Visual disturbances

[MoonCat]

So I think I just had an ocular migraine. Weird jagged lines surrounding my field of vision, but no pain, other than a sort of dull ache I've had on and off all day. It's mostly gone now, which I understand is normal, supposedly this resolves itself in about 20-30 minutes.

I suspect stress (last couple of days), too much caffeine, possibly the artificial sweeteners I use in tea. Going to drink water for the rest of the evening.

Anyone else have experience with this?

[bacchinalus]

Ocular migraines are horrible (but at least they don't usually involve the pain of a regular one!). I've had them off and on for a decade. Mine usually involve a blur/"halo/aura" effect over the center of my vision (I can't look at anything directly, only using peripheral vision). I always find that having something salty helps get rid of them, but only about 75% of the time.

Good luck with yours!

[Cia]

So I think I just had an ocular migraine. Weird jagged lines surrounding my field of vision, but no pain, other than a sort of dull ache I've had on and off all day. It's mostly gone now, which I understand is normal, supposedly this resolves itself in about 20-30 minutes.

I suspect stress (last couple of days), too much caffeine, possibly the artificial sweeteners I use in tea. Going to drink water for the rest of the evening.

Anyone else have experience with this?

I had that about two months ago. Very wierd. Made driving interesting.

[MoonCat]

I had one at work a few months ago and couldn't figure out what was going on. This time I remembered a co-worker years ago having a "migraine attack" that didn't involve pain, but she couldn't see. It resolved itself, too.

Seems to be more info available now, and I note that I had several of the symptoms mentioned online. At least I have some idea what it is now.

[Food Lady]

I had one once. It sent me to the optometrist. I was surprised because I'd never had a migraine of any kind.

[Kaylyn]

I get migraines with aura and I experience the same effect about a half-hour before the pain starts. From what I understand, ocular migraines occur usually in one eye, while migraine auras occur in both (so yeah, mine are in both eyes). In my case, they're handy, because although I have to deal with screwed up vision for a few hours (30 minutes of aura and then a few hours of what I can best describe as two-dimensional vision...no depth perception), since they occur about 30 minutes before the pain I can pop my medicine at the first sign and it's kicked in by the time the pain starts, so it's significantly lessened.

Mine start with a flashy bit near the center of my field of vision (behind which I can't see, so I essentially only have peripheral vision), swooshes out to a C-shape, and then the whole thing migrates outward over the course of the next half-hour. -shudder- Just thinking about the effect triggers nausea and chills. I would post an artist's rendering of what I see, but I can't even look at the images without feeling migraine prodrome symptoms.

Interestingly, if I take the pain reliever and don't have my sumatriptan on me to stop the migraine itself, the auras keep happening even though the pain isn't severe. One fades and another one begins, usually affecting vision in a different part of my field of view (the shape usually goes from center to left, the next one could be a backwards C or some other shape going from center to right).

[TheSHAD0W]

Jagged lines, that's a *visual* migraine, not ocular (which isn't really a migraine and is much more serious).

Not everyone who gets visual migraines also gets migraine headaches, and they typically happen at different times.

If I take mineral supplements (Gatorade or electrolyte pills) I don't get migraines.

[MoonCat]

Doesn't ocular refer to the eyes? Anyway that's how I found a perfect description of what I was experiencing. I've only had this happen twice. I really need to learn how to deal with stress because it just kicks my ass physically.

[Kogarashi]

I get something similar with my eyes too. I do periodically suffer bad headaches that I tend to call "murder headaches" (as in it feels like the headache is trying to murder me) so my hubby knows it's not the normal "take an ibuprofen and it'll go away" pain. I don't get auras with those.

But every now and then, probably once a month or less, I'll get those visual auras people mention with migraines but without any pain. It usually starts as a sort of "blank spot" in the center of my vision with a bit of pressure associated with it. Like instead of seeing what my eyes are looking at, I'm just getting a nothingness. No color or anything. (I wouldn't be surprised to find my brain is trying to "fill the gaps" and that's why the odd not-quite-color sensation.) Over the course of half an hour to an hour, it slowly spreads outward in a jaggy C shape until it's eventually at the periphery of my vision before it finally goes away, and I can usually get it to go away a bit faster if I make sure to drink extra water during that time, same as when I'm trying to alleviate the occasional dehydration headache.

It's not painful, but it is a pain in the butt. It frequently seems to happen when I'm trying to get something done on my computer or read a book or something, and I'm stuck with a half hour of downtime because I can only use my peripheral vision.

[MoonCat]

Fits the description I found online about ocular migraines.

[Kogarashi]

I saw them referred to online as "silent migraines."