@@DrRupaWong iv had them years I'm 48 had first probably at 10 but my first aura was at school reading my eyes went could not see then banging headache I always thought it was because of my injury till the Internet told me what it was now I don't panic but not nice when one comes on without notice thankyou for response
I get the streaming zigzag aura. Found it interesting that my ophthalmologist said if you see the aura both when your eyes are open & closed then it’s not an eye issue but a neural & sensory issue. Thank you for a very informative video. It surprised me as to how many people never heard of this. I was having difficulty explaining the experience to others.
I see them with both closed and open eye. That is interesting what your ophthalmologist said...Id never read or heard that before and I'm still so confused by whether this is something occurring in the eye or in the brain. If it's a neural and sensory issue, did your doctor say what could or should be done to help it, or to stop it from happening? I too have been surprised by how many people have never heard of this or had it happen to them. It is definitely hard to explain to someone who's never had it happen to them .I find it scary still even after experiencing it off and on for many years now. I hope yours lessen/go away. Take care
Not sure if this how I’m supposed to reply. My doctor said since it’s not a physical eye problem there is nothing to do & it’s not dangerous or damaging. I find it happens less when my health is stronger.
I suffer from the zigzag aura (no headache) as well. I am a designer and sometimes if I look at a bright screen after looking at a dark one (or white type on black background), or even if I look out the window and catch a glint of sun coming off a car, it sets it off. I can't see my screen for about 45 minutes and afterwards I feel like someone has punched me in the eye. Took forever for me to convey to someone what I was suffering. I finally drew a picture of the aura and someone knew what it was!
@@stephanie4569 One thing I found helps, but isn't super practical, is to look at a random pattern. Basically I discovered this while sitting in a restaurant. I looked outside and a car door reflected the sun into my eye and the aura started. The restaurant had one of those bumpy walls with a waterfall running down it. When I looked at the water bubbling down, I couldn't see the aura and my eyes didn't hurt. I looked away and it came back. I've found a video of a waterfall played on a very dim iPad can do the trick nearly as well!
I call these eye migraines “kaleidoscope migraines” because for me it starts with a tiny aura but eventually takes over my vision. Sometimes I get them with or without a headache or migraine.
when I’m stressed out, and have really bad Anxiety and panic attacks i noticed my eye floaters, i also used to get a flash of lights on the corner of my eyes
Interesting video. I have been seeing these auras since I was a kid, around 3 years old, I was in kinder. When I told my parents about it, they didn't believe me. No one, not even the doctors believe me. I grew up and stopped mentioning it to anyone. Until about 15 years ago I went to a hospital for my daughter's ophthalmologist, the medical assistant, very nice lady apologized to me, she looked distracted, and she told me she was having an aura migrane (ocular migrane), then I asked what was it, and when she explained to me I told her I see the same thing but people always thought I was crazy (including the doctors). Since that day, I was a bit relieved that I wasn't the only one seeing things. I still haven't mentioned it to my new doctors. I had these episodes all my life. I have no headaches, I've had very few mild headaches in my life. The aura I see becomes so large it's like a portal to another universe, and the zig zag is more defined like an enlarged chase bank symbol in rainbow colors with white flashing lights spectrum all around and in the center I can see the tiny picture of the focal object I'm supposed to be seeing. I'm an older woman and I have had many of these episodes, I lost count. Thank you.
I'm so sorry you weren't believed! I am so relieved you were able to find a doctor that could help you and you don't have many headaches. Thank you for sharing your experience! Someone else may be able to relate.
I've had these too...yellow and blk zig zag lines that only go away once the circle is completed...no headache...also in lat 60's..my daughter gets them with the headache....I never told Dr..just thought I was lucky to not get the migrane headache
Damn this was exactly the same story i have but with headaches too and i had them since i was 11.Doctors didnt really understand (probably because i couldnt explain well) .Theyre painful and thought it wasnt big of deal as they would go away eventually.
I had my 1st migraine in 8th grade. It started with aura, blind spots, loss of reflexes, temperature drop, and when I spoke, I didn't make sense. Then the pain- like my head was in a vice that kept tightening. Then the dry heaves. My mom picked me up from school, long story short, we ended up in the neurosurgeon's office. Classic migraine. I had one every 2 yrs. Until college. Then 1 a year. Finally abated in my 40's. I was on medication - for when I got a migraine, but had to take it before the pain started - otherwise I would throw it up. I want to mention bright lights are also a trigger for me, so I always wear sunglasses. I now get auras, but the headache is much more subdued. I usually get by with a migra-stick (essential oils). For some reason, even though my doctor writes my script, I can't get my migraine medication (Amerge). So I keep a migra-stick and hope I never get a classic migraine again! My eye doctor continues to monitor me for these.
Apparently I get the ophthalmic migraine. It’s usually without pain, I can see it with my eyes closed or open. It stays in the same area of sight and it looks like a half moon shaped kaleidoscope of colors. Thanks for the explanation 👍
I too have had these migraines all my life. They started around the age of 8. 71 years later I still get them. I was lucky enough to find out what they were many years ago. Nothing dangerous, but very annoying.
I've only had the visual aura, but not the pain. It scared the hell out of me the first time I experienced it. I was relieved to discover that it only lasts for 20 minutes or so and was not permanent. I've had them for the last 30+ years at it has never gotten any worse. It also only happens a few times a year. It starts off where I notice I can't read as well, like some of the letters become invisible, then a little geometric, zig zaggy flashing lines appear, they pulsate and grow larger and then gradually they disappear. If you experience anything like this, I still recommend going to a doctor to make sure it's nothing more serious. But I want people to know that it is not necessarily a permanent thing. I've noticed that things like drinking coffee, getting exposed to excessive glare, or spending too much time looking at my computer, iPhone, TV screen can be an issue. I recommend just relaxing, getting away from any monitors for a bit and letting it pass without freaking out is the best thing to do. I still drink coffee and have not had to change much of my habits as it is not a constant, debilitating thing, just a temporary and infrequent phenomenon. Also, I think it's genetic as my mom and a cousin on that side of the family had the same thing.
yes sun will trigger mine, stress i believe does too. These started around 12, with the headache, i was fitted with glasses to relax the nerves or muscles behind the eye…i can’t remember what the Dr said…the glasses weren’t for vision, it did help. Now I usually just have the aura, once in a great while I get the headache
@@Kate98755 I'm so glad you don't get the headache. I'm definitely happy I don't have the pain, just the occasional aura. Had one this morning, but as usual, it passed in about 20 minutes.
I get them a couple of times a week but I don't find them super annoying just mildly so while the visual artifact is in my focal point. After it drifts to the side it no longer affects my vision significantly. Getting them diagnosed took a while. the first time I mentioned them to an ophthamologist he said it was just floaters. The next was an optometrist who said no not floaters, it sounds like retinal migraines. And that led me to a wiki page for Scintillating Scotoma and Ophyhalmic migraine. None of that gets rid of them but it's nice to know that they aren't something to worry about.
I thought I was going blind the first time I had migraine with aura. I was about 15 and it was terrifying. Seeing the aura illustrations in the video actually made me panic and feel sick even though I'm not having a migraine right now, I just hate them so much! Thank you for the informative video.
me as well especially since i had eye surgery once before. i really thought i was going blind in one eye. but i’ve had them every couple years or so now.
Mine first began when I was 15 as well! I laughed at your comment because I remember when I first had one I called my mother telling her I was going blind. So sorry you suffer with these too. 🤍
Thanks to you, Doctor Wong, I now know why I have zigzag auras occasionally with no headache. Have had them for years and mentioned them to several doctors, including an ophthalmologist, but no one could come up with a reason or explanation. I was so relieved to find your video after all these years! Thank you.
I'm so glad you were able to find this video and get some answers. Next time you see your doctor show them this video. I hope your local doctor can help you out. Thank you so much for being here.
As a physician myself, I am surprised that your doctors, especially the neurologist, didn’t know those auras were migraines. I have had migraines with visual auras, without auras, and auras without the headache.
Thank you for making this excellent video. I have cerebral palsy and ocular migraines. It taught me more about my migraines in 12 minutes than any other doctor has told me in the last 50 years.
I was born 1943. My sister and I had similar symptoms when we went through puberty in the mid 50’s. Mom always called them “sick headache “ and sometimes we stayed home from school. My headaches typically don’t have pain but the flashing zigzag aura is common. We sometimes would experience a numbing on one side of the body, arm,leg and face…even that side of my tongue would feel larger. My menopause began early and the symptoms increased again, so I’ve always thought hormones were the cause. I’m 80 now and rarely experience any symptoms except the aura which is very short in duration
This is how I self medicate. Drink a Coke or Pepsi and take aspirin or Ibuprophen. I do that as soon as I know I am having a migrane. This knocks down the migraine 90%. I used to have everything you described. I have been doing this for over 30 years. I have never had a problem since. I usually get migraines about 5 times a year. A doctor actually told an aquaintance of mine this self medicating trick. Excedrine Migraine is filled with caffeine. The same thing. Just make sure you do this ASAP when you see this coming on.
I've had those auras intermittently with no headache since 2004; they come rarely and are very annoying when they're here. I like the animation you used for the auras as it looks exactly like how you've depicted it. 🙂
Clearest yet most succinct and comprehensive explanation of these type of migraines that I have ever heard. I didn't even realize there were three types and I have been suffering since the 1990s and even my ophthalmologist did not differentiate between the three, thank you 🙏
Omg I have suffered with this for years! My eye doctor told me they were migraines. I will have an aura that's very zigzaggy and it comes to a full circle. After it goes away I have a horrible headache. I thought I was crazy! He said that I should keep Excedrin migraine around and pop one as soon as the aura begins, because the headache is soon to follow. Wow, thank you so much!! My kids, husband, and coworkers know that I deal with this but they don't understand it.
I've had migraines since I was 14, now coming up to 60 & this is the best explanation I have ever seen. I have gone from head migraines to zig zag/aura, the ice pick in the eye is a brilliant analogy, to retinal migraines. These changes have occurred from teenager period hormones, to having pregnancy hormones to menopausal & all other triggers inbetween. As each stage of my life as affected my ocular migraines I will say that if I notice my sight is 'off' or a blind spot starts if I get those painkillers taken within 5 mins the migraine does not go full blown. Thank you for this vid.
My story is pretty much the same as yours. I started getting migraines when I was in my early teens. I get the zigzag aura (or the "light show" as I call it) and it's my warning that it's time to take a T3, which has time to kick in before the pain starts. I've been on antidepressants for anxiety since I was 25 and after I started taking those the pain and occurrence of these headaches eased up. I started keeping a "diary" of my headaches, the date and time that they start, the things I was doing or eating at the time. It helped me to realize that they mostly seem to start at the same time as "time of the month". I'll be 52 in August and am at the beginning of menopause and last month was the first time I had a headache since June 2021.
That's good to know. I didn't know that. I been having migraines for over 20 years. Sometimes with an aura but mostly without. I hate auras. I'm so glad I don't have them with all migraines. I take maxalt 10mg. for mine and it works. I really don't want injections or infusions to prevent. I average 7 migraines a month or sometimes less.
I'd had regular migraines every couple of years throughout my life. Then, during perimenopause, the ocular migraines without pain started and occurred frequently. They stopped after a few years so I think hormonal changes were key, at least for me. Thank goodness for sage advice from a good doctor. It saved me a lot of worry.
I have had migraines for as long as I can remember. The doctor told my mother I just didn't know how to express myself. As I would get them around birthdays and Christmas really bad and would have to go to bed after all the excitement. As an adult taking CoQ10 200 mg not for migraines but because I heard it was good for your heart seemed to really curve those migraines. Now I would always get what I called Kaleidoscope vision, no doctor ever knew what I was talking about this is the very first time I've ever seen anything that address that. My mother had also always had the floaters and someone told her oh that your eyeball deteriorating I was mortified by this. This goes to show how little people really know. Thank you for this video clears up a lot of things
I am glad you were able to find something that helps lessen the migraines. I'm very sorry the doctor was not able to give your mother the correct medical advice on your behalf. I'm really glad to help. Thank you for letting me know. 💛
Ask you Doctor or Neurologist to consider the drug Propranolol. I suffered with migraines for 30 years...went to a Neurologist and he had me try a drug (forget the name of this drug because, well it didn't work for me) and then we tried Propranolol. It's been a year and a half now and I haven't had a migraine since starting on this drug. I know that everyone responds differently to drugs but it's worth a try.
I have had that kaleidoscope type of colors that resembles a fractal changing shape & color for as long as I can remember. I'm 72. One Opthomoligist told me it was because of doing drugs in the 60's! Never did that & never went back to him. In 2009, I was driving home through our small town (25 mph) and a gray 'curtain' came down in my vision in both eyes for what seemed a long time but maybe only 30sec or so. I went to a Cardiologist, Neurologist & Opthomoligist. Nothing certain but that was the first time I ever heard of an ocular migraine. Now I don't see the colors any more but when I get up at night I see concentric yellow circles on black background. Less often now. My first migraine headache happened in college after being at a hockey game - ice & bright lights. Those headaches only happened until I was 35ish. All of Dr Wong's video & everyone's comments are very helpful. (This may come as from Ron but this is actually his wife.) -Gaye
@@ronanderson5790 they are helping,Gaye! I couldn't understand why not one person knew what I was talking about. My son is 27yrs old I seems to have inherited my migraines but only when he is very stressed. But I can tell him what I found and about what good people like you shared. That sounded very scary when driving and a curtain came down. I'm glad you are well and found this video. Have a wonderful night. Thank you for sharing
@@dellzywillis3001 Thanks for your nice comment. Yes, the 2009 incident was terrifying as I was going through a school crossing. Thankfully school was cancelled that day& no one around except other drivers. When I could see again I sure got a lot of dirty looks. My oldest daughter (47) has had migraine headaches & ocular ones as well since college. She recently mentioned that she has been getting botox every 3 months and recently tried accupunture. With botox, she says she has a migraine only once a month now. I hope this may help your son and you, too. Gaye
I has been getting an increasing degree of ocular migraines (which sometimes includes moments of blindness across my entire field of vision). Despite having almost normal vision (20/25) and only mild astigmatism, glasses correcting the astigmatism have been incredibly helpful to reduce my migraines down to those triggered by food and hormonal cycles!
It is amazing to read that you have had total loss of vision. It once happened to me for about one minute and I never connected it to a symptom of migraines! It was terrifying. Darkness just came upon my vision.
I started having these after suffering a vertebral stroke due to a dissection in my brain stem artery between C1 and C2. Totally misdiagnosed by 4 doctors. After experiencing an ocular aura along with hindered speech I thought it was another stroke. Since then my neurologist has prescribed me to increase my magnesium and add B2 and also Alpha Lipoic Acid. Happy to say two years later and through trial and error I have learned my triggers and the auras are under control. Good luck to everyone who suffers from these. One major factor is to stay hydrated.
I'm so sorry you were misdiagnosed. This is already a difficult condition and to be not understood can be very stressful. I am thankful you identified your triggers. Thank you for sharing.
Having my very first ophthalmic migraines right now. No pain at all, just realized I could not see sharp enough to read in both eyes. Gradually, over the last twenty minutes or so, the kaleidoscope moved away from the center of my eyes to the periphery. I can now read with my glasses, and the aura is heading out of my field of view. Very scary having never experienced it before.
I have the symptoms of opthalmic migraine, an aura, shimmering spot in both eyes which grows into a crescent shape affecting significant areas of vision, lasting approximately half an hour, with no headache whatsoever. I've had these episodes since my mid teens, was examined by a consultant opthalmologist at age 16 but no diagnosis was reached. It's only recently I discovered that it's a form of migraine. I'm now in my 70s and have had more episodes recently. They were rare in my 30s, 40s & 50s.
Hey David! I'm sorry you have struggled with this for most of your life. I can relate. I am thankful you were able to get a diagnosis. Thank you for sharing with us. 💗
Same. I get them about once a year. I also think dehydration is what brings mine on. They last about 45 mins. If they happen when I’m driving I have to pull over because of the tunnel vision
I am so glad someone is speaking on this subject! I have retinal migraines and it was so scary when I first got them. They would come on so suddenly and it felt like no one could help me. I went to multiple drs and everyone was treating them as regular migraines. I had extensive tests and nothing. Luckily one day my glasses had broken during one migraine and I had an emergency appointment with the eye doctor. She truly saved my life because she was the only one who figured out how to help me.
Thank you for letting me know your experience. I am glad to share what I know. It has also impacted me and I know how hard it is! Thank you for watching!
@@sanyokitty3975 She explained the possible triggers of this type of migraine. When she did I started to examine my daily life. Found out I was extremely stressed and on the wrong type of birth control. Once I started to keep my stress down and changed my birth control I hadn’t had a migraine since. But that was for me because everyone’s body is different a different remedy maybe needed for someone else.
My first migraine occurred around age 12-13. Key hormonal time in my life. Auric migraine's have been few and far between but quite disturbing and have usually been triggered by stress. Hormones and stress. Stay well my fellow migraine sufferers.✨
I get the sparkly zig zag variety, no pain. I drew a bunch of pictures for my doctor, and that's how she diagnosed it. I used to get the horrible painful ones before menopause, with the only visual symptom being that shadows might be more purple than usual. Thanks for this video! Reading the comments has been really reassuring
Drawing a picture is a great idea. I'm so sorry you have suffered from this. Thank you so much for being here and sharing with us. I'm so glad the comments gave you some peace!
