visual disturbance at 26 weeks

[glitterjo]

Afternoon ladies,

First off, apolgies if there are awful mistakes in this post, as I cant see too well. And also if I dont come back on for a bit, I can only look at the computer for a few minutes at a time.

I'm 26 weeks pregnant with my first

So the night before last i was watching TV and I realised my eyes were blurry. It settled into a kind of bright light (just like when you have looked into a lightbulb) in my right eye. Then small white lights were travelling across my other eye every now and again. I went to bed with a headache, and sat up at one point only to have lots of 'sparks' in both eyes and then a total loss of vision for a few secons, which freaked me right out.

All was the same the next morning so called hospital who told me to come straight in. I did, and when I got there, my blood pressure was quite high (i think 140 over 90?) and the vision in my left eye got loads worse for a little while, like I had a kaleidoscope in it.

I was there for 4 hours and my blood pressure came down over the time iw as there until it was normal. They gave me codeine to see if that would lift the headache, which it did (though im not keen on taking any painkillers at all and wasn't thrilled about taking codeine - they said it would be ok if I just took thm for no more than a week) They reckon it is either the start of pre-eclampsia or a visual migraine.

No protein in urine and obviously good that BP is back to normal so was allowed home. Midwife is coming tomorrow to th ehouse to check BP again. I am still finding it very hard to see out of my right eye (as you might be able to tell by the crappy typing in this post) and basically feel pretty rubbish if I am doing anything but lying down. Am bored out of my mind as TV watching is too hard and I can't read a book fo rmore than 5 minutes. Have just downloaded an audio book so Ive got something to do.

I had a few migraines as a teenager but with a blinding headache and just a small aura in my left eye to warn me it was coming. This is totally different - its a pretty mild headache to be honest, hurts more when i bend over or cough or anything like that. Its the eye thing thats really bothering me. My heart is racing when I get up and about so Im just staying where i am....

Anyone had anything like this? am obviousy hoping it is a migraine rather than the start of anything more serious, but its horrid.

Its good the midwife is comig to see you, you definitely need to see someone asap. Have you got any other symthons. When i had visual disturbances with PE it was like sparkles in fromt of my eyes, but it can vary

It sounds very much like a visual migrane, also known as an opthalmic migrane. I had a spate of these a few years ago (although they lasted hours rather than days, and I wasn't pregnant). Like you, they weren't accompanied by a headache. They started with a gap in my vision like I'd looked at a light bulb / flash and then spread out with flashing squiggly lines. The doctors checked me out for a detached retina, but found nothing wrong and I've not had a recurrance in ages. Fingers crossed it all checks out OK for you.