My First Ever Visual Aura - A Week After Pontificating About “Check Your Vision Now!”

Well, this feels a little bit ironic - a week on from posting a piece on how to check your own vision, I’m experiencing what I think must be an ocular / visual migraine.

A typical Wednesday morning - up at five to five to get a couple of cups of coffee, 5mg creatine, 75mg Aspirin and a supermarket version of Berocca (an effervescent vitamin and mineral supplement).

A half-hour drive to the gym for a HIIT class at 6, a bit more cardio (and sweating!) than usual, but pretty much a standard class.  The drive home was ok (calling in at the supermarket for some yoghurt and “protein bread”, then I disconnected my son’s car from it’s trickle charge in anticipation of getting it to the garage.  The trickle charge had done it’s thing (the power steering warning light has gone off, indicating it was probably a battery problem rather than a genuine steering problem). So, no more driving required.  Just as well.  I’m suddenly aware of a blank patch to the top left of my vision.  No floaters, thank goodness.  Then I see a bright, shimmering arc at the edge of the blank patch, which enlarges and slowly slips downward, expanding as it does.  There’s no pain, no panic - just fascination, really.  I’ve heard patients describe these things and wonder will it progress to a full-blown migraine with crushing headache, sickness and so on … but so far it’s all visual.  Wondering what I can do to calm things down, I put the kettle on and raid the fridge.  Cuppa tea and half a quiche and I’m thinking that maybe my vision is beginning to settle.  Less brightness over the the left side and maybe the blank spot is shrinking?  Can’t be sure, but I know I’m still not fit to drive.  Thinking maybe I’ll lie down for a bit.  Make the mistake of picking up something off the floor and as I stand, the full hit of a zig-zag silver flashing semi circle over to my left makes me realise that this thing is far from resolved.  Still no floaters (yay!) and just the beginnings of a headache to my left side right at the back.  As the headache kicks in, I realise the visual aura is fading again.  My left eye is definitely duller than the right, but the lack of floaters keeps me confident there’s no retinal tear or detachment to worry about.

So all the above was written as the aura was developing.  It’s taken 48 hours for me to feel reasonably normal. The headache still hasn’t quite gone, but the vision is ok and I’m not feeling spaced out today.  Two days pretty much written off.  I keep telling myself “thank god I didn’t start with migraine years ago, when I had a full time job and a boss to answer to’.  My wife had migraines for many years, up until she had surgery to repair a hole in her heart (following a mini stroke).  No migraines for a decade afterwards … which made me wonder at the time - were her visual disturbances etc genuinely just migraines … but we’ll never know, I suppose.

Today, it just feels great to be able to get on with stuff - including this very self-indulgent piece of writing.  Thanks for sticking with me thus far.

Any lessons I’m trying to pass on here?

Just that staying calm has to be the most important thing.  I’ve spoken to someone today who’s similar experience of disturbed vision cost them a day in A&E.  Having phoned their surgery, a panicked receptionist had told them to go to hospital “just to be on the safe side”.  After a basic check for signs of stroke, the triage nurse listed them as being a low priority at the hospital emergency department. Fast forward through 8 hours of hanging around and there was finally a brief eye examination - after the vision had resolved.  Discharged with no definite diagnosis at the end, just “probably a migraine”.

If there had been floaters in my vision, or the patch of lost vision was only in one eye, I’d have been getting an optometrist’s advice to check for retinal damage very promptly.

And without the headache, I might’ve been more thorough in checking myself for evidence of stroke (weakness on one side, slurred speech etc).  But as things are right now, it looks like my decision to just sleep it off was the best choice I could have made.

Migraine is certainly no joke, but I’m happy with the idea that it’s just a one-off. I can’t think of anything specific that sparked it off, so I’m just planning to carry on as usual. If it becomes a regular thing, then I’ll do what all migraine sufferers are advised to do - keep a diary and look for potential triggers.