I suffer from ocular migraine since I was born. I always feel it's coming usually, I see a bright spot moving in my eyesight from one side to another and then it's just matter of when it starts. When I was younger, I had migraines like 10 times per month. After consulting my doctor, I have started to do everything regularly sleeping, eating, sport activity, and now I have like 2 migraines per month. The worst part about ocular migraine is that you can't even see in 3D, you just partially see space around you. It's dangerous when you drive a car for example. I can't even read properly because those stuff I see during aura doesn't allow me to. The aura lasts about an hour, and then there is 10 minute window before my head starts to hurt.
That is exactly what I was diagnosed with today. I wish there was anything to help that. I just stop everything I am doing when it starts and go to bed till the following day.
This is the first time I actually felt someone understood my migraine symptoms! Excellent video with so much helpful information and details! I definitely suffer from ocular migraines and mine seem to stem from hormone changes, stress, and anxiety.
I have no idea why this video was recommended but I'm near tears. I actually went to ER several years ago after a particularly bad episode and was turned away with nothing. I've had the opthalmic migraines for years - I get them more often under stress at work. I used to get the horrible ice-pick pain but that stopped when I was about 50(61 now). The zig zag and partial blindness and water-blur remains, with no pain. The dry-eye connection is also mind-blowing. I have Sjogren's and several other autoimmune disorders and my eyes are so dry that I can't tolerate Restasis. Evoxac pills helped, but can't take them since my heart attack. Thank you Dr. Wong. You made a difference in my life today - subscribed!
I was about to comment how grateful I was about finding out the dry eye connection. I have Sjögren’s and some other “fun” autoimmune conditions that I have only relatively recently been diagnosed with. I’m still learning how everything fits in with the broken jigsaw puzzle that’s my body. I’m 41 now but I was diagnosed with migraines just before my 8th birthday. I’m currently taking an anti epileptic for my migraines as the prophylactic and am stuck on the NHS waiting list to restart Botox again. That’s the best combination I’ve found that works for me so far, as I am not allowed to take Triptans. I’m currently hovering around the 20-25ish per month mark. I know that sounds like the prophylactic isn’t working, but it’s made it so that I’m normally only loosing 1 day a week on average to a migraine and I can struggle through the rest. Before it was 3-4 days lost.
I was starting to freak out before watching your videos. I feel better now. Explains a lot! Thank you! I have had temporary clouded vision loss in one eye at a time. I have had migraines almost every day of my life!
I'm an ophthalmic migraine sufferer but rarely have a headache (diagnosed by my eye doctor). They last about 30 minutes and it looks like when I was a kid looking up through a glass coffee table. Like there was a water drop that slowly spreads out and then is gone once it reaches the edge of my vision. I really appreciate you making this video.
I'm glad to share. Thanks for letting me know your experience with these migraines. If you have anything else you would like me to discuss feel free to leave a suggestion anytime. 😊
Thank you so much for this video! I experienced an aura out of one eye with no headache, and no one knew what i was talking about. I called my eye doctor’s office and just received very little concern about it. This explanation really helps me; I have floaters, occasional migraines with pain in one eye, etc. The triggers you’ve mentioned and some of the solutions to help manage really add some context for me and help me to understand how to be my own best advocate. It’s also nice to know I’m not dying or seeing something supernatural 😂. I’m joking but very serious. Thanks again. I’ve never heard of this before, so it was hard to find information at first.
I know it's been a while since this was uploaded, but I wanted to say that this was very informative. I get opthalmic migraines (aura - generally shimmering multi-colored lights - with no pain) a few times a year, but luckily I've never had a migraine with actual pain. The first time it happened, many years ago, I thought I was losing my vision! I had no idea what was going on, but smartly I went to my eye doctor and she explained what had happened. I find, for me, certain lighting conditions can trigger it, as can certain kinds of busy visual fields, but I don't really find the various foods you mentioned triggering (thank goodness!). Thanks for this!
Mine are more silent as well with auras that are triggered too with lights especially when waking up and seeing my phone in the dark, driving in the dark and catching the taillights/headlights or fluorescent lighting.
@DrRupaWong Thank you for such a great comprehensive video - it took me a long time to work out what was happening and find a medical term (aura) for it, and even then I've not found such a helpful video on the topic until I found your one today! I get ophthalmic migraines (silent migraine with aura) and have found that taking 25mg of Quetiapine (Seroquel) when they begin makes them stop - what do you think to that as a solution, Dr Rupa? I'm autistic with ADHD and really can't cope with an hour of riding out the aura due to the sensory overload, as it's both eyes but also in my head (I can still see the aura flashing if I close my eyes, and my mind feels confused). My aura triggers are very similar to @neils123 and @starbucksjunkay, especially with sudden changes in light (particularly blue fluorescent light), flashing/strobe light, sudden changes in ambient temperature (e.g. walking in the dark/cold and then entering a warm, brightly lit place) ...and plain old stress. This means I have up to 7 in a week. I get normal migraines as well (extreme light sensitivity, intense pain in my head and vomiting), though they're less frequent. The green liquid-gel capsule Advils (or any liquid-gel capsule ibuprofen) work really well for those, as long as I recognise it coming on quickly enough to take the Advil. I've had my eyes dilated and checked by my ophthalmologist; and my psychiatrist has consulted with a neurologist: verdict from these specialists is my auras are caused by pre-seizure electrical activity in my brain, without going on to become a proper seizure. (edited to correct spelling of ophthalmic and ophthalmologist!)
When I first started expirencing visual migraines I was just getting towards the end of high school, I genuinely thought I was going blind and was terrified. Thank you for this video, it was very informative and helpful 💜
The exact same thing happened to me, in high school. I'm 65 and I still get these opthalmic migraines. No headache. Last about 15-45 minutes. Just the symptoms described in the video. No eye doc has seen anything unusual.
Thank you so much. I have several ophthalmic migraines a year, but when the number increased to several times a week, I was directed to a neurological ophthalmologist and was reassured that all was benign. I suffer (and that is the EXACT term!) from migraines, first diagnosed when I was aged nine, for days at a time. Mine are on the right side, and I learned early on that when the vision blurred in my left eye, a migraine was less then an hour away. As I am now 70, I know that medications have improved, but at the time I was either violently throwing up, or in a darkened room for days. I have had many medical interventions for dry eye syndrome, and the ophthalmic migraines are back to about one a month. There was no cause found for the surge. I’m glad that you found some relief. Whenever someone says “Oh, I get headaches all the time.”, I know they have never experienced a migraine. It is not just a headache! If you are unfortunate enough to have migraines, seek medical help! It is literally life changing.
I've had them for nearly 50yrs. I get the aura's usually with a dull headache but I take strong daily pain meds. Before I had pain killers daily, I'd get them with super bad headaches that last 2 days. Anxiety with bright lights, phone screens, TV screens or bright reflections while driving triggers them normally. Sometimes I get them just as I'm waking up so not sure what that's about. Great video, very helpful for my wife who has just started getting them, she was freaking out but I helped her through it.
This was brilliant. Thank you Dr. Rupa Wong. Finally after 70 living years on Planet Earth I've finally discovered what I have been suffering from. I first went to my doctor in 1963 at age 13, complaining of severe headaches and flashing zig-zagging lights, which lasted about an hour. They had no answer or name for my affliction. But at 73 now at last I know it's called ocular migraine (with flashing zig zag lights accompanied with just a slight headache.) Dr. Rupa Wong you seem to take a lot of medication for your ocular migraine!! By the time I was 30 (1980) I found I could gain considerable relief using Buddhist meditation which is a psychology and philosophy, and not necessarily just a religion, altho' it can be. It is ironic that I'm an Anglo-Saxon-Celtic UK citizen but I use Buddhist meditation and psychology to reduce stress. I take no medication for my slight ocular migraine.
I only learned the name of my occular migraines in my forties. I don't remember exactly when. I didn't have occular migraines before that time. I have lots of triggers and they are all differnt and cause different lights and shapes.
I am so glad I have found this video. My son (14) has been dealing with this for a year. We have not been able to get any help to find out what it is. Is has caused him so much anxiety. It scares him so bad when this happens. I am sooooo thankful you made this video.
I’ve had migraines since I was a child until approximately 10 years ago. I am 75 now. I got floaters a a few years ago in my right eye and started occasionally to have these zigzag, I guess, auras in the same eye which lasts for a max of maybe 3 minutes. I never new why. I had no headache with it. I thank you for this explanation. ❤
I had never heard about the migraine/floaters connection before! I typically get 6 migraines per month. I also have floaters that I find very distracting, especially when reading. Interesting to learn about the connection!
It's super frustrating that no one ever mentions sugar or carbs as a migraine trigger, it took me YEARS to find my triggers because of that. I regularly partake of other 'trigger' foods and I haven't had a migraine in months, but before, it was bimonthly if not once a week. Pain relief never helped, even high dose ibuprofen. I've always had that zigzag 'racing ants' type of aura which is a helpful warning to finish what I'm doing so I can go somewhere dark and quiet.
Interesting. I am 72 and have had opthalmic migraines with no headaches since about age 45. Usually one a month. I eat a lots of the foods she mentioned as aggravating migraines. Seven months ago I had a lung blood clot and during blood testing they discovered diabetes. I love sweets and carbs. I mean big time. I have drastically reduced both of those because of the diabetes diagnosis. Here is the interesting part. I haven't had a migraine since my diet change,
My aura/ocular migraines (my dr called them focal point migraines)are 100% blood sugar related, been having them since I was a teenager. Swapped from combined contraceptive pill to progesterone only, didn’t really make a difference. Then a couple of years ago I went on a lower carb Mediterranean diet, incl Time restricted eating with 16 hr overnight fasts, lost a few stone, and they stopped.
Sugar alone doesn't guarantee a migraine for me, but it certainly makes me more susceptible to one, possibly because a large dose of sugar can cause generalized inflammation, and may interfere with your zinc levels (I don't know if that factor influences migraines). A friend of mine in school was getting migraines progressively more often, finally quit drinking Coca Cola (she'd been drinking a LOT of it) and stopped having the migraines. Don't know if that was because of the sugar, some other ingredient, or the dehydration that comes from drinking lots of caffeine instead of water.
I’m surprised you didn’t mentioned bright light and acute reflections of light as a trigger. I’m convinced that is what initiates my aura migraines 90% of the time.
Carlos, thank for your feedback and for sharing your experience! That is interesting. You definitely know your body better than anyone else and it is great you have learned your trigger. I hope that can help you avoid them for the most part.
@@DrRupaWong Thank you for replying Dr. Wong! I wish I knew how to avoid that trigger, but it just happens without me having any knowledge at the onset. 😞 I had the worst one this morning after dropping my daughter off at school this bright sunny morning and I ended up in her school parking lot for the next 2 hours because I couldn’t drive. And yes, I also have those floaters everywhere. Very annoying sometimes. Thanks so much for taking the time to address this. Not much information out there on this subject because it’s such an unknown as far as what specifically causes these.
@@l0raxbread438 I think I have the same thing. I don’t know what causes it! I just bought a glucose meter I’m looking into maybe low blood sugar is causing my migraines.
I have had Ocular Migraines since 1995. I have blurry vision and blind spots. If I am driving, I immediatley stop and have to wait them out. Fortunatly I dont have them very often but enough to know what they are. You are the first YT Doctor to mention them and I thank you.
Thank you for all this great information! I started getting migraines since I was 8(when I first got my glasses) so I just always assumed everyone with glasses had them too😆 Turns out its been retinal migraine 😵💫
I don't get painful migraines as often as I used to but at one point, I remember having a floater that was particularly bothersome. It was the first time I'd encountered this and thought it was significant. A Co-Worker had also noticed that one of my pupils was dilated much more than the other. So, I made an appointment with an ophthalmologist. He did the whole works, dilated exam, everything. He asked me if I suffered from migraines. At the time I was still encountering pretty painful ones and answered affirmatively. He explained that my floater and the unilateral dilation of my pupils were related to my migraines. I've never heard anyone else mention the dilation thing before.
Did the floater resolve? If it did, did the migraines also resolve once the floater resolved? I'm so sorry you had such painful migraines. Thank you for sharing.
I went to my eye doctor and he said that everything seems to be okay, my eyes are healthy..Then, i saw your vid and found that what i did experience was an ophthalmic migraine. Thank you for this very informative video doc!🥰
My personal exp: I was still in high school around 17 year old. I was hanging out with friends at the school's robotics club and I noticed a white "smudge" in my center of my vision and was weirded out. I went to the bathroom to rinse my eyes but that didn't do jack. It was followed by green and purple zig zags in my periferal vision and I called my mom to pick me up. Granted I kept it to myself and I just had my eyes closed the whole time. I planned to sleep it off and it was gone by the time I arrived home. I was relieved but I then felt a horrible headache set in and I was miserable until I finally managed to get some shut eye and woke up fine. Never got checked (I know it's foolish) and it hasn't happened till this day 5 years later
This sounds exactly like a migraine with aura! So if this happens again, you can take paracetamol or ibuprofen to get rid of the headache before it even happened :) I get this kind of headache if it’s too bright, but now I seem to only get eye migraines :/
Thank you for this video! The pictures of auras and the underwater view is exactly what I have, I've never seen any other video show it so realisticallly. I've had painful migraines all my life, with auras usually. Now I'm 71 and in surgical menopause and when my hormones dropped my painful migraines went away but I still get the ocular auras. They start as a tight ball in the center of my vision and I also sometimes have the underwater vision. I usually can't see whatever I am looking at, but have peripheral vision. Then as time goes by (20-40 minutes) the tight ball starts widening out to a ring that gets bigger and eventually works itself into my peripheral vision and the straight ahead vision returns to normal. Then the aura leaves my peripheral field of vision entirely. If I am driving I know to pull over and wait it out. I am so glad you are getting some relief finally. None of the things you mentioned worked for me when I was younger.
Thanks for clearing up this mystery for me. I have experienced what you have described as ophthalmic migraines occasionally for most of my life. The triggers are a mix of stress/anxiety and dehydration. Their duration is usually around 15 minutes, but can last as little as 5 minutes or as long as 45 minutes. One thing not mentioned in the video is rather than pain, I always experience a feeling tightness around my skull at eye level, like there is a tight-fitting metal band around the circumference of my head.
I'm so glad you are able to put a name to what you are experiencing now. It can be so frustrating to now know what is going on with your body. Next time you go to the doctor let them know you are having these. Thank you for sharing and I appreciate you being here!
Yes! This!! It's tough explaining that I have migraines "with no pain" because I feel like people think im making things up (or worse sometimes I think maybe It's all in my head) Don't get aura per se but it feels like my eyes are trying to shut themselves down and that tight band feeling too! Every once in a whole I get true pain, but it's something different for me most the time. Stress/anxiety/(and I am starting to think dehydration as well) are major factors
I had a serious brain injury 24 years ago but I still have very weird side effects. Ophthalmic migraines is a new one to me but I was quite relieved to know I wasn't going blind. For me it was like the right side of my vision in both eyes was a kaleidescope. Since it was equal in both eyes and remained regardless of whether my eyes were open or shut, I knew it was a brain issue and not an eye issue. I'm really lucky because at least at this point there's no related pain. I had a friend who used to get cluster headaches and that was horrific.
Thank you very much for this information. I have had ocular migraines for over forty years. Thankfully, no pain, but occasionally feel slightly nauseous after the aura moves out of my line of vision. I rarely have a painful “regular” headaches. I am thankful for that!
I've only had an ocular migraine once and it was an horrific experience. It started out with blindness in my right eye and then moved on to the aura. It then transitioned to the most debilitating migraine I've ever had in my life. It was a 3 hour drive home - I was not driving - and I was seriously out of it the whole trip. The weather that day was cloudy and rainy and I believe that did affect my migraine.
Thank you doctor, I am 22 and just had my 3rd migraine yesterday at work. My symptoms always start with blind spots in my vision which leads to nausea and a crippling headache. Yesterday I had to drive home 1.5 hrs with a migraine and I actually started crying because of the pain. I should go to the doctor to get checked out thank you so much!
My daughter of 7 complained about pain in her eyes and throbbing headaches. As a migraine sufferer myself I recognised this as a migraine, the same steps helped her and after a day resting it was gone. I'm glad I came across your video, I do think it's better to get it checked out.
Listen, this is the best explanation I have ever heard in the 15 years that I have been having these migraines, so THANK YOU Dr. Wong! I also had migraines more than 15 days a month. I have the aura, usually with no pain & that is a sign for me to take my meds. I usually also become very clumsy & I start dropping things and bumping into furniture. I also need a quiet, dark room. I would also get very weak in the knees, experience mood swings and general fatigue. I have tried Relpax, but nothing beyond that. Acupuncture would help a lot. The nausea would get so bad that I would end up in the ER because I would throw up everything and could not swallow the pain pills or even the water, it was bad. I also have Endometriosis and Adenomyosis, so just before and after periods, my migraines would be worse. I have since had surgery and my migraines persist, but I will say they are way less painful and do not last as long. I now just have about 4 Panadol extra strength pills & try to have a rest. Again thank you so much for the explanation. Love from Trinidad & Tobago.
I'm so glad to help! Thank you so much for letting me know this was helpful and sharing your experience. I'm sorry you struggle with these migraines too!
I had strange visual activity going on and I mentioned this to my opthamologist during my yearly exam.. After carefully looking at my eye health, she was very concerned that I was going to have a stroke. The next day I did have a stroke and ended up in the hospital on my birthday. That was six years ago. After 17 hospitalizations and several strokes I have learned all my triggers and what food to eat. I had to learn what meds would work, what side effects I had to tolerate, and a routine that would help me avoid future strokes, which apparently run in my family. This video helps me to understand better how to watch for impending issues.
