Comments on: 5 Signs You have Retinal Migraine

By: Steven

Steven — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:52:43 +0000

@Vivienne mansfield
Hi Vivienne,
Your symptoms sound simlar to what i had.
A neurologist specialising in migraines prescribed me beta-blockers to regulate the blood flow to the part (back) of the brain that controls your vision.
I am surprised that other people who have suffered from retinal migraine are not prescribed these as his theory how to control it seemed very logical
I only took them for 3 months.
The condition is now much better and I have not had an attack in nearly 1 year.
Hope this helps

Steven

By: kirsty

kirsty — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:13:27 +0000

hi there, im 26 and neva had a migraine untill just ova a year ago. my first one i was curled up on floor felt sik as couldnt put head on pillow etc etc for 3 days. since then i have had a few episodes of what they call a migraine aura i have not seen anyone bout this yet to tell me if it is or not too scared to being only 26. but usually i dont even know its coming just all of a sudden i start loosing vision in one eye and then its all blurry cant see anything then within 15 mins the otha eye goes i literally cant see anything at all but these circles with fluorescent zig zagged edges to them , i cant walk anywhere cos i cant see and then i start to feel sik as dizzy and i will get my sight bak after 30-45mins but then about an hour later i get the headache but i dont always get the headache with it, Scares the hell outa me! dont really know what to do, i hate my eyes being touched and dont want someone prodding at them! any thoughts? could it be something serious?

By: Vineet

Vineet — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:09:29 +0000

Hi,

I am getting severe eye pain twice a month on my left eye for the last 5 years.
It starts with a slight pain, increases in the next 2 hours, becomes unbearable and then goes away after around 10 hours. Sometimes I use paracetamol to reduce the pain. Met many eye specialists. Most of them told that it is due to eye dryness, tried many eye drops, with absolutely no difference in my disease. Kindly suggest the reason for this and any possible solution.

After going through many websites, I get the feeling that it is due to migraine, but I am not getting any vision problem when this attack happens. And other point is that the frequency is quite regular.. it happens once in every 2 weeks.

thanks and regards,
Vineet

By: Vivienne mansfield

Vivienne mansfield — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 17:10:49 +0000

I first had a visual disturbance the zig zag lines blacked out spots in my vision 10 years ago after my 3rd baby my 1st attack my vision was affected on and off for about 6 hours and then for a few weeks after that I was getting them every week no headaches the doctor told me they were migraines they then stopped well I maybe got 1 or 2 a year but I did know what triggered them so avoided them that was until Easter this year.
I woke up on Easter Sunday and after about 10 mins I realised I couldn’t see the whole of my sons face it seemed to be affecting my left eye which confused me as it’s always affected my right eye I had the usual kaleidoscope effect for about 20 mins they always make me feel very scared but I’ve told myself to stay calm because it makes it worse if you panic that would normally be it for me but 4 hours later I had the whole visual effect in my left eye, my words wouldn’t come out right I was sick and I felt very cold and then the headache it knocked me off my feet for 3 days anyway to cut a long story short I’ve now had 4 attacks in 2 months the patten of my visual episode seems to be changing I did stop drinking tea and coffee about 4 months ago and I’ve joined the gym 2 months ago but I only swim so don’t really over do it, I’ve now become scared to death of my next attack

By: Vicki Murray

Vicki Murray — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:14:40 +0000

Oh, and I am wondering if anybody’s hands feel like they have pins and needles in them during a migraine. To me, that is some scary stuff.

By: Vicki Murray

Vicki Murray — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:12:00 +0000

I have suffered from migraines since puberty. My headaches used to lay me out for several days but always started with a visual disturbance that I can only describe as “zig zags” in my right eye There was a time when I could logically associate my headaches around my menstrual cycles; however, I can no longer do that. When I was in high school, my mom scheduled me to see a doctor who ran the headache clinic at a major hospital in Pittsburgh. The doctor gave me a list of typical migraine triggers, and I could directly relate my headaches to either MSG or dark chocolate. Other food items on the list included any and all processed foods, navy, pinto and lima beans and cheese along with caffeine. So, essentially, my diet was limited to bland foods. Oh, citric acid was also on that list.

In 2004, I survived a massive stroke caused by a blood clot in my brain stem. I can no longer take the medication that really helped with my headaches. The generic name is “Midrin.” Now, my medicare won’t even cover Imitrex. It only covers meds that don’t work to the point where I may as well be taking tic-tacs. This is the first that I’ve read about Retinal migraines. I have had every scan under the sun regrading my head, but I also want to warn others that they are finding a correlation between strokes and migraines. Scary stuff.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

By: mpt2222

mpt2222 — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 04:35:17 +0000

My sister has MS, so that was my first concern when i first experienced a loss of vision in my left eye, but they ruled that out as a cause for me. My episodes only last a couple minutes…8-10 at most and there is no blurriness before or after. I really hope this is just a rare form of opthalmic migraine, but the fact that over the last year, it only occurs when doing strenuous weight lifting makes me worry about vascular causes. I was diagnosed with atherosclerosis presenting in my right carotid a couple years ago in my late 30′s, so i wonder if there is a relation.

By: kljny

kljny — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 13:35:23 +0000

MPT2222- Wow! Reading your post, and i’d swear I wrote it! I had never experienced this phenomenon until this past december. I was actually at my doctor’s office when it happened. I have Multiple Sclerosis, so we felt that i may have been starting with a relapse. As I sat there totally blind in my left eye and extremely anxious, it left as quickly as it started. I had a bit of blurriness for a few hours, but then I was ok. My MS Neurologist feels that i had a retinal migraine, but it was the first time I had ever experienced it. I have since had 3 episodes. The most recent one was last night while I was driving my teenage daughter and 4 of her friends to a concert. I had to pull over, call my husband, and wait for him to meet up with us and take over the trip with girls. Scared the hell out of me!! I have seen an Opthamologist with all tests being negative for any damage in my eye (I see him yearly to monitor my optic nerve for any damage that my MS may cause). I have regular MRIs and except for what I normally expect to see, I have nothing happening to point to damage that would cause my brief blindness in my left eye. I have no headache at all with it….just a sensation in my face and of course….a bit on panic!

By: mpt2222

mpt2222 — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:15:31 +0000

I have been experiencing similar episodes as described, to the point now where they occur monthly over the last year. I never have headaches, but lose complete or near complete vision in my left eye only, most often when lifting weights. Sometimes, i experience some sparkling sensations and others its more graying randomly throughout my field of vision until completely grayed. I’ve been through every test to rule out other causes (bloodwork, MRI/MRA, carotid ultrasound, CTA, multiple phycical eye examinations, etc.) with no likely issues found. It seems when no other cause is found, it’s easiest to just lump it into some form of rare migrane, but i get concerned since i don’t perfectly present the prototypical symptoms of any form of migrane. What else could cause this? Are there neurologists that specialize in these rare symptoms?

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 00:54:16 +0000

I found out that the retinal migrianes i am getting are caused by annatto extract. Exactly 4 hours after i eat something with annatto in it bam starts with the vision then the headach. Try avoiding yellow cheese like american and cheddar. a lot of manufactured and processed things have it there to make things yellow. I bet if you avoid annatto you will watch your headaches disappear.

Want to test my theory? On a day you have no work and nothing to do eat a piece or 2 of cheddar that list annatto as the ingredient. then wait to see if you get a retinal headache. i can cause one everytime this way.