> I sure had scary thing happen to me last Friday. I was reading something on
> the computer then suddenly I notices blurry spot. I looked away from the
> computer and still saw it. Sort of like a little flashing spot. It was
> slowly getting larger. I closed my right eye and still saw it, closed my
> left eye and saw it with my right eye but not as bad. It was still growing
> large. I was getting really freaked out about this. Told my mom to call the
> doctor. The on-call doctor was a cardiologist. He said it could be a blood
> clot and I should get to an ER. We explained my condition and that it's not
> easy for me to just go, we don't have a van. He said he wanted to consult
> someone else and call right back. At that point everything was blurry and I
> could barely see anything. This was about 20 minutes since I first noticed
> something. The doctor called right back. While I was talking to him my
> vision cleared up back to normal. He said I should get to an ER as soon as
> possible even though it cleared up. We called 3 van companies, the first 2
> won't pickup without an appointment, the 3rd was able to since it was sort
> of an emergency they could pick us up in about an hour. While I was waiting
> I got a really bad headache.
>
> Well to make a long story short, the ER doctor said I had a migrain and
> reasured me that I was not going blind, which is what I thought. He said
> that it could happen once or twice in a person's life or if it reoccurs
> frequently it can be controlled with medication. So I'm going to see a
> neurologist in a few weeks.
>
Jim,
I had a very similar situation several months ago with the diagnosis of
optical migraine. I didn't have a head-ache, just the flashing, swirling
lights. Nearly scared me to death. The opthamologist said it was caused by a
disturbance to the blood flow to the eye. I asked if that could indicate a
blood clot or blood vessel blockage; he said he didn't think so in someone my
age. He didn't think it was neurological in nature. He asked about high blood
pressure, but I don't have a problem with that. He said to watch caffeine
intake and take an aspirin a day. I asked what to do if it happened again. He
said to call my regular dr. as it wasn't technically an eye problem. So far it
hasn't happened again. When it first started, I saw spots as if I'd just seen
a bright light, like a flashbulb, and I have noticed since then that whenever
I do see bright lights, even bright sunshine, it seems to take my eyes a long
time to get back to normal. I did also read that migraines (optical or
otherwise) can come after a time of stress, and that was true in my case.
Barbara H.