Hi, Linda! I'm sorry to hear about what you've been through, I also had a stroke 4 years ago and many ocular migranes prior to that. If you could share what kind of medication you found works for you, I'd really appreciate it. I've been on Aspirin all these years, but it has too many side effects. I'm thinking about switching to Pycnogenol, but I have a feeling my doctor will not be on the same page. Stay healthy and strong!
@@patrasculaura8988 I no longer have to take prescribed meds but I have to limit my screen time. My eyes are adversely affected by the light of any screen. It's fortunate I'm retired or it would make work life tricky. I practice silent meditation three times a day for a few minutes. I didn't like the side effects of the prescribed meds and tried every other "natural" opportunity to decrease my stress. Now I live in a state with legal cannabis and I find that helps calm my brain too.
This was a very informative and detailed presentation. I have had ocular migraines since age 19. Thankfully the headaches tailed off after about twenty years. The shimmering, squiggly, C-shaped auras continue over fifty years later without pain. I was shocked when you said you had up to 15 in a month! Perhaps time will afford you relief, also.
Thank you so much, Rick! The injectable medication has really helped me. I'm so sorry you also struggle with this. I appreciate you being here and sharing your experience.
I'm now 67 and began having ocular migraines at age 41. In fact, I can recall the very day I first experienced it while staring over the shoulder of a colleague looking at her computer screen. Like Dr. Wong mentioned, mine would last for around 30-40 minutes and then disappear. I'm usually left with a dull headache for a few hours but nothing like the pain regular migraine sufferers have. A few years back I was dealing with the development of a rash on my cheek & hand that I could not, for the life of me, figure out the cause. My dermatologist was unable to help so after 5 months I did what we all do these days...turned to Google. Luckily, I ran across a comment from someone who had similar symptoms to mine and he said he discovered he had a vitamin D deficiency. I sent off an email to my PCP and asked if she would arrange for a blood test for me...which she did. Turned out my vitamin D level was low; which made sense because I've tried to keep out of sunlight since I've had a few issues with skin cancers. Anyway, I began taking vitamin D supplements and oddly enough, the rash cleared-up AND my migraines went away. That's not to say I haven't had a migraine since taking the supplements, because I have. But nowadays they occur maybe once a year and usually because I have not been taking my vitamin D pills regularly. Prior to taking the vitamin supplements I would usually have ocular migraines at least 4, and sometimes 6 times a year. So, for what it's worth to those of you who suffer from ocular migraines, you might ask your doctor for a blood test and if you're deficient like I was, see if this might help. I have to believe I'm not the only one.
My migraines are very different to these, they are intricately geometric and sometimes there’s no pain at all, the geometric aura oscillates and fills up the entire room, its bright, colourful and electric looking. Sometimes it flashes and looks like I’m staring into a different dimension. It was so scary the first few times when it became more vivid but when I realised nothing bad would happen I calmed down.
I had my first migraine when I was 7. (I’m 59 now). I have ophthalmic migraines and “regular” migraines in the right front hemisphere. The opthalmic migraine doesn’t always trigger a brain migraine and are pretty painless.
Thank you!!! I’ve been having migraines for about 20 years. They take the form of the ice pick through the right side of the forehead. They either go away with medication or they need me to go to bed and sleep it off. Never found a trigger :( but recently they’ve been getting a lot worse and the thing I’ve been trying to describe to my doctor is exactly what you showed in the ocular migraines part. The strange blurry band around the edge of your visual field. I can go back to my doctor prepared now :)
Yes, it started when I was living in Saudi Arabia. My contract did not allow me to use the doctors in the hospital but I chatted with the head of neurology about my one eye watering and the pain. The pain was only located around my right eye within the orbital bone. He suggested that I pay attention to how much water I was drinking and it worked! The headaches went away as soon as I stopped camping in the desert on weekends and drank water constantly.
I have ocular migraine without headache. I see the zigzagging/geometric shapes in one eye. I have the blind spot too. I see the shapes when i shut my eyes too
My first migraine was at age 7, with no adults taking them seriously, so I pretty much suffered in silence. I get the multicolored zigzag that starts out small and grows in a large circle often accompanied by a blind spot that moves across my field of vision. But I also get numbness instead of an aura where my lips, nose or side of my face will tingle and go numb, but not as frequently as I've gotten older. Other signs of a migraine include the consonants of words being backwards, or my fingertip going numb and the area of numbness travelling down and then up one finger to the next. One migraine episode was so bad with pain on one side and numbness on the other that my sister called an ambulance because my face was drooping. Very scary but helpful because the doctors finally put a name to what was going on and people stopped accusing me of trying to get out of housework (serious eye roll here) I have weird triggers...delayed reaction to stress (2 weeks after stressful event, like clockwork) or driving on sunny days when the sun flashes through the trees, and none of the food triggers - chocolate, caffeine and ibuprofen make the headache minimal if taken within 15 minutes. As I've gotten older, they have changed a bit. More aura than not. I learned in my early 20's that stressing out because I knew what was coming made them ten times worse, so remaining calm and relaxed helped so much. I rarely got them after my last child was born, and I thought maybe they were gone forever after about 7 years without one, but then menopause slapped me in the face and I get them about every 2 weeks now. They are nothing like they were, tho. I take 3 ibuprofen with chocolate and a caffeinated beverage and I'm good to go...unless one comes on while I sleep and I don't catch the aura - then I suffer for at least a day or 2.
I am so sorry you suffered in silence for so long. Hopefully, with more progress in this field, less children will have that experience. Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I really appreciate it. I am hoping these migraines lessen for you.
@@DrRupaWong compared to how they were in my teens and 20's, they are much easier to cope with. I rarely miss work because of them now, which is a blessing. My youngest daughter gets them too, and has since childhood, but because I knew what she was describing, I was able to help her. I had no idea that there were different types of migraine. Thank you for making this. Knowledge is power.
Nailed my symptoms. Scary as hell. Didn’t have them for a few years until a few months ago. Confusion and difficulty speaking…. Then headache and Worst…. Projectile vomiting started and was extreme. Jeeeze…. Thought my migraine horrors were over. I’m 71.
Very very helpful. Clear and reassuring. It is unusual to have a doctor giving advice about medical problems they know because they experience them themselves. Thank you so much, Dr. Wong. I suffer from ocular migraines, the aura kind, but not frequent and painless; otherwise I suffer from ARMD for which I get regular treatment. I have also started to experience a kind of numbness around the eye zone and I duly will mention the fact to my doctor at my next visit thanks to your video. Thank you for being a true doctor, caring about patients.
Wow this is so helpful. I started having ocular migraines 15 yrs ago and was just told it was hormonal. The computer aura images you show are exactly what I see and for the first time I could show my husband what I was experiencing. The dry eye connection was mind blowing because I have Sjogren’s. Thank you! I now understand what has been a mystery to me
I had an ocular migraine about 25 years ago. I had a retinal detachment about a year earlier and it really scared me because I thought it was detaching again. I was so relieved when it went away about 30 minutes later. I did not have any headache, just jagged red and green lines across my field of vision that moved from right to left and eventually disappeared off to the left. It was in both eyes. I have had reoccurances from time to time over the years. I have described the symptoms to eye doctors who have told me absolutely nothing about it. I did not know what they were until now. Thank you so much for this video.
As a former ophthalmic nurse married to a neurologist, I found this excellent. Several years ago as I was chatting with my ophthalmologist boss I noticed the wallpaper seemed to be dancing. Oh, he said, that is an ophthalmic migraine. Ask your husband about it. I have had them on and off for years fortunately without a headache. I was delighted to see you address this. Well done!
I've had that sensation of little things moving too. If I happen to be staring at a particular place or thing I will start to to think it (whatever it is) is moving and I'd strain to see it better and decide if it is really moving or is it my eyesight. Its interesting to hear that someone else has experienced this. I wonder if its a tremor of my eyes.
Wow, so glad YT recommended this video to me, it explained so much more than my eye dr did! For years I have only had headaches on the right side of my head with pain behind my right eye. One day I woke up with my right eye being super sensitive, painful to the touch and feeling like I was being stabbed in the back of my eye or like something was pushing on the back of my eye. I was also really light sensitive. I got checked out and they did all the tests and said I was fine and it was an ocular migraine, no mention of their being different types. I was also told I had dry eyes and to use hydrating eye drops but no mention of dry eye being linked to ocular migraines. It was absolutely terrifying when it happened but fortunately it has not happened again. I always thought migraines were like these horribly debilitating, have to lie in a dark room for hours, horrifically painful kind of things so I never would have thought that what I was experiencing was a migraine. Thank you so much for this incredibly informative video!
This is exactly what I'm experiencing. My eye is a little swollen shut, and it's painful to touch. It's the reddest my eye has ever been. I'm going to buy some blue light glasses to help, and hopefully get some relief in the future.
I had my first ocular migraine when I was 14. It was about another month or so before I had another one and then I basically had about 2 or 3 per week for a few months. Then they came back and for about a year I had about 1 or 2 per week. Auras, pinwheels, blind spot seemed to expand. I'd get nauseated and the headache . . . that pain is something that nothing else has equaled in my life. The headaches would last about 6 to 8 hours. No medication helps. I have a trigger, as it turns out. Dehydration. I learned this when I was in the Navy--by that time I was getting them less frequently--about once every couple months. But I had one while taking a test in my technical training school. I finished the test, walked to medical, and got treated. The poor corpsman couldn't find a vein to and poked me about 6 times. He apologized and I was like "don't worry about it, there's nothing you can do to me that hurts like my head does." In fact, the pain of him trying to stab me with an IV needle was a welcome distraction. They gave me 4 liters of saline fluid. Ever since then, I drink about a gallon of water a day. I have one other trigger--suddenly not taking in caffine (If I'm regularly drinking coffee or soda.) I only get one or two a year. My wife suffers from fibromyalgia and our oldest son has epilepsy. We've been told there's a link between these three conditions. So, we have a trifecta in our house. Yay!
My trigger is an interrupted sleep pattern. Next time you get the auras, take 2 panadol (paracetamol), 2 Nurofen (ibuprofen) and a can of Coke (or a strong coffee) as quickly as you can. Instead of about 15 minutes after the auras disappearing, you getting the blinding pain behind your eye for hours, you’ll feel a slight ache and a bit groggy for a little while. Trust me. Changed my life. If you wait til after the auras have gone it’s too late. Act as soon as you get them. I always keep both medications in my glove box and my work bag. I’m no doctor, but from what I can piece together, the auras are triggered by the constricting of the blood vessels in the brain and the migraine caused by the sudden release when they “let go”, so the caffeine helps to ease the constriction before the sudden release as it is a vasodilator.
I'm not sure if it was related, but I went in for an annual eye exam. I originally had migraines with auras, but over years, it changed to just retinal migraines. I mentioned to my eye doctor that I had had one on the way into the office that day. Mine are like having looked into a bright light, but I hadn't. He looked more closely and sent me to a retinal specialist that day as he suspected a detachment. The retinal specialist said, no, it was retinastasis which makes me more susceptible to detachments, and told me how to check my peripheral vision, and set a follow-up on a week and a half. A week later, I had a detachment. After a week and a half of treatments, the retinal was tacked back into the back of my eye with a laser. I still sometimes get an aura six months later, but no more signs of detachment. I might not have gotten my detachment treated quite as quickly without that aura, so there's that. I think the quick treatment allowed treatment in the office instead of a surgical center.
Great explanation of what an ocular migraine is like to experience. The first time I had one I thought I was having a stroke. It scared me to death! That was about 10 years ago. My friend was driving me to the ER and he finally pulled over and called an ambulance because it kept getting worse. Everything checked out and that was my diagnosis. An ocular migraine. I had never been a person with migraines in the past. Some bad headaches at times but that is all. This is how my first one presented. I was sitting on the couch with friends and then there were blank/empty spots in my field of vision. Shortly after than I started seeing bright, shiny, zigzag lines. They looked like a bunch M's connected and with an arch (How is that for detailed). As Dr. Wong states, it was all over in less than an hour. Something else to note. I didn't even get a headache until about the halfway point from when the visual issues had started. I still get them. Nothing seems to be a trigger and I might go months until the next one. I just sit down and ride them out. I try to laugh because it is such a strange thing to go thru. As with my first one, I don't get a headache until the ocular migraine is already happening. Most of the time it comes towards the very end. The last one I had about 4 months ago didn't include the zigzag lines. That was a first. Just the blank spots in my field of vision. Sorry, didn't mean to write a book with my reply. I just wanted to provide as many details that might help others.
My ocular migraines start with a painless aura. The aura starts as a small blind spot that grows into a curved line. The line is filled with black and white geometric lines/shapes that have an iridescent & sparkly glow. It lasts for about 30 minutes. Then 30 min or so after the aura goes away I get an intense headache that lasts for 3 days. Sometimes is just the temples but most of the time it's the whole head especially the back. So, I guess I get both. Luckily, it's been about 3 years since I've had one. They seem to be triggered by flashing or moving lights.
This description is almost EXACTLY, word for word how I'd describe my ocular migraine. The only difference is that I'll get an 'ice pick' type of pain (usually in the back upper part of my head, or on the side of my head) shortly before the visual symptoms begin and then when those go away, usually approximately 30 min or so later, I will usually have no kind of headache or head pain. SOMETIMES Ill have a dull headache that lasts a few hours but that's rare for me. My triggers also seem to be flashing lights, or lack of sleep or dehydration. Sometimes I cant figure out what the trigger(s) is (are). Mine started in 2005, a couple years after I had a total hysterectomy due to endometriosis, so Ive wondered if mine began due to how messed up my hormones were for several years prior to the surgery and then going into menopause so suddenly at age 31. One thing Im unclear about though, as I've had various doctors tell me contradictory things and internet research Ive gives me differing opinions is: are these ocular migraines occurring IN THE EYE, or in the BRAIN? Like I wrote, Ive both told both explanations and Im very confused and I've wondered if I should see a neurologist about this (if it's in the brain) or not? Dr. Wong's discussion about it leads me to think it's happening in the eye, and she clearly knows her stuff so I trust what she said more even than the docs Ive seen (usually one time, like ER doctors that I've mentioned the ocular migraines to..) and so I appreciate this video **so much**, it really helped me feel better and less anxious about what's happening to me, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. Sincerely , Stephanie
My migraines are always in my right eye and my eye twitches right before I get one. Bright lights, smells, and sounds are a trigger for me. I finally think I know what kind of migraine I get now - retinal. I've looked for eons online trying to find out what's going on. I've suffered with headaches my whole life and really bad migraines the last few years. Thank you for this video! Now I need to make an appointment with my eye doctor.
Thank you so much for this video! I have had visual migraines for 50 years, starting in high school, and never had them labelled so well. I have Aura migraines, starting with a central loss of vision, followed by full-circle zigzag that expands from the center until my vision is fully involved, lasts around 30 minutes. Usually my headaches aren't that bad and can be treated with aleve. What has always been fascinating to me is that I can STOP the migraine by taking magnesium. I can sense a migraine coming on and sip some magnesium water and boom, it stops the expansion of the zigzags. I realize that many people are deficient in magnesium and that this is a simplistic solution, but I wonder if you as a migraine sufferer have tried or researched the use of magnesium for migraines. I started with epsom salts in water, now I use a product called ReMag which is pico-ionized magnesium that goes right into the bloodstream. Thanks again for this video, it was very helpful!
This is the first time I've heard what I experience accurately described. I've told people what I was going through and they just thought I was on drugs or something.
Nice video! I find I’ve been getting migraines when I appear to take on a high load of stress. Could be environmental, emotional, mental factors. Other supporting factors; low sleep, high caffeine intake , not enough water and a imbalanced diet. Before a big head ache, I always get auras, blind spots, and sensitivity to light. After it passes about 30mins-1hr later i get the big pulsating headaches. After that I feel weak and almost like an out of body experience, i feel dull and numb. Not fun!
I have exactly the same symptoms however I don't always get the headache as severely. Such an inconvenience when these migraines occur! I might get these once a month at most and it usually starts in the right eye and ends in the left eye almost like sunrise and sunset 🙈
I thought I had only had two ocular migraines but after watching this I realize there have been more. The worst one was one that looked like an ekg printout but the the results were in bold black marker. I drew this and gave it to my opthmalogist who immediately said "ocular migraine and may I keep this drawing". Another looked like a colorful digital blockage you might see on tv news to block out a person's identity. Never any pain with ocular migraines but I do get a lot of regular migraines with pain. Medication takes care of those usually, thank goodness. Thank you for all the information.
Yeah I’m convinced something is wrong with my cranial nerve. My migraine pain lasts 7-48 hours and sometimes even 72hrs. The pain is like a prolonged brain freeze which is definitely a sign that the cranial nerves are being affected. It all started with this feeling in my mouth that I would get on and off for 2 years that felt like I just washed my mouth with mouthwash. It felt like I had a strong mint in my mouth all the time. I sometimes can tell when a cranial nerve migraine is coming when my mouth gets numb and I can feel that minty flavor coming on. So weird, i’m planning on heading to Guadalajara or Tijuana soon to get a full scan and maybe some nerve medicines because American doctors are useless. They refuse to do a CT and just tell me i’m young and will be okay. Take Advil, no big deal! 😡 soo annoying..
I agree our (USA) medical profession is going down the tubes. I can't get help for 3 different ailments. I have been thinking perhaps they don't want to treat old people.
I’ve experienced the aura w/o head pain. I had it a couple of times that really freaked me out but it wasn’t often. Then in the early part of my second trimester of pregnancy I was getting them at least once a week. Super scary but I talked to my doctor about it and she helped lessen the worry. I haven’t had one in a couple of months now and I’m very grateful.
