3 ms·

I do not usually get the headache part either but the visual part is epic. The first time I got it, a few years ago, I thought I was having a stroke. The visu

I do not usually get the headache part either but the visual part is epic. The first time I got it, a few years ago, I thought I was having a stroke. The visual area gets ripped in two by the diagonal, the two pieces move away and are replaced with a silver band. The picture stays more or less complete, but broken in two. The image kind of pulsates, or rather waves. I was terrified the first time, then visited the ophthalmologist, did a tomography of my head and ended up at a neurologist. He was a specialist of migraines and told me that about 30% of migraines are without headaches. My father has migraines, my younger brother too and both have headaches. I had some other extasy-like migranes and I am usually exhausted afterwrds and sleep 10 to 12 hours straight. I am lucky to have only a few cases a year.

tonyedgecombe 6y ago
> The first time I got it, a few years ago, I thought I was having a stroke. That was my reaction as well. It reminded me of looking through a kaleidoscope. Luckily I’ve only had it occur a couple of times.
cjmb 6y ago
I think the visual aura part can be different for many people. I also thought I was having a stroke -- in my case the entire center of my vision in both eyes disappears. But the brain is used to that behaviour (center-dead-spot from optic nerve) and has a prebaked solution: average/blend the inputs from around the dead-spot. However my migraine-visual-aura center-dead spot is about the size of a 12" laptop screen, which results in horrifically nauseating visual "blending" happening nonstop. I tried to look at a book once and the only words I could read were the first & last words on each line. I tried to read a car license plate and could only read the last letter. When the rate at which I got them increased from 1/6mo to 1/6week, I got a prescription & haven't had one since.
pugworthy 6y ago
When I first had one many years ago, I thought detached retina, as my sister had them. An interesting observation RE: the visual aura. My mother has had migraines for years, and just had some surgery involving anesthesia. Afterwards she had very frequent visual migraine auras along with a certain amount of post-anesthesia brain fog, which both lasted about 24-36 hours.

tonyedgecombe 6y ago

> The first time I got it, a few years ago, I thought I was having a stroke. That was my reaction as well. It reminded me of looking through a kaleidoscope. Luckily I’ve only had it occur a couple of times.

cjmb 6y ago

I think the visual aura part can be different for many people. I also thought I was having a stroke -- in my case the entire center of my vision in both eyes disappears. But the brain is used to that behaviour (center-dead-spot from optic nerve) and has a prebaked solution: average/blend the inputs from around the dead-spot. However my migraine-visual-aura center-dead spot is about the size of a 12" laptop screen, which results in horrifically nauseating visual "blending" happening nonstop. I tried to look at a book once and the only words I could read were the first & last words on each line. I tried to read a car license plate and could only read the last letter. When the rate at which I got them increased from 1/6mo to 1/6week, I got a prescription & haven't had one since.

pugworthy 6y ago

When I first had one many years ago, I thought detached retina, as my sister had them. An interesting observation RE: the visual aura. My mother has had migraines for years, and just had some surgery involving anesthesia. Afterwards she had very frequent visual migraine auras along with a certain amount of post-anesthesia brain fog, which both lasted about 24-36 hours.