti-coagulants. Since then no reoccurrence of the ocular migraines. Consultant had noted this had happened to a few of his patients but couldn't say if it was because the drugs were stopping it or if the migraines were little TIAs.

I pat my shants big time when my vision started blacking out

Yeah, there's nothing focuses the mind quite like suddenly going blind.

I would get loads when I was a teenager, but after age 19/20 would only get one or so a year until about 5 years ago (I’m now 47).

The only trigger I identifed back then was a particular brand of pies and pasties (Peters)... I worked in a deli where knackered pastry products were a free lunch... I never got a migraine from the Walls sausage rolls.

The ones I get now are different as they seem to be triggered by dehydration and/or stress and I don’t have as much nausea as the teenage ones.

The rapid deployment of Solpadeine Max and Ibuprofen prevents the worst of the pain and allows me to carry on with most things after the aura has gone, but for a day or two afterwards the pain lingers and I get a sharp reminder if I have to cough or sneeze.

I get them, they’re also called aural migraine, I believe, because it’s a sort of an aura in your vision. I have no idea at all what triggers them, I can go weeks, or months, then get several over a few days, I’ve even had two consecutive ones, and woken up to see the signature ‘kaleidoscopey diamond-type sparkles’ in a ‘C’-shape, following a blurred spot in my centre vision, before I’ve even got my eyes open! I’ve generally connected them to periods of stress, there’s no connection I can see to any particular food or drink. There is usually a sort of sick headache following, but at the first sign of the blurry spot, or sparkles I nuke it with two or three ibuprofen, which seems to do the trick

I get them normally after I have pushed too hard at the gym or some such or when I am dehydrated

It's not just me then. I occasionally get them after playing squash at lunchtime in the height of summer when some a-hole has had the heaters on for the previous hour (it must be 40°c on court). Even with a 700ml Camelbak bottle I must get get seriously dehydrated. Then going back to my desk to stare at a computer screen doesn't always end well.

I find as soon as I get the 'floaters' I need to take paracetamol, eat something (salty if possible), drink even more fluid and stop looking at the screen. If I do that I can get away with it and be ok in 15 minutes. If not, my vision gets worse and it's game over when the headache from hell descends 😵

Oddly enough, just as I was about to go downtown this afternoon I noticed a small blurred area in my centre vision, which started to show sparkley edges! First one in ages. A couple of ibuprofen to nuke the inevitable headache and I was ok once the sparkley ‘C’ had grown out of my vision. Lucky those are the only sort of migraines I get.

I don’t have any advice on how to stop the visual disturbances

I have learnt how to get rid of the headaches from hell though

double espresso as soon as the flashing lights start works for me

in my case stops the headache before it starts

I get them occasionally, thankfully just the trippy visuals not the headache.  It starts as a bright dot that turns into a glittering C shape that expands out of my field of vision in a few minutes.  It seems to be to the left but covering one eye or the other makes no difference.

Inciting factors seem to be similar to other peoples':

Bright light / screen

Dehydration

Stress.

The first was driving down the M1 on a busy day, I had no idea what it was and thought I might be going blind.