Ugh! This is my 3rd ocular migraine in 2 days! 😞 I'm so glad you mentioned floaters. I have them, and you're right about the background visual noise. I started getting them about 10 years ago. It was better for a while, but now I'm perimenopausal, and they're back 😮💨 Thank you for making this video.
First time I saw this discussed. Zero pain but like the filament of a globe begins flashing really really small. It gradually grows and finally disappears out of my peripheral vision in a couple of minutes. Sometime twice a week or even only once a year. Never identified a trigger.
I get the Ophthalmic Migraines. When I first learned it was a type of migraine, it surprised me. I know a couple of people that suffer from migraines, and they talk about how bad the pain is. I never thought of it as an aura. To me, it is more like a crystalline pattern that is very colorful. It reminds me of a window on a winter's day when moisture freeze on it in crystal patterns. It used to really scare me as it would start off in my peripheral vision but get larger until it blocked my vision entirely. Now, when I can tell it is starting. I know that I need to stop what I'm doing, and just wait it out. It's a great excuse for a nap. Sometimes, though, it's just kind of enjoyable to watch the colorful show. If you're going to have a migraine, the painless kind is the kind to have.
You made me smile I've just had my first occular migraine in four years, and it scares the life out of me.I worry incase it will cause a stroke or seizure.I wish like you I could relax and enjoy the light show lol
@@kittybell4604 Once you realize it's not going to kill you or make you permanently blind, it's not so bad. Still, my biggest fear is it happening when I'm out driving in the middle of nowhere, and have to pull over to wait it out. Telling a police officer that, no, you're not drunk, just temporarily blind, probably isn't much better. :)
@@RG....... I don't get them all that often. but when I do they seem to come in streaks. I might get one or two a month and then go months without having one. It's been three or four months since my last one. My eye doctor said they tend to be triggered by stress and things like high blood pressure, alcohol, caffeine, heat and other things that stress the body. For me, I'm sure caffeine is an issue and I try to cut back on it. Also, I've had problems with heat since I was a child. While I'm sure there are actual treatments, my doctor said to get more exercise and eat better. I think that line is taught to doctors early in their training as no matter what you're seeing them for, they tend to work it into the conversation. I, also, think that spending hours staring at a computer screen may trigger them as I'm very guilty of that.
I must be the lucky one. I only see those zig zag lines; it doesn't come with a headache or anything. It usually starts as a really small blind spot, grows into a kaleidoscope and drifts off to either the left or the right corner of my eye. I've had this for as long as I can remember, although there have been periods (years) when it was completely absent. Annoying when driving a car (I stop until it's gone), reading a book or watching a screen... that's about it. Typically lasts about 45 minutes.
@@DrRupaWong To me it's just normal. I'm not really bothered by it, unless I'm driving. I have had this since I was a kid and I only found out this was a medical condition when the internet became a thing. I always assumed it was a normal thing. Luckily I don't experience any pain... just the visual disturbances. Sometimes my head feels a bit heavy afterwards, but that's it.
I've always had migraines with aura and occasionally have ophthalmic migraines so this was interesting to see that the term "ocular migraine" covers both. When I was younger they thought they were food triggered, then hormonal, then eye fatigue...then I started getting them only between midnight and 4am while sleeping (so weird having my aura come through in dreams and knowing before I even wake up I'm going to have a bad time), then back to hormonal, and now trigger unknown because they are super inconsistent. Will definitely keep watch for only having issues with one eye though because that was new information.
Over 15 years of wondering what was it that used to happen to me in middle school and today I randomly stumble upon this video. Well, that is a mystery solved that I didn't think I'd get to.
Great and helpful video. Thank you! I've had ocular migraines (pain-free) for decades, although earlier in life I had debilitating "regular" migraines (without the visual). I always have scintillating scotoma, it never takes more than 20 minutes to arc. A month could pass without one, then suddenly I'll have 3 a day. After my own research as well as conversations with my eye doctor, I'm convinced I'm extremely sensitive to certain environmental "things" but still don't know exactly what. It's a process of discovery. Your video is excellent in describing the scintillating scotoma.
Very powerful information! Thank you! I do get the aura version of this bizarre condition without the headaches. I'm 64 and it started about 8 years ago. This video has answered so many questions I had about this. Thanks so much for putting it out there 🙂✌
I have suffered with migraine since the onset of puberty so I definitely think there is something hormonal about them. All through my youth I was plagued with them and they spoilt my life because they always seemed to happen when I was looking forward to something special and instead I would be having to stay in a darkened room. My first one was scary, I was out rollerskating and I could only see half of everything, I also had numbness and tingling in my arms and I couldn't understand what was being said to me or get my words out properly. I remember going home and my father was questioning me about what was wrong and I couldn't respond clearly but my mother had also suffered and knew what I was trying to say and just put me to bed in a darkened room. Then the crashing, unbearable headache which would gradually get worse and worse until I vomitted (just bile) and it would then recede. This dogged my life, happening once or twice a month and I spent a lot of my working life in various company's sick bays, sometimes being cared for by somebody who knew exactly what it was because they themselves suffered but a lot of the time by people who had no idea. I suffered terribly through my first pregnancy but had some respite for a few years after, not getting them so frequently. My 2nd pregnancy wasn't until 6 years later and this seemed to trigger them again and I continued to suffer with them more frequently but not as often as in my youth. I read that they rarely occur after the menopause but mine just changed to occular migraine. I'd get the visual disturbances ("the fizzies" I call them) and sometimes the numbness (but not often) and they make me feel a bit spaced out afterwards and usually quite sleepy but they don't have such a major impact on my life and I have weeks without them and then suddenly 2 in one day. I'm 79 now so I think it's safe to say that I will have them for life. I gave up eating cheese and drinking alcohol but chocolate never affected me. Stress seems to be a trigger but not at the time, it usually happens when I've been under a lot of stress but calmed down.
I'm so sorry you have suffered from these migraines. They can be so hard to live with! I am glad you found some triggers. Did that help lessen the amount you experience? Thank you for sharing with us and for being here.
I started getting ophthalmic migraines a few years ago. The first time I had one it really scared me because I didn’t know what it was. There was a bright flash, then a pulsating brilliant light just to the right of the center of my vision. It gradually grew into a partial arc composed of bright, zigzagging light that kind of pulsed. It grew bigger and bigger, all while moving further to the right until eventually disappearing off to the side. It lasted for about 20-25 minutes and was not accompanied by any pain whatsoever. It was terrifying though because I had no idea what it was. I don’t know what triggers it, but I get two or three a year, whereas I get a dozen or more regular migraines a year in spite of knowing what most of my triggers for those are. On the subject of regular migraine triggers, I found one of my main triggers a few years ago that has helped me avoid many headaches, and I hope you share this one with your viewers. Red dye #40. If I drink a bright red punch or soda, it’s guaranteed that I’m going to have a really bad migraine. If someone has frequent migraines, check the ingredients of the foods and drinks you consume. If you cut out the ones with red dye #40 and you have a reduction in the number or severity of your migraines you can thank me.
Great Suggestion! Everyone has different triggers for their migraines, I am happy you were able to find your trigger. But, also very sorry you have migraines in the first place.
The reason why I'm watching this is actually because I have a painless aura right now. This is only, I would say, the fourth time...?...this has ever happened to me, but after taking myself to the eye doctor, FREAKING OUT, the first time, they told me what it was, and now I'm only inconvenienced, not afraid .This always manifests the same way with me: bright green, white, and yellow lights right in the front of my field of vision, and I can only see blurred shapes through them, and then this semi-translucent purple orb kind of thing comes up into my field from the bottom. Never from the top, oddly enough. I can only see out of my right eye in the first place--I'm visually impaired--so it's annoying, but I find that, the less I freak out and let my blood pressure get up, the faster it goes away. I'm looking through gold streaks right now while typing this, but no purple orb, so that's good. The first time this happened, I was only twelve years old, so of course I flipped, and the damn thing lasted for a full day and a half because I was so high-strung. It's never hurt, though. PS: Pardon any typos: I can't freaking see, LOL.
That sounds so difficult. Of course it scared you! Especially at 12 years old. I am glad it doesn't hurt you. Thanks so much for sharing your experience!
I am now in my late 60's and have suffered from migraines since I was 15. From middle age my migraine headaches became less severe, but I developed ocular migraines, which generally affect my vision for around 30 minutes. The worst symptom I have occasionally suffered with ocular migraines over the last 20 years is the inability to speak coherently, for example I have been unable to order in shops or cafes during the migraine. The key trigger for me is stress, the greater the stress I have had at work the more often I got migraines, since I retired I suffer a lot less from them.
I am glad they have lessened. Congratulations on retirement! Thank you for sharing your experience with these migraines and being a part of my TH-cam community!
My experience is similiar. I am 66 but in my teenage years I developed headaches which started with the aura, became a dreadful headache and ended with nausea, but these became less frequent as I got older and I havent had the headache now for about 25 years, but I do get the aura occasionally with a white zig zag light....this usually goes within 15 minutes. If I can I take a painkiller tablet and lie down when it starts. I am retired too and love it!
I've had occular migranes with aura for over 20 years. My mother and brother do as well. My mom taught me to use Afrin as soonxas possible and it does clear the aura within minutes and helps if I do have a headache which don't always. Hope this helps someone.
Dr. Wong, I am entering into my fifth decade as a migraineur and I want to thank you for providing one of the most succinct and impactful deliveries of knowledge I've ever heard. My migraine symptoms are extensive and as I age they are changing. I now have horrific pain on the surface of my left eye which prompted me to see my ophthalmologist. He diagnosed me as having developed a new manifestation of migraine, but after hearing your video, I think I'm having dry eye issues which are a new horrible trigger. I'm making an appointment Monday. Thank you so much.
Emgality has been a lifesaver for me after trying everything else. For years, I was diagnosed with depression because I needed to spend so much time in bed in a darkened room. I don't always get an aura but sure was scared the first time it happened. A change in the barometric pressure or someone smoking a pipe or cigar will trigger a migraine before I'm even aware of the weather changing or the smell of smoke.
Several other people have also commented that secondhand smoke was also a trigger for them. I am glad you were able to identify that and find something that worked for you. How long have you been using Emgality? Thank you for sharing. 💞
Emgality is the best! Nutec is the wonderful when the migraine comes on. I don’t have any visual auras, but I do get olfactory auras sometimes days prior to my migraines. At times, I don’t get the actual migraine after the olfactory aura. I was told to treat the aura as an actual migraine.
I’ve had migraines since I was around 8 or 9. In my late teens, someone told me to try Extra Strength Excedrin, and it worked well in lessening the pain. In my 50s, my internist said that there was a drug that can stop my headaches before they start. He prescribed an old antidepressant called Elavil that’s used off label for headaches. I take one each night before bed, and I never wake up with headaches like I used to. Occasionally I will get a tension headache (always in my temples), but the Excedrin takes care of it. Hope my story can be of help to someone.
SO much to unpack in this little video! Thank you doctor, well done! I have suffered with general headaches since I was a child and specifically migraine for about 15+ years. I also have auras and dry eye, so that's my trifecta! If anyone out there is suffering from headaches when you get up in the morning, I highly suggest you get a sleep study. Turns out I wasn't getting enough oxygen and also expressing too much carbon dioxide. Since I've been on Cpap with oxygen therapy, I don't get the morning headaches, thank the Lord! I still get migraines, but not nearly as often. 😁👍🏾❤️
I've had occasional ophthalmic migraines (without headaches) my whole life. I see prismatic coral-type shapes that can block my vision. As a kid, I wasn't really able to explain it to people, and I had other issues that were more pressing. I found out it was migraine related in my teens from a 60 minutes article. Overall, it is not a big deal for me, but occasionally I just can't see well. Now that I know it is real thing, I don't try and power through it and don't drive, or whatever.
I've had those all my life too, since I was 12. When I was young, I would get the headache after the visual aura. But as I got older, the headaches quit happening. But I do still occasionally get the visual migraine aura, usually a couple of times per year. No pain, just irritating. Starts off as a tiny blind spot in the middle, then spreads out and gets larger as a "C" shape, until eventually leaving my visual field, and it's over with. It looks like zig zag rainbow kaliedescope or something, and flickering the whole time.
Have you ever had an ocular migraine? What is it like for you? 🤕
Yes, I've had several occular migraines. As you pointed out, they disappear within an hour, but they're still a bit disconcerting.
@@rosemorris7912 They can be very disconcerting! Have you identified any triggers?
Just had 2 not had one for about a year feel sick now probably from stressing my brain
@@leighwatson1861 So sorry, Leigh. Stress can definitely cause it! When did you have your first migraine?
@@DrRupaWong iv had them years I'm 48 had first probably at 10 but my first aura was at school reading my eyes went could not see then banging headache I always thought it was because of my injury till the Internet told me what it was now I don't panic but not nice when one comes on without notice thankyou for response
I get the streaming zigzag aura. Found it interesting that my ophthalmologist said if you see the aura both when your eyes are open & closed then it’s not an eye issue but a neural & sensory issue. Thank you for a very informative video. It surprised me as to how many people never heard of this. I was having difficulty explaining the experience to others.
I see them with both closed and open eye. That is interesting what your ophthalmologist said...Id never read or heard that before and I'm still so confused by whether this is something occurring in the eye or in the brain. If it's a neural and sensory issue, did your doctor say what could or should be done to help it, or to stop it from happening? I too have been surprised by how many people have never heard of this or had it happen to them. It is definitely hard to explain to someone who's never had it happen to them .I find it scary still even after experiencing it off and on for many years now. I hope yours lessen/go away. Take care
Not sure if this how I’m supposed to reply. My doctor said since it’s not a physical eye problem there is nothing to do & it’s not dangerous or damaging. I find it happens less when my health is stronger.
I suffer from the zigzag aura (no headache) as well. I am a designer and sometimes if I look at a bright screen after looking at a dark one (or white type on black background), or even if I look out the window and catch a glint of sun coming off a car, it sets it off. I can't see my screen for about 45 minutes and afterwards I feel like someone has punched me in the eye. Took forever for me to convey to someone what I was suffering. I finally drew a picture of the aura and someone knew what it was!
@@stephanie4569 One thing I found helps, but isn't super practical, is to look at a random pattern. Basically I discovered this while sitting in a restaurant. I looked outside and a car door reflected the sun into my eye and the aura started. The restaurant had one of those bumpy walls with a waterfall running down it. When I looked at the water bubbling down, I couldn't see the aura and my eyes didn't hurt. I looked away and it came back. I've found a video of a waterfall played on a very dim iPad can do the trick nearly as well!
@@EricaGamet I get the exact same thing from the same trigger of bright lights and anxiety. :(
I call these eye migraines “kaleidoscope migraines” because for me it starts with a tiny aura but eventually takes over my vision. Sometimes I get them with or without a headache or migraine.
Exactly the same for me.
Same for me
Same.
My dad calls them "seeing flashy lights again"
...as good a description as any lol
I have ocular migraines ONLY IN SCHOOL. It gets on my nerves when I read
when I’m stressed out, and have really bad Anxiety and panic attacks i noticed my eye floaters, i also used to get a flash of lights on the corner of my eyes
Wow thank you for sharing!
Same
OMGGGG THE AURA that is what it is! I’m always telling people as soon as I see the blurring It’s over for me. Like I’m puking and stuff moments later.
Interesting video. I have been seeing these auras since I was a kid, around 3 years old, I was in kinder. When I told my parents about it, they didn't believe me. No one, not even the doctors believe me. I grew up and stopped mentioning it to anyone. Until about 15 years ago I went to a hospital for my daughter's ophthalmologist, the medical assistant, very nice lady apologized to me, she looked distracted, and she told me she was having an aura migrane (ocular migrane), then I asked what was it, and when she explained to me I told her I see the same thing but people always thought I was crazy (including the doctors). Since that day, I was a bit relieved that I wasn't the only one seeing things. I still haven't mentioned it to my new doctors. I had these episodes all my life. I have no headaches, I've had very few mild headaches in my life. The aura I see becomes so large it's like a portal to another universe, and the zig zag is more defined like an enlarged chase bank symbol in rainbow colors with white flashing lights spectrum all around and in the center I can see the tiny picture of the focal object I'm supposed to be seeing. I'm an older woman and I have had many of these episodes, I lost count. Thank you.
I'm so sorry you weren't believed! I am so relieved you were able to find a doctor that could help you and you don't have many headaches. Thank you for sharing your experience! Someone else may be able to relate.
I've had these too...yellow and blk zig zag lines that only go away once the circle is completed...no headache...also in lat 60's..my daughter gets them with the headache....I never told Dr..just thought I was lucky to not get the migrane headache
Damn this was exactly the same story i have but with headaches too and i had them since i was 11.Doctors didnt really understand (probably because i couldnt explain well) .Theyre painful and thought it wasnt big of deal as they would go away eventually.
I am so sad for your 3-year-old self. 😢
I had my 1st migraine in 8th grade. It started with aura, blind spots, loss of reflexes, temperature drop, and when I spoke, I didn't make sense. Then the pain- like my head was in a vice that kept tightening. Then the dry heaves. My mom picked me up from school, long story short, we ended up in the neurosurgeon's office. Classic migraine. I had one every 2 yrs. Until college. Then 1 a year. Finally abated in my 40's. I was on medication - for when I got a migraine, but had to take it before the pain started - otherwise I would throw it up. I want to mention bright lights are also a trigger for me, so I always wear sunglasses. I now get auras, but the headache is much more subdued. I usually get by with a migra-stick (essential oils). For some reason, even though my doctor writes my script, I can't get my migraine medication (Amerge). So I keep a migra-stick and hope I never get a classic migraine again! My eye doctor continues to monitor me for these.
