Does anyone get ocular migraines?

[luluxxx]

So today I was in town absolutely fine
All of a sudden my vision went blurry and like bits of my vision missing.
Then I started seeing flashing lights in my eyes.
lasted 20 mins and went away then came back and lasted 10 mins.

Panicked a bit and went to the a&e eye hospital.
They checked blood pressure /eye pressure
eyes etc
Said everything looked fine and was ocular migarine.
she couldn’t tell me what caused them.
It was pretty scary
I feel a bit meh now and a bit headachy but my vision is fine.

It is very scary.

Mine settled down after I started HRT. I was told it was my age...

Yes, over the last few years.

Usually left eye - large rainbow triangle blocking vision - moves across & then goes away.

Lasts about 20 minutes.

Can precede general migraine (which I had for years prior to ocular migraines)

Yes. Come on suddenly exactly as you describe then morph into zig zag lines that get larger and larger and then disappear. You can almost time it to 20 minutes. Afterwards I always feel like I've been hit with a sandbag. Take painkillers and rest for a while.
I worked for a consultant opthalmologist for a while and it's true - they really don't know what causes it. I've tried over the years to figure the triggers but there really are none.

Yes, I get these when very stressed. Best thing you can do is take an OTC migraine pill with caffeine and lie in a darkened room with your eyes closed until it passes. Headaches don’t always follow these but taking the Migraine med can stave it off. Feel better. It’ll pass.

Mine was left eye too
Right eye was fine.
Started right in the middle of a busy shopping centre as well…so panic set in

I had one a few weeks ago. It was very very stressful situation on a very hot day (not in UK). I suddenly started seeing bright jagged geometric patterns on the right side of my vision. They looked like those metallic things people hang in their gardens that change shape when they spin, only these patterns were semi circular. I closed one eye then the other - still appeared to the right of my vision, sparking and shifting. Looked it up online and discovered it was a kind of migraine that lasts from a few minutes to a few hours. Mine went away after about 30 mins.

Try not to panic if/when it happens again. If possible just find somewhere to sit until it passes.

Do you get headaches? I didn't get a headache.

I used to get ocular migraines and also optically triggered migraines (flickering lights were usually the cause). They all stopped when I got divorced….so I think the I know what the real trigger was!

I get this - happened a lot around menopause, very rarely now. As soon as the zigzag starts, I have half an hour to get horizontal. If I try to function once the flashing stops, it’s like being very drunk - can’t talk clearly, stumble around and wee a lot. I usually sleep it off, and feel hung over the next day.

Yes and it’s very scary the first time. I get a kaleidoscope effect, zig zag lines on my peripheral vision that move inwards until my clear vision is just a small central area.
As @MacchiatoMavis says, there is no consensus on what causes them, the triggers vary, but for me it is generally stress and low blood sugar.

I can’t remember having one since I retired 18 months ago!

Yes, I first got them when pregnant years ago and have had a couple more recently now I'm in the throes of menopause so might be hormonal for me. Zig zag lines moving across the field of vision with bright light white. Last one was at work a few weeks ago so no option to lie down afterwards or anything, I just had to say oh, I can't read the computer screen! and wait for it to pass.

Yes I get these too - usually starts in left eye with blurred vision and the appearance of a spinning wheel in my vision. It fades and moves across to the other eye and then goes away completely. Lasts around 20 mins in total, and I hardly ever get a headache.
consultant ophthalmologist advised it’s a textbook ocular migraine.

I had it once I’m in my early fifties and was told it was stress and possibly age related. I had it just in one eye, brought on by looking out if the window, the light was suddenly very bright and my eye went blurred and vision went starry. I thought I was having a stroke. Very scary. The optician checked me over and said it’s nothing to worry about. This was about 5 years ago and it hasn’t happened since thankfully. Bloody scared me though!

Felt a bit sick afterwards too.

No - no headache at all. Just a feeling of kind of exhaustion or fragility and that doesn't last all day either. Very odd.

Suffered with this for around 14 years and still frightens me every time I get it, after having my son I got the blind spots multiple times a day for a couple weeks, I also get them if I don’t eat regularly enough.
i can only get rid of the migraine when I go to sleep, but feel groggy the next day, like a hangover

Yes. No specific triggers, so I always keep meds on me. The best I have found (originally prescribed now available OTC) is Migraleeve. The pink pill stop the visual disturbances and nausea, and if it still progresses to headache, take a yellow one.

Ocular migraine, retinal migraine and migraine with aura tend to be terms used interchangeably. I get the migraine with aura and I always understood that one of the characteristics of that was that it was always in both eyes (because it's actually in the brain, not the eyes at all), but when I once said that on MN many posters said they got it in one eye only. So what do I know.

This web page may be interesting https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/migraine-headache/expert-answers/ocular-migraine/faq-20058113 because it describes the different visual migraines and how serious they may be.

Yes I’ve had them now and again for years. Sometimes with a very slight headache but mostly with no headache. They last for a few minutes. Nothing to worry about as far as I know. My grown up daughter has recently started having them too. She got a fright the first time. Luckily I was with her and was able to tell her what they were.

@Imlyingandthatsthetruth thanks for that link. I definitely get it in both eyes which means migraine with aura. I didn't know that terminology so that's interesting.

Thanks everyone
It was like the flashing started one side of eye and moved across and then cleared .

My husband gets them. He has had them all his life but they get worse when he is tired/stressed. Like others say, it lasts about 20 minutes, then leaves him completely wiped for the rest of the day.

Have had these since teenage years, just occasionally.. They tend not to progress to a headache, though I can feel wiped afterwards- if I can i take a painkiller and have a nap. My sister gets them too, though neither parent had them as far as i know.

Me too, 20 minutes max. The first time I was at work, and popped next door to my boss as I was genuinely scared I was having a stroke. Luckily when I described it, his wife gets the same things so he put my mind at rest. They are very infrequent, but these days I know to just ride it out. I don't get headaches, it's just visually annoying.