So yesterday started off normal for me but shortly after breakfast after walking back in from the garage I kept seeing light spots like I’d been in the bright sun then like bright white heat waves. They were to the left of the field of vision and were there regardless of which eye I closed. I squeezed my eyes shut and that didn’t stop it. I checked my bp and it was good. I held my arms out and they were level, I smiled my normal crooked smile at myself in the mirror and continued to drink my coffee without it running out one side of my mouth. I put in eye drops in but nothing was getting rid of it. I tried to keep looking for an invoice but whole parts of the paper were white and the computer screen too. Now my vision has slowly gone downhill but nothing like this and it was really scaring me for several reasons.
1-I’ve lost my sense of smell a few years back, my ear has been ringing for over a year and didn’t want my sight to go too.
2- I use my vision for work plus ya know I really like being able to see.
3-my uncle lost his sight in one eye when plaque broke lose and hit his eye.
4- my left arm and hand had been numb for a week and I just assumed it was from the hard work on the house.
After 40 minutes I took an aspirin and went to my eye doctor where of course it had started to subside. They fit me in and did a very thorough exam. After being slightly scolded for not having a family doctor, his best guess was an ocular migraine.
Now I’ve had regular migraines with the debilitating head pain, but this didn’t hurt. I don’t have auras with my migraines and I wasn’t really seeing things but lack of things in bright white. Anyway after a huge scare I left there and went to the chiropractor for my arm and he said sight and numbness could be a sign of MS but quickly took that away after he saw how bad my back and neck were. My eyes stayed dilated till around 4pm so I took a break from working on the house. I couldn’t work on the computer either for anything detailed (well that and Morris BB still haven’t fixed our connection) so yesterday was became an errand running, cook a real dinner day with a nap.
So $150 out of pocket to find out I’m not losing my sight and to have my body put back into place. As soon as we can afford decent insurance again we need to find a family doctor. Just wanted to share especially to my mom’s side of the family who has migraines etc because if it happens to you it may take some of the “I’m losing my sight” panic away to hey this may be an ocular migraine. They said it could be a sign of stress and sleep problems. Hello – we’re working 9-12 hours a day 6 days a week and stressing about getting things done when there always seems to be at least one thing not going the way it’s supposed to go. Of course both of those affect the regular migraines I’ve had for 17 years but they hurt and I know what they are after all these years.
If you have migraines, let me suggest this book, The Migraine Brain by Carolyn Bernstein M.D. and Elaine McArdle.
I found if you’re a female, most doctors want to just write migraines off as hormonal. Now, I agree that can play a part but this book helped me find MY triggers and understand it is a chemical thing happening in your brain.
So, now I go back to hardly posting as we keep working away.
Covers, Cats & Clicks by KiM 
Kimberly, Those things that happen and are not easily defined can be difficult. Please do all you should / can to get them defined. Thank you for sharing.
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I know I’m not alone. I guess since I know what’s happening now I’d prefer those over what I’ve gotten for 17 years. Just scary because I really had huge all white areas and could not read or focus. Just never occurred to me that after all this time I’d get a different kind of migraine.
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I think your ophthalmologist is correct. I remember my very first “visual migraine.” I was working a cash register during a holiday sale when suddenly there were “holes and lights” in my field of vision. It got so bad that I could no longer operate the cash register. I called the ophthalmologist and described my symptoms, for I was surely going blind I thought. He listened intently and chuckled. “You’re having a visual migraine,” he intoned. He then proceeded to describe my symptoms better than I had. The following day I saw him for a checkup and he confirmed that my eyes were, indeed, just fine. Ever since that day, whenever I feel the slightest sign of a visual migraine coming on, I immediately pop two Advils, and in most cases I never experience the full effects of the attack. As the song says, “Don’t worry. Be happy.” It’s just a visual migraine. 🙂
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