Apparently I get the ophthalmic migraine. It’s usually without pain, I can see it with my eyes closed or open. It stays in the same area of sight and it looks like a half moon shaped kaleidoscope of colors.
Thanks for the explanation 👍
I am glad it doesn't hurt you. I'm happy to share!
I seem to have had the same just 2 or 3 times tops. My 'thing' is a straight across zig zag line in the upper right 'corner' of my right eye. Weird.
I too experience this type of migraine all my life.
I too have had these migraines all my life. They started around the age of 8. 71 years later I still get them. I was lucky enough to find out what they were many years ago. Nothing dangerous, but very annoying.
Mine starts like that but the half moon has jagged edges. Then it goes into a full on light show for a few minutes. No pain
I've only had the visual aura, but not the pain. It scared the hell out of me the first time I experienced it. I was relieved to discover that it only lasts for 20 minutes or so and was not permanent. I've had them for the last 30+ years at it has never gotten any worse. It also only happens a few times a year. It starts off where I notice I can't read as well, like some of the letters become invisible, then a little geometric, zig zaggy flashing lines appear, they pulsate and grow larger and then gradually they disappear. If you experience anything like this, I still recommend going to a doctor to make sure it's nothing more serious. But I want people to know that it is not necessarily a permanent thing. I've noticed that things like drinking coffee, getting exposed to excessive glare, or spending too much time looking at my computer, iPhone, TV screen can be an issue. I recommend just relaxing, getting away from any monitors for a bit and letting it pass without freaking out is the best thing to do. I still drink coffee and have not had to change much of my habits as it is not a constant, debilitating thing, just a temporary and infrequent phenomenon. Also, I think it's genetic as my mom and a cousin on that side of the family had the same thing.
So sorry you have had to deal with this! Thank you for sharing!
Same with me About five years now
You described my experience perfectly. I diagnosed myself a few years ago. Dr. Wong just confirmed it.
yes sun will trigger mine, stress i believe does too. These started around 12, with the headache, i was fitted with glasses to relax the nerves or muscles behind the eye…i can’t remember what the Dr said…the glasses weren’t for vision, it did help. Now I usually just have the aura, once in a great while I get the headache
@@Kate98755 I'm so glad you don't get the headache. I'm definitely happy I don't have the pain, just the occasional aura. Had one this morning, but as usual, it passed in about 20 minutes.
I get ophthalmic migraines once every few months. It’s super annoying but definitely not painful. This is incredibly helpful. Thank you!
Glad it helped! I'm sorry you have to deal with these too. Thank you for watching!
I get them occasionally as well. Scared the crap out of me the first time.
drink coffee! works. sometimes you get it after drinking coffee, just drink another one , works every time. been doing it for years.
I get them a couple of times a week but I don't find them super annoying just mildly so while the visual artifact is in my focal point. After it drifts to the side it no longer affects my vision significantly. Getting them diagnosed took a while. the first time I mentioned them to an ophthamologist he said it was just floaters. The next was an optometrist who said no not floaters, it sounds like retinal migraines. And that led me to a wiki page for Scintillating Scotoma and Ophyhalmic migraine. None of that gets rid of them but it's nice to know that they aren't something to worry about.
I thought I was going blind the first time I had migraine with aura. I was about 15 and it was terrifying. Seeing the aura illustrations in the video actually made me panic and feel sick even though I'm not having a migraine right now, I just hate them so much! Thank you for the informative video.
They really are awful. I'm glad this was helpful. Thank you for watching and sharing!
me as well especially since i had eye surgery once before. i really thought i was going blind in one eye. but i’ve had them every couple years or so now.
Same for me but they started when I was 13 yrs old. I'm 56 yrs old now and still get the aura. It sucks so bad!
Mine first began when I was 15 as well! I laughed at your comment because I remember when I first had one I called my mother telling her I was going blind. So sorry you suffer with these too. 🤍
I got my first one at 14. Is the first time it starts around early teen years?
Thanks to you, Doctor Wong, I now know why I have zigzag auras occasionally with no headache. Have had them for years and mentioned them to several doctors, including an ophthalmologist, but no one could come up with a reason or explanation. I was so relieved to find your video after all these years! Thank you.
I'm so glad you were able to find this video and get some answers. Next time you see your doctor show them this video. I hope your local doctor can help you out. Thank you so much for being here.
As a physician myself, I am surprised that your doctors, especially the neurologist, didn’t know those auras were migraines. I have had migraines with visual auras, without auras, and auras without the headache.
@@TheKinderdoc Isn't it strange, Nancy? Sadly, many people have commented this.
@silky smooth Did the glasses help? I have been experiencing the zig zags almost every day for the past week. Kinda freaks me out
I have had an aura migraine about 8 years ago and another one today, with no pain. So weird.
Thank you for making this excellent video. I have cerebral palsy and ocular migraines. It taught me more about my migraines in 12 minutes than any other doctor has told me in the last 50 years.
That really means so much to me. Thank you so much for being here, Andrew! I hope you can manage to get some relief.
I was born 1943. My sister and I had similar symptoms when we went through puberty in the mid 50’s. Mom always called them “sick headache “ and sometimes we stayed home from school. My headaches typically don’t have pain but the flashing zigzag aura is common. We sometimes would experience a numbing on one side of the body, arm,leg and face…even that side of my tongue would feel larger.
My menopause began early and the symptoms increased again, so I’ve always thought hormones were the cause.
I’m 80 now and rarely experience any symptoms except the aura which is very short in duration
This is how I self medicate. Drink a Coke or Pepsi and take aspirin or Ibuprophen. I do that as soon as I know I am having a migrane. This knocks down the migraine 90%. I used to have everything you described. I have been doing this for over 30 years. I have never had a problem since. I usually get migraines about 5 times a year.
A doctor actually told an aquaintance of mine this self medicating trick. Excedrine Migraine is filled with caffeine. The same thing. Just make sure you do this ASAP when you see this coming on.
I immediately take 800mg ibuprofen. I don't wait to see if I will get pain
I've had those auras intermittently with no headache since 2004; they come rarely and are very annoying when they're here. I like the animation you used for the auras as it looks exactly like how you've depicted it. 🙂
Thank you, Isaac! I'm glad this helped!
Do you know why they happen?
Me too. I experienced it last Wednesday and have been trying to figure out the cause. I live in the US so I can't get my eyes checked by a doctor.
@@i2pjd6hRw5P I'm so sorry you are experiencing this and not able to see a doctor. I hope this video helped you some!
@@i2pjd6hRw5P coud be a stroke aswell
Dr. Rupa is such an intelligent and caring ophthalmologist. Fortunate are your patients.
Thank you!
Clearest yet most succinct and comprehensive explanation of these type of migraines that I have ever heard. I didn't even realize there were three types and I have been suffering since the 1990s and even my ophthalmologist did not differentiate between the three, thank you 🙏
Thank you so much! Glad to help. I'm sorry you suffer from these.
Omg I have suffered with this for years! My eye doctor told me they were migraines. I will have an aura that's very zigzaggy and it comes to a full circle. After it goes away I have a horrible headache. I thought I was crazy! He said that I should keep Excedrin migraine around and pop one as soon as the aura begins, because the headache is soon to follow. Wow, thank you so much!! My kids, husband, and coworkers know that I deal with this but they don't understand it.
I've had migraines since I was 14, now coming up to 60 & this is the best explanation I have ever seen. I have gone from head migraines to zig zag/aura, the ice pick in the eye is a brilliant analogy, to retinal migraines. These changes have occurred from teenager period hormones, to having pregnancy hormones to menopausal & all other triggers inbetween. As each stage of my life as affected my ocular migraines I will say that if I notice my sight is 'off' or a blind spot starts if I get those painkillers taken within 5 mins the migraine does not go full blown. Thank you for this vid.
My story is pretty much the same as yours. I started getting migraines when I was in my early teens. I get the zigzag aura (or the "light show" as I call it) and it's my warning that it's time to take a T3, which has time to kick in before the pain starts.
I've been on antidepressants for anxiety since I was 25 and after I started taking those the pain and occurrence of these headaches eased up. I started keeping a "diary" of my headaches, the date and time that they start, the things I was doing or eating at the time. It helped me to realize that they mostly seem to start at the same time as "time of the month". I'll be 52 in August and am at the beginning of menopause and last month was the first time I had a headache since June 2021.
That's good to know. I didn't know that. I been having migraines for over 20 years. Sometimes with an aura but mostly without. I hate auras. I'm so glad I don't have them with all migraines. I take maxalt 10mg. for mine and it works. I really don't want injections or infusions to prevent. I average 7 migraines a month or sometimes less.
I'm so sorry you have had this experience. I am glad to share! Thanks for being here!
I'd had regular migraines every couple of years throughout my life. Then, during perimenopause, the ocular migraines without pain started and occurred frequently. They stopped after a few years so I think hormonal changes were key, at least for me. Thank goodness for sage advice from a good doctor. It saved me a lot of worry.
@@DrRupaWong Thank-you ♥️♥️
I have had migraines for as long as I can remember. The doctor told my mother I just didn't know how to express myself. As I would get them around birthdays and Christmas really bad and would have to go to bed after all the excitement. As an adult taking CoQ10 200 mg not for migraines but because I heard it was good for your heart seemed to really curve those migraines. Now I would always get what I called Kaleidoscope vision, no doctor ever knew what I was talking about this is the very first time I've ever seen anything that address that. My mother had also always had the floaters and someone told her oh that your eyeball deteriorating I was mortified by this. This goes to show how little people really know. Thank you for this video clears up a lot of things
I am glad you were able to find something that helps lessen the migraines. I'm very sorry the doctor was not able to give your mother the correct medical advice on your behalf. I'm really glad to help. Thank you for letting me know. 💛
Ask you Doctor or Neurologist to consider the drug Propranolol. I suffered with migraines for 30 years...went to a Neurologist and he had me try a drug (forget the name of this drug because, well it didn't work for me) and then we tried Propranolol. It's been a year and a half now and I haven't had a migraine since starting on this drug. I know that everyone responds differently to drugs but it's worth a try.
I have had that kaleidoscope type of colors that resembles a fractal changing shape & color for as long as I can remember. I'm 72. One Opthomoligist told me it was because of doing drugs in the 60's! Never did that & never went back to him. In 2009, I was driving home through our small town (25 mph) and a gray 'curtain' came down in my vision in both eyes for what seemed a long time but maybe only 30sec or so. I went to a Cardiologist, Neurologist & Opthomoligist. Nothing certain but that was the first time I ever heard of an ocular migraine. Now I don't see the colors any more but when I get up at night I see concentric yellow circles on black background. Less often now. My first migraine headache happened in college after being at a hockey game - ice & bright lights. Those headaches only happened until I was 35ish. All of Dr Wong's video & everyone's comments are very helpful. (This may come as from Ron but this is actually his wife.) -Gaye
@@ronanderson5790 they are helping,Gaye! I couldn't understand why not one person knew what I was talking about.
My son is 27yrs old I seems to have inherited my migraines but only when he is very stressed. But I can tell him what I found and about what good people like you shared. That sounded very scary when driving and a curtain came down. I'm glad you are well and found this video. Have a wonderful night. Thank you for sharing
@@dellzywillis3001 Thanks for your nice comment. Yes, the 2009 incident was terrifying as I was going through a school crossing. Thankfully school was cancelled that day& no one around except other drivers. When I could see again I sure got a lot of dirty looks. My oldest daughter (47) has had migraine headaches & ocular ones as well since college. She recently mentioned that she has been getting botox every 3 months and recently tried accupunture. With botox, she says she has a migraine only once a month now. I hope this may help your son and you, too. Gaye
I has been getting an increasing degree of ocular migraines (which sometimes includes moments of blindness across my entire field of vision). Despite having almost normal vision (20/25) and only mild astigmatism, glasses correcting the astigmatism have been incredibly helpful to reduce my migraines down to those triggered by food and hormonal cycles!
The blindness is so scary. Many people have also said they are triggered by food and hormones. Thank you so much for sharing and for being here!
It is amazing to read that you have had total loss of vision. It once happened to me for about one minute and I never connected it to a symptom of migraines! It was terrifying. Darkness just came upon my vision.
Th😅is info with responses have been helpful & reassuring
I started having these after suffering a vertebral stroke due to a dissection in my brain stem artery between C1 and C2. Totally misdiagnosed by 4 doctors. After experiencing an ocular aura along with hindered speech I thought it was another stroke. Since then my neurologist has prescribed me to increase my magnesium and add B2 and also Alpha Lipoic Acid. Happy to say two years later and through trial and error I have learned my triggers and the auras are under control. Good luck to everyone who suffers from these. One major factor is to stay hydrated.
I'm so sorry you were misdiagnosed. This is already a difficult condition and to be not understood can be very stressful. I am thankful you identified your triggers. Thank you for sharing.
Having my very first ophthalmic migraines right now. No pain at all, just realized I could not see sharp enough to read in both eyes. Gradually, over the last twenty minutes or so, the kaleidoscope moved away from the center of my eyes to the periphery. I can now read with my glasses, and the aura is heading out of my field of view. Very scary having never experienced it before.
This is what happens to me. It's been since age 18 yrs. I'm now 66.
I get aura with migraines.
I usually get the pain After the aura
I have the symptoms of opthalmic migraine, an aura, shimmering spot in both eyes which grows into a crescent shape affecting significant areas of vision, lasting approximately half an hour, with no headache whatsoever. I've had these episodes since my mid teens, was examined by a consultant opthalmologist at age 16 but no diagnosis was reached. It's only recently I discovered that it's a form of migraine. I'm now in my 70s and have had more episodes recently. They were rare in my 30s, 40s & 50s.
Hey David! I'm sorry you have struggled with this for most of your life. I can relate. I am thankful you were able to get a diagnosis. Thank you for sharing with us. 💗
Mine were from working under the florecent lights at walmart
And dehydration
Same. I get them about once a year. I also think dehydration is what brings mine on. They last about 45 mins. If they happen when I’m driving I have to pull over because of the tunnel vision
Me too. Everyone seemed to know it was a migraine but they all refused to believe I wasn’t getting any pain
I am so glad someone is speaking on this subject! I have retinal migraines and it was so scary when I first got them. They would come on so suddenly and it felt like no one could help me. I went to multiple drs and everyone was treating them as regular migraines. I had extensive tests and nothing. Luckily one day my glasses had broken during one migraine and I had an emergency appointment with the eye doctor. She truly saved my life because she was the only one who figured out how to help me.
Thank you for letting me know your experience. I am glad to share what I know. It has also impacted me and I know how hard it is! Thank you for watching!
So how did she help you?
@@sanyokitty3975 She explained the possible triggers of this type of migraine. When she did I started to examine my daily life. Found out I was extremely stressed and on the wrong type of birth control. Once I started to keep my stress down and changed my birth control I hadn’t had a migraine since. But that was for me because everyone’s body is different a different remedy maybe needed for someone else.
How long had you been experiencing retinal migraines?
@@charizard9735 I believe they started in 2009 and they just kept getting worse. I didn’t get to find out what they were until 2016.
My first migraine occurred around age 12-13. Key hormonal time in my life. Auric migraine's have been few and far between but quite disturbing and have usually been triggered by stress. Hormones and stress.
Stay well my fellow migraine sufferers.✨
Thanks for sharing! So sorry you have had to deal with that.
I get the sparkly zig zag variety, no pain. I drew a bunch of pictures for my doctor, and that's how she diagnosed it. I used to get the horrible painful ones before menopause, with the only visual symptom being that shadows might be more purple than usual. Thanks for this video!
Reading the comments has been really reassuring
Drawing a picture is a great idea. I'm so sorry you have suffered from this. Thank you so much for being here and sharing with us. I'm so glad the comments gave you some peace!
I suffer from ocular migraine since I was born. I always feel it's coming usually, I see a bright spot moving in my eyesight from one side to another and then it's just matter of when it starts. When I was younger, I had migraines like 10 times per month. After consulting my doctor, I have started to do everything regularly sleeping, eating, sport activity, and now I have like 2 migraines per month. The worst part about ocular migraine is that you can't even see in 3D, you just partially see space around you. It's dangerous when you drive a car for example. I can't even read properly because those stuff I see during aura doesn't allow me to. The aura lasts about an hour, and then there is 10 minute window before my head starts to hurt.
I'm so sorry you have suffered from these since you were born. They are so hard to live with! Thank you for being here and for sharing with us.
That is exactly what I was diagnosed with today. I wish there was anything to help that. I just stop everything I am doing when it starts and go to bed till the following day.
Been suffering with them for about 35 years. You answered questions I didn't fully know how to ask. Thanks for posting
I'm so sorry you suffer with this! I'm so glad to hear that this was helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Hi - did you figure out the triggers? How exactly are you dealing to reduce the frequency, any medication etc? Did your Doc recommend any scans etc?
@@RG....... Cut down on sugar if not totally. I don't get em now.
@@chilledchad How often were you getting auras? And they just stopped after you cut back sugar? Anything else you did or did not do
@@RG....... Exercise. I've always had hypertension and exercise has always had a relaxing effect on my body afterwards.
This is the first time I actually felt someone understood my migraine symptoms! Excellent video with so much helpful information and details! I definitely suffer from ocular migraines and mine seem to stem from hormone changes, stress, and anxiety.
I'm so glad you were able to watch something that you can relate with. Thank you for letting me know. I'm sorry you suffer from this.
