Migraines

JHarper33(AT)aol.com
Sat, 8 Nov 1997 17:00:19 -0500 (EST)

I had a disturbing experience yesterday. I'd appreciate any input anyone
might have. I had to make a presentation to our home school group which I
enjoyed and which went really well, but took a lot of time and effort and
some stress to prepare for, plus the nervousness of speaking in front of
people, plus getting to bed late the night before. When it was all over, I
was relieved and happy and looking forward to going home and relaxing. The
kids and I went through the MacDonald's drive-through on the way home, and I
noticed something strange in my vision of my right eye, as when someone takes
your picture and your eyes see a grey dot for awhile. I assumed I'd seen
something bright and my eyes were reacting (it was a rainy day; headlights
were on.) On the way home, I felt things were increasingly not right in my
vision, but couldn't place it exactly due to driving. By the time I got home,
in the lower and right edges of my vision in my right eye, there were a lot
of lights and movement. The movement was similar to seeing the blades of a
ceiling fan going around in peripheral vision. I went upstairs just to be
quiet and alone for a few minutes and turned off the lights, closed my eyes,
opened them, etc., to try to assess what was going on. The episode lasted
maybe 10 minutes. I called my primary care physician, who, unfortunately,
closes early on Fridays and got his answering service, who said they'd give
my name and no. to the dr. on call, who was not my regular dr. He never did
call back, but I called the opthamologist I'd seen last year just to ask
about it. When I'd seen him before, I had to have a referral, but,
thankfully, that was no longer the case, so they said they'd see me that
afternoon. I had seen this dr. last December due to flashes of light in my
eyes, but the flashes then were occasional, just a second or two long, and
seemed like someone was flashing a light or taking a picture just beyond my
vision. He said then the retina was fine, but as we get older the stuff
inside our eyes thickens and sometimes pulls against the retina a little.
Ever since then I've had those kinds of occasional momentary flashes, and
sometimes a momentary flash of pinpoint sized blue light, but figured it was
the same thing. But this day's episode was longer, much more light and
flashing, and had the movement. And scared me to death. After examining me,
he said the retina was normal. I told him about the TM and that I was told TM
could turn into MS and asked if it could be neurologically related. He didn't
think so. He said he thought it was migraines. I thought that odd because I
wasn't having any kind of headache at the time. When I had first called the
office to ask about all this, the receptionist said something about possible
ocular or optical (can't remember which term) migraines. I asked the dr. what
triggered migraines; he said usually caffeine (I hadn't had any that day and
don't have much anyway) or high blood pressure (mine is usually on the low
side.) He asked if anyone in my family had migraines; they don't. I asked
what caused the eye to act like that; he said the blood flow to the eye is
temporarily interrupted. I asked if that could indicate a clot or blockage;
he said possibly in someone who was 70 or so, but not someone my age (40). He
told me to take an aspirin a day and cut back on caffeine. I asked what to do
if this happens again; he said to pursue it with my regular dr., that it
wasn't an eye problem.

So, as usual, a lot of questions come up after leaving the office. My husband
wonders if the stress of preparing for the presentation that morning had
anything to do with it. I thought it odd that that would trigger a reaction
when I was relaxed and not at the height of the stress, but he said often
when he has something like that to do, he does fine before and through it,
but then has an awful headache afterward. If that's the case, I'm not sure
what to do. We really can't eliminate everything stressful. I'm not even
talking about heavy stress here: maybe pressure would be a better word, the
pressure of having a deadline and getting everything set up that I wanted to
do, etc. And it was a happy stress, if that makes sense. I wasn't dreading it
(except for some nervousness about getting up in front of people, which
usually goes away once I get started); I was really looking forward to it and
enjoyed it.

I don't know whether to just take an aspirin a day as he said and not think
about it any more unless it happens again, or to call my regular dr. Monday
morning and tell him what happened (and complain about the dr. on call not
calling me back...) and see what he says to do. I'm going to try to look up
info. on the Internet about migraines...I've heard the term "silent
migraines" somewhere before...., but I wanted to toss this out to you all
first and see if any of you have had any similar experiences. I did run a
search through the tmic archives to get info. people had sent here previously
about migraines. I do have some odd little feelings in my head at times that
I don't know how to describe; they're not painful; but if this is a
migraine-type thing, maybe it's related.

Thanks a bunch!!!!!!!!!!
Barbara