We tend to immediately notice symptoms that affect our vision. My husband, for example, noticed something dramatic one day while he was taking precise measurements on a board he was cutting – the ruler numbers suddenly blurred and became unreadable. Blinking did not clear this up and he became alarmed. By moving his head around he eventually compensated for his distorted line of sight and finished out the workday. But while driving home, he began having one-sided, intense head pain and made an appointment to see our family doctor.
Our doctor confirmed what I suspected – Mark was having his first migraine attack. These vascular headaches can be frightening when they begin. The visual distortions that can accompany a migraine headache can even make you wonder if you are having a stroke. The visual disturbance or “aura” that sometimes precedes these attacks can manifest as wavy lines, flashing lights, dots or blind spots. Extreme light sensitivity may also occur and is often quite uncomfortable. (To learn more about how migraines happen and what an aura is, check out this video.)
If you begin having migraines, a doctor should always evaluate your symptoms. But I bet you didn’t know that your eye care provider is also a great resource for guidance with any visual problems resulting from a migraine and can give you specialized advice for your situation. Migraines can be a sign of uncorrected vision problems or be triggered by visual cues like bright sunlight (like mine are), flickering lights, or flashing screens (like my son’s from watching football on TV).
If you are one of the 29.5 million Americans who suffer from migraines, don’t despair. Many treatments are available to relieve your symptoms. I suffer from migraines myself from time to time, but working with my doctor I have found relief. Just make sure to talk with your eye doctor if you’re experiencing visual disturbances.
I was in my first trimester of my second pregnancy when I experienced a 3 week migraine, along with nausea and vomitting, that pretty much made me immobile and limited my functions. I could not work, walk, sit up or lay down without pain. I worked with several physicians to find a solution, but it took some time to find relief. When al those symptoms became manageable, I went to get my yearly eye exam and my vision has also been affected. Once I went back to work, I used red lensed glasses to work on the computer. This has definately kept the migraine away and even diminished headaches.
Im a 50 year old heathly male, I have experienced such eye anomaly without the headache. To be more precise it was like a percentage of my vision was clear but a large percentage was like looking through a kaleidoscope. It lasted approx 25 min and rapidly my vision was restored without me doing anything. I too was cleared of any stroke possibility by my primary doctor with some test.. My primary doctor eventually sent me to the ophthalmologist as a part of the elimination process. The eye doctor asked me if the distortion or blindness was in one eye or both. I replied both. She said since this symptom I experienced was in both it was likely not stroke related. She immediately suggested that it could be migraine symptoms as the VSP article suggested. She asked if i had a history of such headaches. I told her i did not. She explained that most people that get my symptom suffered from migraines at younger age with just the pain part and some light sensitivity. As some patience get older the symptom i had would come in combination with the pain. As many of the patients grew older the headache part subsided and just the blindness part could occur by itself. Because I reported never having the pain part she gave me a retina scan as well which is painless with new electronic techniques. This came back negative . Her diagnoses was migraine. it happens about twice a year and its been two years from this diagnoses. My primary doctor seems to be satisfied with the explanation and feel healthy as ever. hope this helps someone.
Hi Charles, thanks for reaching out to us and sharing your story. I’m glad to hear you were able to work with your eye doctor and physician to identify the cause of your vision distortions, and I think you’re story will be helpful to others. (David, VSP)
Hi Chuck, thanks for posting that. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who suffers from this. I see the kaleidescope aura’s too sometimes, but it only happens a few times a year like you said. Mine are also sometimes accompanied by nusea and/or headaches, neither of which last very long. My ophthalmologist had me get an MRI of the brain, which was came out normal, so my diagnosis was migraine as well.
Though my doctor disagreed that this was the cause, I’ve noticed that almost always, these migraines occur after an intense work-out. Also when I started routinely working out is when the frequency of the migraines increased. So I thought maybe I need to eat more before and after a workout. Doing this, I think my last migraine was probably last summer and I haven’t had any since.
Malina,
I had exactly the same problem following an intense workout a few weeks ago. I think you are right on with ensuring your diet supports your work-out, but another thing that will help is to ensure you are allowing enough time for a proper cool-down. I really think that my problem was because after the intensity of my workout, I didn’t cool down properly by walking until my heart rate returned to normal. I was in a rush to get home so I jumped in the car and by the time I got home my vision was getting blurry around the edges. Since I have been more deliberate about the cool-down, I have not had another episode.
Hope that helps.