I have no idea why this video was recommended but I'm near tears. I actually went to ER several years ago after a particularly bad episode and was turned away with nothing. I've had the opthalmic migraines for years - I get them more often under stress at work. I used to get the horrible ice-pick pain but that stopped when I was about 50(61 now). The zig zag and partial blindness and water-blur remains, with no pain. The dry-eye connection is also mind-blowing. I have Sjogren's and several other autoimmune disorders and my eyes are so dry that I can't tolerate Restasis. Evoxac pills helped, but can't take them since my heart attack. Thank you Dr. Wong. You made a difference in my life today - subscribed!
🥺🥺🥺 Thank you so much, Lynn. I'm sorry you were not given the medical advice you needed to begin with. I truly appreciate you being here. ❤
I was about to comment how grateful I was about finding out the dry eye connection. I have Sjögren’s and some other “fun” autoimmune conditions that I have only relatively recently been diagnosed with. I’m still learning how everything fits in with the broken jigsaw puzzle that’s my body.
I’m 41 now but I was diagnosed with migraines just before my 8th birthday. I’m currently taking an anti epileptic for my migraines as the prophylactic and am stuck on the NHS waiting list to restart Botox again. That’s the best combination I’ve found that works for me so far, as I am not allowed to take Triptans. I’m currently hovering around the 20-25ish per month mark. I know that sounds like the prophylactic isn’t working, but it’s made it so that I’m normally only loosing 1 day a week on average to a migraine and I can struggle through the rest. Before it was 3-4 days lost.
Check out Dr Berg videos for dry eyes, might be a big help for you.
I was starting to freak out before watching your videos. I feel better now. Explains a lot! Thank you! I have had temporary clouded vision loss in one eye at a time. I have had migraines almost every day of my life!
So glad to help! Let me know if you have any other questions.
The 1st time I had one I freaked out. Now it's just more of a nuisance.
I'm an ophthalmic migraine sufferer but rarely have a headache (diagnosed by my eye doctor). They last about 30 minutes and it looks like when I was a kid looking up through a glass coffee table. Like there was a water drop that slowly spreads out and then is gone once it reaches the edge of my vision. I really appreciate you making this video.
I'm glad to share. Thanks for letting me know your experience with these migraines. If you have anything else you would like me to discuss feel free to leave a suggestion anytime. 😊
Thank you for your insight into Optical migraine I notice I get it in bright sunlight so now I use sunglasses in winter sunshine
Thank you so much for this video! I experienced an aura out of one eye with no headache, and no one knew what i was talking about. I called my eye doctor’s office and just received very little concern about it. This explanation really helps me; I have floaters, occasional migraines with pain in one eye, etc. The triggers you’ve mentioned and some of the solutions to help manage really add some context for me and help me to understand how to be my own best advocate. It’s also nice to know I’m not dying or seeing something supernatural 😂. I’m joking but very serious. Thanks again. I’ve never heard of this before, so it was hard to find information at first.
I'm glad you have a name to put with it now. I hope you don't have another migraine. Thank you so much for sharing! 🌸
I know it's been a while since this was uploaded, but I wanted to say that this was very informative. I get opthalmic migraines (aura - generally shimmering multi-colored lights - with no pain) a few times a year, but luckily I've never had a migraine with actual pain. The first time it happened, many years ago, I thought I was losing my vision! I had no idea what was going on, but smartly I went to my eye doctor and she explained what had happened. I find, for me, certain lighting conditions can trigger it, as can certain kinds of busy visual fields, but I don't really find the various foods you mentioned triggering (thank goodness!). Thanks for this!
I'm so sorry you suffer from this as well. Thank you so much for sharing and for being here!
Mine are more silent as well with auras that are triggered too with lights especially when waking up and seeing my phone in the dark, driving in the dark and catching the taillights/headlights or fluorescent lighting.
@DrRupaWong Thank you for such a great comprehensive video - it took me a long time to work out what was happening and find a medical term (aura) for it, and even then I've not found such a helpful video on the topic until I found your one today! I get ophthalmic migraines (silent migraine with aura) and have found that taking 25mg of Quetiapine (Seroquel) when they begin makes them stop - what do you think to that as a solution, Dr Rupa?
I'm autistic with ADHD and really can't cope with an hour of riding out the aura due to the sensory overload, as it's both eyes but also in my head (I can still see the aura flashing if I close my eyes, and my mind feels confused). My aura triggers are very similar to @neils123 and @starbucksjunkay, especially with sudden changes in light (particularly blue fluorescent light), flashing/strobe light, sudden changes in ambient temperature (e.g. walking in the dark/cold and then entering a warm, brightly lit place) ...and plain old stress. This means I have up to 7 in a week.
I get normal migraines as well (extreme light sensitivity, intense pain in my head and vomiting), though they're less frequent. The green liquid-gel capsule Advils (or any liquid-gel capsule ibuprofen) work really well for those, as long as I recognise it coming on quickly enough to take the Advil.
I've had my eyes dilated and checked by my ophthalmologist; and my psychiatrist has consulted with a neurologist: verdict from these specialists is my auras are caused by pre-seizure electrical activity in my brain, without going on to become a proper seizure.
(edited to correct spelling of ophthalmic and ophthalmologist!)
When I first started expirencing visual migraines I was just getting towards the end of high school, I genuinely thought I was going blind and was terrified. Thank you for this video, it was very informative and helpful 💜
Glad to help!! Thank you for watching. :)
The exact same thing happened to me, in high school. I'm 65 and I still get these opthalmic migraines. No headache. Last about 15-45 minutes. Just the symptoms described in the video. No eye doc has seen anything unusual.
Thank you so much. I have several ophthalmic migraines a year, but when the number increased to several times a week, I was directed to a neurological ophthalmologist and was reassured that all was benign. I suffer (and that is the EXACT term!) from migraines, first diagnosed when I was aged nine, for days at a time. Mine are on the right side, and I learned early on that when the vision blurred in my left eye, a migraine was less then an hour away. As I am now 70, I know that medications have improved, but at the time I was either violently throwing up, or in a darkened room for days. I have had many medical interventions for dry eye syndrome, and the ophthalmic migraines are back to about one a month. There was no cause found for the surge. I’m glad that you found some relief. Whenever someone says “Oh, I get headaches all the time.”, I know they have never experienced a migraine. It is not just a headache! If you are unfortunate enough to have migraines, seek medical help! It is literally life changing.
You are so right, Jeanne-Marie. Headaches and migraines are not the same. 😔 Thank you so much for sharing your experience. 💘
I've had them for nearly 50yrs. I get the aura's usually with a dull headache but I take strong daily pain meds. Before I had pain killers daily, I'd get them with super bad headaches that last 2 days.
Anxiety with bright lights, phone screens, TV screens or bright reflections while driving triggers them normally.
Sometimes I get them just as I'm waking up so not sure what that's about. Great video, very helpful for my wife who has just started getting them, she was freaking out but I helped her through it.
I'm so glad to help. I'm sorry you and your wife struggle with these. Wishing you both all the best in 2023!
This was brilliant. Thank you Dr. Rupa Wong. Finally after 70 living years on Planet Earth I've finally discovered what I have been suffering from. I first went to my doctor in 1963 at age 13, complaining of severe headaches and flashing zig-zagging lights, which lasted about an hour. They had no answer or name for my affliction. But at 73 now at last I know it's called ocular migraine (with flashing zig zag lights accompanied with just a slight headache.) Dr. Rupa Wong you seem to take a lot of medication for your ocular migraine!! By the time I was 30 (1980) I found I could gain considerable relief using Buddhist meditation which is a psychology and philosophy, and not necessarily just a religion, altho' it can be. It is ironic that I'm an Anglo-Saxon-Celtic UK citizen but I use Buddhist meditation and psychology to reduce stress. I take no medication for my slight ocular migraine.
I'm so sorry you were never able to be diagnosed accurately. Thank you for sharing what helps you. I appreciate you being here. 💘
I was in my '60s when the first one happened. Then a couple more in the next few months... since then, 10 years at least - nothing.
I only learned the name of my occular migraines in my forties. I don't remember exactly when. I didn't have occular migraines before that time. I have lots of triggers and they are all differnt and cause different lights and shapes.
I am so glad I have found this video. My son (14) has been dealing with this for a year. We have not been able to get any help to find out what it is. Is has caused him so much anxiety. It scares him so bad when this happens. I am sooooo thankful you made this video.
I'm sorry you and your son have been dealing with this. It can be so hard when our kids are scared or in pain. I'm glad this was helpful.
@@DrRupaWong yes, I shared this with him and it has made him feel so much better. Thank you, Thank you!!
@@alittleSouthernBrothers 💖💖
I think mine is related to fall allergys. the tree fall elm, maybe.
I’ve had migraines since I was a child until approximately 10 years ago. I am 75 now. I got floaters a a few years ago in my right eye and started occasionally to have these zigzag, I guess, auras in the same eye which lasts for a max of maybe 3 minutes. I never new why. I had no headache with it. I thank you for this explanation. ❤
I had never heard about the migraine/floaters connection before! I typically get 6 migraines per month. I also have floaters that I find very distracting, especially when reading. Interesting to learn about the connection!
I'm so glad to share, Emma! Thanks for being here :)
It's super frustrating that no one ever mentions sugar or carbs as a migraine trigger, it took me YEARS to find my triggers because of that. I regularly partake of other 'trigger' foods and I haven't had a migraine in months, but before, it was bimonthly if not once a week. Pain relief never helped, even high dose ibuprofen. I've always had that zigzag 'racing ants' type of aura which is a helpful warning to finish what I'm doing so I can go somewhere dark and quiet.
Thank you for sharing your triggers! Hopefully someone else can relate.
Interesting. I am 72 and have had opthalmic migraines with no headaches since about age 45. Usually one a month. I eat a lots of the foods she mentioned as aggravating migraines. Seven months ago I had a lung blood clot and during blood testing they discovered diabetes. I love sweets and carbs. I mean big time. I have drastically reduced both of those because of the diabetes diagnosis. Here is the interesting part. I haven't had a migraine since my diet change,
My aura/ocular migraines (my dr called them focal point migraines)are 100% blood sugar related, been having them since I was a teenager. Swapped from combined contraceptive pill to progesterone only, didn’t really make a difference. Then a couple of years ago I went on a lower carb Mediterranean diet, incl Time restricted eating with 16 hr overnight fasts, lost a few stone, and they stopped.
Yes my migraines have been reduced since I started reducing my sugar intake...
Sugar alone doesn't guarantee a migraine for me, but it certainly makes me more susceptible to one, possibly because a large dose of sugar can cause generalized inflammation, and may interfere with your zinc levels (I don't know if that factor influences migraines).
A friend of mine in school was getting migraines progressively more often, finally quit drinking Coca Cola (she'd been drinking a LOT of it) and stopped having the migraines. Don't know if that was because of the sugar, some other ingredient, or the dehydration that comes from drinking lots of caffeine instead of water.
I’m surprised you didn’t mentioned bright light and acute reflections of light as a trigger. I’m convinced that is what initiates my aura migraines 90% of the time.
Carlos, thank for your feedback and for sharing your experience! That is interesting. You definitely know your body better than anyone else and it is great you have learned your trigger. I hope that can help you avoid them for the most part.
@@DrRupaWong Thank you for replying Dr. Wong! I wish I knew how to avoid that trigger, but it just happens without me having any knowledge at the onset. 😞 I had the worst one this morning after dropping my daughter off at school this bright sunny morning and I ended up in her school parking lot for the next 2 hours because I couldn’t drive.
And yes, I also have those floaters everywhere. Very annoying sometimes.
Thanks so much for taking the time to address this. Not much information out there on this subject because it’s such an unknown as far as what specifically causes these.
@@l0raxbread438 I'm so sorry, Carlos. That is so hard. I am glad that I could at least share some awareness on this.
@@l0raxbread438 I think I have the same thing. I don’t know what causes it! I just bought a glucose meter I’m looking into maybe low blood sugar is causing my migraines.
same. bright lights like camera flash and reflection of light,
I have had Ocular Migraines since 1995. I have blurry vision and blind spots. If I am driving, I immediatley stop and have to wait them out. Fortunatly I dont have them very often but enough to know what they are. You are the first YT Doctor to mention them and I thank you.
Definitely best to pull over. That must be scary. So sorry! I'm glad to spread awareness.
Thank you for all this great information!
I started getting migraines since I was 8(when I first got my glasses) so I just always assumed everyone with glasses had them too😆
Turns out its been retinal migraine 😵💫
I'm so glad you got diagnosed. Migraines are the worst. I hope you find some treatments that help.
I had the same. Migraine stopped when I quit using my glasses 🤓
I don't get painful migraines as often as I used to but at one point, I remember having a floater that was particularly bothersome. It was the first time I'd encountered this and thought it was significant. A Co-Worker had also noticed that one of my pupils was dilated much more than the other. So, I made an appointment with an ophthalmologist.
He did the whole works, dilated exam, everything.
He asked me if I suffered from migraines.
At the time I was still encountering pretty painful ones and answered affirmatively. He explained that my floater and the unilateral dilation of my pupils were related to my migraines.
I've never heard anyone else mention the dilation thing before.
Did the floater resolve? If it did, did the migraines also resolve once the floater resolved? I'm so sorry you had such painful migraines. Thank you for sharing.
Floaters are not related to migraines. You have been misinformed.
I went to my eye doctor and he said that everything seems to be okay, my eyes are healthy..Then, i saw your vid and found that what i did experience was an ophthalmic migraine. Thank you for this very informative video doc!🥰
Same here. Did you freak out when it happened the first time?
My daughter was diagnosed at 5 with ocular migraines along with two other types of migraines. Thank you for explaining.
My personal exp: I was still in high school around 17 year old. I was hanging out with friends at the school's robotics club and I noticed a white "smudge" in my center of my vision and was weirded out. I went to the bathroom to rinse my eyes but that didn't do jack. It was followed by green and purple zig zags in my periferal vision and I called my mom to pick me up. Granted I kept it to myself and I just had my eyes closed the whole time. I planned to sleep it off and it was gone by the time I arrived home. I was relieved but I then felt a horrible headache set in and I was miserable until I finally managed to get some shut eye and woke up fine. Never got checked (I know it's foolish) and it hasn't happened till this day 5 years later
Goodness. That sounds scary. I'm sorry that happened! Thank you for sharing.
This sounds exactly like a migraine with aura! So if this happens again, you can take paracetamol or ibuprofen to get rid of the headache before it even happened :)
I get this kind of headache if it’s too bright, but now I seem to only get eye migraines :/
@@noraandreasson So sorry you have these migraines. Thank you for sharing what helps you!
Thank you for this video! The pictures of auras and the underwater view is exactly what I have, I've never seen any other video show it so realisticallly. I've had painful migraines all my life, with auras usually. Now I'm 71 and in surgical menopause and when my hormones dropped my painful migraines went away but I still get the ocular auras. They start as a tight ball in the center of my vision and I also sometimes have the underwater vision. I usually can't see whatever I am looking at, but have peripheral vision. Then as time goes by (20-40 minutes) the tight ball starts widening out to a ring that gets bigger and eventually works itself into my peripheral vision and the straight ahead vision returns to normal. Then the aura leaves my peripheral field of vision entirely. If I am driving I know to pull over and wait it out. I am so glad you are getting some relief finally. None of the things you mentioned worked for me when I was younger.
Thanks for clearing up this mystery for me. I have experienced what you have described as ophthalmic migraines occasionally for most of my life. The triggers are a mix of stress/anxiety and dehydration. Their duration is usually around 15 minutes, but can last as little as 5 minutes or as long as 45 minutes.
One thing not mentioned in the video is rather than pain, I always experience a feeling tightness around my skull at eye level, like there is a tight-fitting metal band around the circumference of my head.
I'm so glad you are able to put a name to what you are experiencing now. It can be so frustrating to now know what is going on with your body. Next time you go to the doctor let them know you are having these. Thank you for sharing and I appreciate you being here!
Yes! This!!
It's tough explaining that I have migraines "with no pain" because I feel like people think im making things up (or worse sometimes I think maybe It's all in my head)
Don't get aura per se but it feels like my eyes are trying to shut themselves down and that tight band feeling too!
Every once in a whole I get true pain, but it's something different for me most the time.
Stress/anxiety/(and I am starting to think dehydration as well) are major factors
I had a serious brain injury 24 years ago but I still have very weird side effects. Ophthalmic migraines is a new one to me but I was quite relieved to know I wasn't going blind. For me it was like the right side of my vision in both eyes was a kaleidescope. Since it was equal in both eyes and remained regardless of whether my eyes were open or shut, I knew it was a brain issue and not an eye issue. I'm really lucky because at least at this point there's no related pain. I had a friend who used to get cluster headaches and that was horrific.
Thank you very much for this information. I have had ocular migraines for over forty years. Thankfully, no pain, but occasionally feel slightly nauseous after the aura moves out of my line of vision. I rarely have a painful “regular” headaches. I am thankful for that!
I've only had an ocular migraine once and it was an horrific experience. It started out with blindness in my right eye and then moved on to the aura. It then transitioned to the most debilitating migraine I've ever had in my life. It was a 3 hour drive home - I was not driving - and I was seriously out of it the whole trip. The weather that day was cloudy and rainy and I believe that did affect my migraine.
I am glad you were not driving. That could've been dangerous. 🥺 Thank you for sharing. ❤
A drop in the barometer can trigger my aura migraines
@@DrRupaWong Thank you and, I would not have been capable to drive that day under any circumstance! Very frightening experience!
@@whatsthatnow7466 it can definitely cause me to have a migraine, too!
Thank you doctor, I am 22 and just had my 3rd migraine yesterday at work. My symptoms always start with blind spots in my vision which leads to nausea and a crippling headache. Yesterday I had to drive home 1.5 hrs with a migraine and I actually started crying because of the pain. I should go to the doctor to get checked out thank you so much!
I'm so sorry, Zynn. That sounds really hard. Yes, it would probably be best to go see a doctor. 🤎
Hi.. Having the same problem for a month now
My daughter of 7 complained about pain in her eyes and throbbing headaches. As a migraine sufferer myself I recognised this as a migraine, the same steps helped her and after a day resting it was gone. I'm glad I came across your video, I do think it's better to get it checked out.
Sorry to hear that. Its so hard when our babies are hurting! Yes, it is always better to get checked out.
Listen, this is the best explanation I have ever heard in the 15 years that I have been having these migraines, so THANK YOU Dr. Wong! I also had migraines more than 15 days a month. I have the aura, usually with no pain & that is a sign for me to take my meds. I usually also become very clumsy & I start dropping things and bumping into furniture. I also need a quiet, dark room. I would also get very weak in the knees, experience mood swings and general fatigue. I have tried Relpax, but nothing beyond that. Acupuncture would help a lot. The nausea would get so bad that I would end up in the ER because I would throw up everything and could not swallow the pain pills or even the water, it was bad. I also have Endometriosis and Adenomyosis, so just before and after periods, my migraines would be worse. I have since had surgery and my migraines persist, but I will say they are way less painful and do not last as long. I now just have about 4 Panadol extra strength pills & try to have a rest. Again thank you so much for the explanation. Love from Trinidad & Tobago.
I'm so glad to help! Thank you so much for letting me know this was helpful and sharing your experience. I'm sorry you struggle with these migraines too!
I had strange visual activity going on and I mentioned this to my opthamologist during my yearly exam.. After carefully looking at my eye health, she was very concerned that I was going to have a stroke. The next day I did have a stroke and ended up in the hospital on my birthday. That was six years ago. After 17 hospitalizations and several strokes I have learned all my triggers and what food to eat. I had to learn what meds would work, what side effects I had to tolerate, and a routine that would help me avoid future strokes, which apparently run in my family. This video helps me to understand better how to watch for impending issues.
Hi, Linda! I'm sorry to hear about what you've been through, I also had a stroke 4 years ago and many ocular migranes prior to that. If you could share what kind of medication you found works for you, I'd really appreciate it. I've been on Aspirin all these years, but it has too many side effects. I'm thinking about switching to Pycnogenol, but I have a feeling my doctor will not be on the same page.
Stay healthy and strong!
@@patrasculaura8988 I no longer have to take prescribed meds but I have to limit my screen time. My eyes are adversely affected by the light of any screen. It's fortunate I'm retired or it would make work life tricky. I practice silent meditation three times a day for a few minutes. I didn't like the side effects of the prescribed meds and tried every other "natural" opportunity to decrease my stress. Now I live in a state with legal cannabis and I find that helps calm my brain too.
@@lindabarnes4128 Thank you so much for replying!
This was a very informative and detailed presentation. I have had ocular migraines since age 19. Thankfully the headaches tailed off after about twenty years. The shimmering, squiggly, C-shaped auras continue over fifty years later without pain. I was shocked when you said you had up to 15 in a month! Perhaps time will afford you relief, also.
Thank you so much, Rick! The injectable medication has really helped me. I'm so sorry you also struggle with this. I appreciate you being here and sharing your experience.
I'm now 67 and began having ocular migraines at age 41. In fact, I can recall the very day I first experienced it while staring over the shoulder of a colleague looking at her computer screen. Like Dr. Wong mentioned, mine would last for around 30-40 minutes and then disappear. I'm usually left with a dull headache for a few hours but nothing like the pain regular migraine sufferers have.
A few years back I was dealing with the development of a rash on my cheek & hand that I could not, for the life of me, figure out the cause. My dermatologist was unable to help so after 5 months I did what we all do these days...turned to Google. Luckily, I ran across a comment from someone who had similar symptoms to mine and he said he discovered he had a vitamin D deficiency. I sent off an email to my PCP and asked if she would arrange for a blood test for me...which she did. Turned out my vitamin D level was low; which made sense because I've tried to keep out of sunlight since I've had a few issues with skin cancers.
Anyway, I began taking vitamin D supplements and oddly enough, the rash cleared-up AND my migraines went away. That's not to say I haven't had a migraine since taking the supplements, because I have. But nowadays they occur maybe once a year and usually because I have not been taking my vitamin D pills regularly. Prior to taking the vitamin supplements I would usually have ocular migraines at least 4, and sometimes 6 times a year.
So, for what it's worth to those of you who suffer from ocular migraines, you might ask your doctor for a blood test and if you're deficient like I was, see if this might help. I have to believe I'm not the only one.
Interesting. I take calcium and vitamin D for osteoporosis, and my ophthalmic migraines are very mild now.
My migraines are very different to these, they are intricately geometric and sometimes there’s no pain at all, the geometric aura oscillates and fills up the entire room, its bright, colourful and electric looking. Sometimes it flashes and looks like I’m staring into a different dimension. It was so scary the first few times when it became more vivid but when I realised nothing bad would happen I calmed down.
I am sorry you get them, but happy it doesn't scare you anymore!
I had my first migraine when I was 7. (I’m 59 now). I have ophthalmic migraines and “regular” migraines in the right front hemisphere. The opthalmic migraine doesn’t always trigger a brain migraine and are pretty painless.
I'm so sorry you struggle with these at all. I'm glad they are pretty painless for you though. Thank you for sharing and for being here!
Thank you!!! I’ve been having migraines for about 20 years. They take the form of the ice pick through the right side of the forehead. They either go away with medication or they need me to go to bed and sleep it off. Never found a trigger :( but recently they’ve been getting a lot worse and the thing I’ve been trying to describe to my doctor is exactly what you showed in the ocular migraines part. The strange blurry band around the edge of your visual field. I can go back to my doctor prepared now :)
I'm so glad this was helpful! It can be really hard to explain. I hope you get some relief soon.
Yes, it started when I was living in Saudi Arabia. My contract did not allow me to use the doctors in the hospital but I chatted with the head of neurology about my one eye watering and the pain. The pain was only located around my right eye within the orbital bone. He suggested that I pay attention to how much water I was drinking and it worked! The headaches went away as soon as I stopped camping in the desert on weekends and drank water constantly.
I'm so glad you found your trigger, Karen! Water is so important. 💦
I have ocular migraine without headache. I see the zigzagging/geometric shapes in one eye. I have the blind spot too. I see the shapes when i shut my eyes too
That’s the worst I’m so sorry!
My first migraine was at age 7, with no adults taking them seriously, so I pretty much suffered in silence. I get the multicolored zigzag that starts out small and grows in a large circle often accompanied by a blind spot that moves across my field of vision. But I also get numbness instead of an aura where my lips, nose or side of my face will tingle and go numb, but not as frequently as I've gotten older. Other signs of a migraine include the consonants of words being backwards, or my fingertip going numb and the area of numbness travelling down and then up one finger to the next. One migraine episode was so bad with pain on one side and numbness on the other that my sister called an ambulance because my face was drooping. Very scary but helpful because the doctors finally put a name to what was going on and people stopped accusing me of trying to get out of housework (serious eye roll here)
I have weird triggers...delayed reaction to stress (2 weeks after stressful event, like clockwork) or driving on sunny days when the sun flashes through the trees, and none of the food triggers - chocolate, caffeine and ibuprofen make the headache minimal if taken within 15 minutes. As I've gotten older, they have changed a bit. More aura than not. I learned in my early 20's that stressing out because I knew what was coming made them ten times worse, so remaining calm and relaxed helped so much. I rarely got them after my last child was born, and I thought maybe they were gone forever after about 7 years without one, but then menopause slapped me in the face and I get them about every 2 weeks now. They are nothing like they were, tho. I take 3 ibuprofen with chocolate and a caffeinated beverage and I'm good to go...unless one comes on while I sleep and I don't catch the aura - then I suffer for at least a day or 2.
I am so sorry you suffered in silence for so long. Hopefully, with more progress in this field, less children will have that experience. Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I really appreciate it. I am hoping these migraines lessen for you.
@@DrRupaWong compared to how they were in my teens and 20's, they are much easier to cope with. I rarely miss work because of them now, which is a blessing. My youngest daughter gets them too, and has since childhood, but because I knew what she was describing, I was able to help her. I had no idea that there were different types of migraine. Thank you for making this. Knowledge is power.
@@conniegheer576 It sure is. I'm glad to help!
Nailed my symptoms. Scary as hell. Didn’t have them for a few years until a few months ago. Confusion and difficulty speaking…. Then headache and Worst…. Projectile vomiting started and was extreme. Jeeeze…. Thought my migraine horrors were over. I’m 71.
Mine are exactly the same, and started when I was around 7 also.
Very very helpful. Clear and reassuring. It is unusual to have a doctor giving advice about medical problems they know because they experience them themselves. Thank you so much, Dr. Wong. I suffer from ocular migraines, the aura kind, but not frequent and painless; otherwise I suffer from ARMD for which I get regular treatment. I have also started to experience a kind of numbness around the eye zone and I duly will mention the fact to my doctor at my next visit thanks to your video. Thank you for being a true doctor, caring about patients.
I'm glad to help. I love learning and sharing. I'm sorry you struggle with these. Thank you for sharing so we all know we aren't alone in this. ❣
Wow this is so helpful. I started having ocular migraines 15 yrs ago and was just told it was hormonal. The computer aura images you show are exactly what I see and for the first time I could show my husband what I was experiencing. The dry eye connection was mind blowing because I have Sjogren’s. Thank you! I now understand what has been a mystery to me
I'm glad to help, Paula! I hope linking the dry eyes and migraines can be helpful in some sort of way. Wishing you all the best in 2023! 💘
I had an ocular migraine about 25 years ago. I had a retinal detachment about a year earlier and it really scared me because I thought it was detaching again. I was so relieved when it went away about 30 minutes later. I did not have any headache, just jagged red and green lines across my field of vision that moved from right to left and eventually disappeared off to the left. It was in both eyes. I have had reoccurances from time to time over the years. I have described the symptoms to eye doctors who have told me absolutely nothing about it. I did not know what they were until now. Thank you so much for this video.
I'm so sorry you suffer with this! Thank you for sharing your experience with us.
As a former ophthalmic nurse married to a neurologist, I found this excellent. Several years ago as I was chatting with my ophthalmologist boss I noticed the wallpaper seemed to be dancing. Oh, he said, that is an ophthalmic migraine. Ask your husband about it. I have had them on and off for years fortunately without a headache. I was delighted to see you address this. Well done!
Thank you, Deborah. I am glad to share. I hope it helps.
I've had that sensation of little things moving too. If I happen to be staring at a particular place or thing I will start to to think it (whatever it is) is moving and I'd strain to see it better and decide if it is really moving or is it my eyesight. Its interesting to hear that someone else has experienced this. I wonder if its a tremor of my eyes.
Wow, so glad YT recommended this video to me, it explained so much more than my eye dr did! For years I have only had headaches on the right side of my head with pain behind my right eye. One day I woke up with my right eye being super sensitive, painful to the touch and feeling like I was being stabbed in the back of my eye or like something was pushing on the back of my eye. I was also really light sensitive. I got checked out and they did all the tests and said I was fine and it was an ocular migraine, no mention of their being different types. I was also told I had dry eyes and to use hydrating eye drops but no mention of dry eye being linked to ocular migraines. It was absolutely terrifying when it happened but fortunately it has not happened again. I always thought migraines were like these horribly debilitating, have to lie in a dark room for hours, horrifically painful kind of things so I never would have thought that what I was experiencing was a migraine. Thank you so much for this incredibly informative video!
This is exactly what I'm experiencing. My eye is a little swollen shut, and it's painful to touch. It's the reddest my eye has ever been. I'm going to buy some blue light glasses to help, and hopefully get some relief in the future.
I had my first ocular migraine when I was 14. It was about another month or so before I had another one and then I basically had about 2 or 3 per week for a few months. Then they came back and for about a year I had about 1 or 2 per week. Auras, pinwheels, blind spot seemed to expand. I'd get nauseated and the headache . . . that pain is something that nothing else has equaled in my life. The headaches would last about 6 to 8 hours. No medication helps.
I have a trigger, as it turns out. Dehydration. I learned this when I was in the Navy--by that time I was getting them less frequently--about once every couple months. But I had one while taking a test in my technical training school. I finished the test, walked to medical, and got treated. The poor corpsman couldn't find a vein to and poked me about 6 times. He apologized and I was like "don't worry about it, there's nothing you can do to me that hurts like my head does." In fact, the pain of him trying to stab me with an IV needle was a welcome distraction. They gave me 4 liters of saline fluid. Ever since then, I drink about a gallon of water a day. I have one other trigger--suddenly not taking in caffine (If I'm regularly drinking coffee or soda.) I only get one or two a year.
My wife suffers from fibromyalgia and our oldest son has epilepsy. We've been told there's a link between these three conditions. So, we have a trifecta in our house. Yay!
My trigger is an interrupted sleep pattern. Next time you get the auras, take 2 panadol (paracetamol), 2 Nurofen (ibuprofen) and a can of Coke (or a strong coffee) as quickly as you can. Instead of about 15 minutes after the auras disappearing, you getting the blinding pain behind your eye for hours, you’ll feel a slight ache and a bit groggy for a little while. Trust me. Changed my life. If you wait til after the auras have gone it’s too late. Act as soon as you get them. I always keep both medications in my glove box and my work bag. I’m no doctor, but from what I can piece together, the auras are triggered by the constricting of the blood vessels in the brain and the migraine caused by the sudden release when they “let go”, so the caffeine helps to ease the constriction before the sudden release as it is a vasodilator.
I just had my second one. No pain but I see rainbows on the side of my vision.
I'm not sure if it was related, but I went in for an annual eye exam. I originally had migraines with auras, but over years, it changed to just retinal migraines. I mentioned to my eye doctor that I had had one on the way into the office that day. Mine are like having looked into a bright light, but I hadn't. He looked more closely and sent me to a retinal specialist that day as he suspected a detachment. The retinal specialist said, no, it was retinastasis which makes me more susceptible to detachments, and told me how to check my peripheral vision, and set a follow-up on a week and a half. A week later, I had a detachment. After a week and a half of treatments, the retinal was tacked back into the back of my eye with a laser. I still sometimes get an aura six months later, but no more signs of detachment. I might not have gotten my detachment treated quite as quickly without that aura, so there's that. I think the quick treatment allowed treatment in the office instead of a surgical center.
I'm so sorry you had that experience! Thank you for sharing.
Great explanation of what an ocular migraine is like to experience. The first time I had one I thought I was having a stroke. It scared me to death! That was about 10 years ago. My friend was driving me to the ER and he finally pulled over and called an ambulance because it kept getting worse. Everything checked out and that was my diagnosis. An ocular migraine. I had never been a person with migraines in the past. Some bad headaches at times but that is all.
This is how my first one presented. I was sitting on the couch with friends and then there were blank/empty spots in my field of vision. Shortly after than I started seeing bright, shiny, zigzag lines. They looked like a bunch M's connected and with an arch (How is that for detailed). As Dr. Wong states, it was all over in less than an hour. Something else to note. I didn't even get a headache until about the halfway point from when the visual issues had started.
I still get them. Nothing seems to be a trigger and I might go months until the next one. I just sit down and ride them out. I try to laugh because it is such a strange thing to go thru. As with my first one, I don't get a headache until the ocular migraine is already happening. Most of the time it comes towards the very end. The last one I had about 4 months ago didn't include the zigzag lines. That was a first. Just the blank spots in my field of vision.
Sorry, didn't mean to write a book with my reply. I just wanted to provide as many details that might help others.
No need to apologize. I appreciate you sharing! I am sorry you suffer from these as well. Thanks for being here. 😊
My ocular migraines start with a painless aura. The aura starts as a small blind spot that grows into a curved line. The line is filled with black and white geometric lines/shapes that have an iridescent & sparkly glow. It lasts for about 30 minutes. Then 30 min or so after the aura goes away I get an intense headache that lasts for 3 days. Sometimes is just the temples but most of the time it's the whole head especially the back. So, I guess I get both. Luckily, it's been about 3 years since I've had one. They seem to be triggered by flashing or moving lights.
This description is almost EXACTLY, word for word how I'd describe my ocular migraine. The only difference is that I'll get an 'ice pick' type of pain (usually in the back upper part of my head, or on the side of my head) shortly before the visual symptoms begin and then when those go away, usually approximately 30 min or so later, I will usually have no kind of headache or head pain. SOMETIMES Ill have a dull headache that lasts a few hours but that's rare for me. My triggers also seem to be flashing lights, or lack of sleep or dehydration. Sometimes I cant figure out what the trigger(s) is (are). Mine started in 2005, a couple years after I had a total hysterectomy due to endometriosis, so Ive wondered if mine began due to how messed up my hormones were for several years prior to the surgery and then going into menopause so suddenly at age 31. One thing Im unclear about though, as I've had various doctors tell me contradictory things and internet research Ive gives me differing opinions is: are these ocular migraines occurring IN THE EYE, or in the BRAIN? Like I wrote, Ive both told both explanations and Im very confused and I've wondered if I should see a neurologist about this (if it's in the brain) or not? Dr. Wong's discussion about it leads me to think it's happening in the eye, and she clearly knows her stuff so I trust what she said more even than the docs Ive seen (usually one time, like ER doctors that I've mentioned the ocular migraines to..) and so I appreciate this video **so much**, it really helped me feel better and less anxious about what's happening to me, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. Sincerely , Stephanie
I am thankful it has been 3 years and hoping you will never have another. 🤞
@@stephanie4569 Thank you for sharing, Stephanie. It is always best to go see a neurologist just to make sure nothing else is going on.
My migraines are always in my right eye and my eye twitches right before I get one. Bright lights, smells, and sounds are a trigger for me. I finally think I know what kind of migraine I get now - retinal. I've looked for eons online trying to find out what's going on. I've suffered with headaches my whole life and really bad migraines the last few years. Thank you for this video! Now I need to make an appointment with my eye doctor.
Thank you so much for this video! I have had visual migraines for 50 years, starting in high school, and never had them labelled so well. I have Aura migraines, starting with a central loss of vision, followed by full-circle zigzag that expands from the center until my vision is fully involved, lasts around 30 minutes. Usually my headaches aren't that bad and can be treated with aleve. What has always been fascinating to me is that I can STOP the migraine by taking magnesium. I can sense a migraine coming on and sip some magnesium water and boom, it stops the expansion of the zigzags. I realize that many people are deficient in magnesium and that this is a simplistic solution, but I wonder if you as a migraine sufferer have tried or researched the use of magnesium for migraines. I started with epsom salts in water, now I use a product called ReMag which is pico-ionized magnesium that goes right into the bloodstream. Thanks again for this video, it was very helpful!
I'm glad to help! Thank you for sharing what works for you. 🖤
This is the first time I've heard what I experience accurately described. I've told people what I was going through and they just thought I was on drugs or something.
I'm so glad to help! Thank you for being here!
Nice video! I find I’ve been getting migraines when I appear to take on a high load of stress. Could be environmental, emotional, mental factors. Other supporting factors; low sleep, high caffeine intake , not enough water and a imbalanced diet.
Before a big head ache, I always get auras, blind spots, and sensitivity to light. After it passes about 30mins-1hr later i get the big pulsating headaches. After that I feel weak and almost like an out of body experience, i feel dull and numb. Not fun!
I have exactly the same symptoms however I don't always get the headache as severely. Such an inconvenience when these migraines occur! I might get these once a month at most and it usually starts in the right eye and ends in the left eye almost like sunrise and sunset 🙈
That sounds awful, Matt! So sorry. I hope that you get some relief soon.
So sorry!
I thought I had only had two ocular migraines but after watching this I realize there have been more. The worst one was one that looked like an ekg printout but the the results were in bold black marker. I drew this and gave it to my opthmalogist who immediately said "ocular migraine and may I keep this drawing". Another looked like a colorful digital blockage you might see on tv news to block out a person's identity. Never any pain with ocular migraines but I do get a lot of regular migraines with pain. Medication takes care of those usually, thank goodness. Thank you for all the information.
Glad this was helpful! So sorry you struggle with this.
Yeah I’m convinced something is wrong with my cranial nerve. My migraine pain lasts 7-48 hours and sometimes even 72hrs. The pain is like a prolonged brain freeze which is definitely a sign that the cranial nerves are being affected. It all started with this feeling in my mouth that I would get on and off for 2 years that felt like I just washed my mouth with mouthwash. It felt like I had a strong mint in my mouth all the time. I sometimes can tell when a cranial nerve migraine is coming when my mouth gets numb and I can feel that minty flavor coming on. So weird, i’m planning on heading to Guadalajara or Tijuana soon to get a full scan and maybe some nerve medicines because American doctors are useless. They refuse to do a CT and just tell me i’m young and will be okay. Take Advil, no big deal! 😡 soo annoying..
I agree our (USA) medical profession is going down the tubes. I can't get help for 3 different ailments. I have been thinking perhaps they don't want to treat old people.
I’ve experienced the aura w/o head pain. I had it a couple of times that really freaked me out but it wasn’t often. Then in the early part of my second trimester of pregnancy I was getting them at least once a week. Super scary but I talked to my doctor about it and she helped lessen the worry. I haven’t had one in a couple of months now and I’m very grateful.
Ugh! This is my 3rd ocular migraine in 2 days! 😞 I'm so glad you mentioned floaters. I have them, and you're right about the background visual noise. I started getting them about 10 years ago. It was better for a while, but now I'm perimenopausal, and they're back 😮💨 Thank you for making this video.
@monicahernandez9989 what does your Doc say about this, any treatment options you are doing?
First time I saw this discussed. Zero pain but like the filament of a globe begins flashing really really small. It gradually grows and finally disappears out of my peripheral vision in a couple of minutes. Sometime twice a week or even only once a year. Never identified a trigger.
I'm glad to let you know you definitely aren't alone with this!
I get the Ophthalmic Migraines. When I first learned it was a type of migraine, it surprised me. I know a couple of people that suffer from migraines, and they talk about how bad the pain is. I never thought of it as an aura. To me, it is more like a crystalline pattern that is very colorful. It reminds me of a window on a winter's day when moisture freeze on it in crystal patterns. It used to really scare me as it would start off in my peripheral vision but get larger until it blocked my vision entirely. Now, when I can tell it is starting. I know that I need to stop what I'm doing, and just wait it out. It's a great excuse for a nap. Sometimes, though, it's just kind of enjoyable to watch the colorful show. If you're going to have a migraine, the painless kind is the kind to have.
You made me smile I've just had my first occular migraine in four years, and it scares the life out of me.I worry incase it will cause a stroke or seizure.I wish like you I could relax and enjoy the light show lol
@@kittybell4604 Once you realize it's not going to kill you or make you permanently blind, it's not so bad. Still, my biggest fear is it happening when I'm out driving in the middle of nowhere, and have to pull over to wait it out. Telling a police officer that, no, you're not drunk, just temporarily blind, probably isn't much better. :)
@@PBryanMcMillin How often do you get them now? What treatment options did your Doc suggest?
@@RG....... I don't get them all that often. but when I do they seem to come in streaks. I might get one or two a month and then go months without having one. It's been three or four months since my last one. My eye doctor said they tend to be triggered by stress and things like high blood pressure, alcohol, caffeine, heat and other things that stress the body. For me, I'm sure caffeine is an issue and I try to cut back on it. Also, I've had problems with heat since I was a child. While I'm sure there are actual treatments, my doctor said to get more exercise and eat better. I think that line is taught to doctors early in their training as no matter what you're seeing them for, they tend to work it into the conversation. I, also, think that spending hours staring at a computer screen may trigger them as I'm very guilty of that.
I must be the lucky one. I only see those zig zag lines; it doesn't come with a headache or anything. It usually starts as a really small blind spot, grows into a kaleidoscope and drifts off to either the left or the right corner of my eye.
I've had this for as long as I can remember, although there have been periods (years) when it was completely absent. Annoying when driving a car (I stop until it's gone), reading a book or watching a screen... that's about it. Typically lasts about 45 minutes.
It is so hard dealing with these migraines. Even if you have less severity, it can still be so painful. I'm really sorry you experience these!
@@DrRupaWong To me it's just normal. I'm not really bothered by it, unless I'm driving. I have had this since I was a kid and I only found out this was a medical condition when the internet became a thing. I always assumed it was a normal thing. Luckily I don't experience any pain... just the visual disturbances. Sometimes my head feels a bit heavy afterwards, but that's it.
@@uplinkx1126 So interesting! I am glad you have coped with it well.
I've always had migraines with aura and occasionally have ophthalmic migraines so this was interesting to see that the term "ocular migraine" covers both. When I was younger they thought they were food triggered, then hormonal, then eye fatigue...then I started getting them only between midnight and 4am while sleeping (so weird having my aura come through in dreams and knowing before I even wake up I'm going to have a bad time), then back to hormonal, and now trigger unknown because they are super inconsistent. Will definitely keep watch for only having issues with one eye though because that was new information.
I'm so sorry you have these migraines too. They can be so hard to live with! Thank you so much for being here and for sharing.
Over 15 years of wondering what was it that used to happen to me in middle school and today I randomly stumble upon this video. Well, that is a mystery solved that I didn't think I'd get to.
I'm so glad you have a name to put with what you are experiencing. I'm sorry you struggle with this. Thank you for watching!
Great and helpful video. Thank you! I've had ocular migraines (pain-free) for decades, although earlier in life I had debilitating "regular" migraines (without the visual). I always have scintillating scotoma, it never takes more than 20 minutes to arc. A month could pass without one, then suddenly I'll have 3 a day. After my own research as well as conversations with my eye doctor, I'm convinced I'm extremely sensitive to certain environmental "things" but still don't know exactly what. It's a process of discovery. Your video is excellent in describing the scintillating scotoma.
"A process of discovery" is a great way to put it! I'm sorry you struggle with these. I really appreciate you. Thanks for being here. 🥰
Very powerful information! Thank you! I do get the aura version of this bizarre condition without the headaches. I'm 64 and it started about 8 years ago. This video has answered so many questions I had about this. Thanks so much for putting it out there 🙂✌
I am glad to help! Thank you for being here. I'm sorry you have these migraines as well!
I have suffered with migraine since the onset of puberty so I definitely think there is something hormonal about them. All through my youth I was plagued with them and they spoilt my life because they always seemed to happen when I was looking forward to something special and instead I would be having to stay in a darkened room.
My first one was scary, I was out rollerskating and I could only see half of everything, I also had numbness and tingling in my arms and I couldn't understand what was being said to me or get my words out properly. I remember going home and my father was questioning me about what was wrong and I couldn't respond clearly but my mother had also suffered and knew what I was trying to say and just put me to bed in a darkened room. Then the crashing, unbearable headache which would gradually get worse and worse until I vomitted (just bile) and it would then recede.
This dogged my life, happening once or twice a month and I spent a lot of my working life in various company's sick bays, sometimes being cared for by somebody who knew exactly what it was because they themselves suffered but a lot of the time by people who had no idea.
I suffered terribly through my first pregnancy but had some respite for a few years after, not getting them so frequently.
My 2nd pregnancy wasn't until 6 years later and this seemed to trigger them again and I continued to suffer with them more frequently but not as often as in my youth.
I read that they rarely occur after the menopause but mine just changed to occular migraine. I'd get the visual disturbances ("the fizzies" I call them) and sometimes the numbness (but not often) and they make me feel a bit spaced out afterwards and usually quite sleepy but they don't have such a major impact on my life and I have weeks without them and then suddenly 2 in one day. I'm 79 now so I think it's safe to say that I will have them for life.
I gave up eating cheese and drinking alcohol but chocolate never affected me. Stress seems to be a trigger but not at the time, it usually happens when I've been under a lot of stress but calmed down.
I find that trying to remain level headed and not too excited about things, and not try to do too many things at once, helps. Well maybe.
I'm so sorry you have suffered from these migraines. They can be so hard to live with! I am glad you found some triggers. Did that help lessen the amount you experience? Thank you for sharing with us and for being here.
I started getting ophthalmic migraines a few years ago. The first time I had one it really scared me because I didn’t know what it was. There was a bright flash, then a pulsating brilliant light just to the right of the center of my vision. It gradually grew into a partial arc composed of bright, zigzagging light that kind of pulsed. It grew bigger and bigger, all while moving further to the right until eventually disappearing off to the side. It lasted for about 20-25 minutes and was not accompanied by any pain whatsoever. It was terrifying though because I had no idea what it was.
I don’t know what triggers it, but I get two or three a year, whereas I get a dozen or more regular migraines a year in spite of knowing what most of my triggers for those are.
On the subject of regular migraine triggers, I found one of my main triggers a few years ago that has helped me avoid many headaches, and I hope you share this one with your viewers. Red dye #40. If I drink a bright red punch or soda, it’s guaranteed that I’m going to have a really bad migraine. If someone has frequent migraines, check the ingredients of the foods and drinks you consume. If you cut out the ones with red dye #40 and you have a reduction in the number or severity of your migraines you can thank me.
Great Suggestion! Everyone has different triggers for their migraines, I am happy you were able to find your trigger. But, also very sorry you have migraines in the first place.
The reason why I'm watching this is actually because I have a painless aura right now. This is only, I would say, the fourth time...?...this has ever happened to me, but after taking myself to the eye doctor, FREAKING OUT, the first time, they told me what it was, and now I'm only inconvenienced, not afraid .This always manifests the same way with me: bright green, white, and yellow lights right in the front of my field of vision, and I can only see blurred shapes through them, and then this semi-translucent purple orb kind of thing comes up into my field from the bottom. Never from the top, oddly enough. I can only see out of my right eye in the first place--I'm visually impaired--so it's annoying, but I find that, the less I freak out and let my blood pressure get up, the faster it goes away. I'm looking through gold streaks right now while typing this, but no purple orb, so that's good. The first time this happened, I was only twelve years old, so of course I flipped, and the damn thing lasted for a full day and a half because I was so high-strung. It's never hurt, though.
PS: Pardon any typos: I can't freaking see, LOL.
That sounds so difficult. Of course it scared you! Especially at 12 years old. I am glad it doesn't hurt you. Thanks so much for sharing your experience!
I am now in my late 60's and have suffered from migraines since I was 15. From middle age my migraine headaches became less severe, but I developed ocular migraines, which generally affect my vision for around 30 minutes. The worst symptom I have occasionally suffered with ocular migraines over the last 20 years is the inability to speak coherently, for example I have been unable to order in shops or cafes during the migraine. The key trigger for me is stress, the greater the stress I have had at work the more often I got migraines, since I retired I suffer a lot less from them.
I am glad they have lessened. Congratulations on retirement! Thank you for sharing your experience with these migraines and being a part of my TH-cam community!
My experience is similiar. I am 66 but in my teenage years I developed headaches which started with the aura, became a dreadful headache and ended with nausea, but these became less frequent as I got older and I havent had the headache now for about 25 years, but I do get the aura occasionally with a white zig zag light....this usually goes within 15 minutes. If I can I take a painkiller tablet and lie down when it starts. I am retired too and love it!
I've had occular migranes with aura for over 20 years. My mother and brother do as well. My mom taught me to use Afrin as soonxas possible and it does clear the aura within minutes and helps if I do have a headache which don't always. Hope this helps someone.
Thank you for sharing that with us, Shannon. I'm sorry you struggle with migraines. I appreciate you being here!
Dr. Wong, I am entering into my fifth decade as a migraineur and I want to thank you for providing one of the most succinct and impactful deliveries of knowledge I've ever heard. My migraine symptoms are extensive and as I age they are changing. I now have horrific pain on the surface of my left eye which prompted me to see my ophthalmologist. He diagnosed me as having developed a new manifestation of migraine, but after hearing your video, I think I'm having dry eye issues which are a new horrible trigger. I'm making an appointment Monday. Thank you so much.
I'm so glad this was helpful. I hope your appointment goes well, Laura. Let me know what they say if you can. Thanks for watching!
Emgality has been a lifesaver for me after trying everything else. For years, I was diagnosed with depression because I needed to spend so much time in bed in a darkened room. I don't always get an aura but sure was scared the first time it happened. A change in the barometric pressure or someone smoking a pipe or cigar will trigger a migraine before I'm even aware of the weather changing or the smell of smoke.
Several other people have also commented that secondhand smoke was also a trigger for them. I am glad you were able to identify that and find something that worked for you. How long have you been using Emgality? Thank you for sharing. 💞
Emgality is the best! Nutec is the wonderful when the migraine comes on. I don’t have any visual auras, but I do get olfactory auras sometimes days prior to my migraines. At times, I don’t get the actual migraine after the olfactory aura. I was told to treat the aura as an actual migraine.
I’ve had migraines since I was around 8 or 9. In my late teens, someone told me to try Extra Strength Excedrin, and it worked well in lessening the pain. In my 50s, my internist said that there was a drug that can stop my headaches before they start. He prescribed an old antidepressant called Elavil that’s used off label for headaches. I take one each night before bed, and I never wake up with headaches like I used to. Occasionally I will get a tension headache (always in my temples), but the Excedrin takes care of it. Hope my story can be of help to someone.
Low barometric pressure Is a headache trigger for me.
SO much to unpack in this little video! Thank you doctor, well done! I have suffered with general headaches since I was a child and specifically migraine for about 15+ years. I also have auras and dry eye, so that's my trifecta! If anyone out there is suffering from headaches when you get up in the morning, I highly suggest you get a sleep study. Turns out I wasn't getting enough oxygen and also expressing too much carbon dioxide. Since I've been on Cpap with oxygen therapy, I don't get the morning headaches, thank the Lord! I still get migraines, but not nearly as often. 😁👍🏾❤️
I'm so glad the migraines have decreased for you!
Thank you so much for watching.
I've had occasional ophthalmic migraines (without headaches) my whole life. I see prismatic coral-type shapes that can block my vision. As a kid, I wasn't really able to explain it to people, and I had other issues that were more pressing. I found out it was migraine related in my teens from a 60 minutes article. Overall, it is not a big deal for me, but occasionally I just can't see well. Now that I know it is real thing, I don't try and power through it and don't drive, or whatever.
I've had those all my life too, since I was 12. When I was young, I would get the headache after the visual aura. But as I got older, the headaches quit happening. But I do still occasionally get the visual migraine aura, usually a couple of times per year. No pain, just irritating. Starts off as a tiny blind spot in the middle, then spreads out and gets larger as a "C" shape, until eventually leaving my visual field, and it's over with. It looks like zig zag rainbow kaliedescope or something, and flickering the whole time.
I hadda stop driving. It causes them; then I'm nervous cuz I can't see, which of course makes it worse. 😂