Visual Migraine

Just before leaving work I was staring intently at the monitor and noticed the formation of a visual symptom. The distortion is the more common C or hooked shape comprised of scintillating colors. The core of the effect started out intensely bright though this soon faded. I was wearing my glasses when the symptom started.

Immediately after the symptom started, I covered my eyes with my hands blocking out all light. It seemed as if this would help as the phenomena decreased in intensity, but once I took my hands from my eyes, it was clear that it had no effect.

Meals today include:

* Steak biscuit and Diet Coke

* Veggie burrito from Qdoba with grilled veggies, rice, black beans, sour cream, cheese, and Pico de Gallo (mildest salsa). Large tea (half sweet / half unsweet)

Medications today include:

* Amoxicillin for tooth extraction last week

Doctor's Visit Today

My neurologist said I have migraines.

She also said that she could do LOTS of test on me, but only ordered one, an MRA. The MRA is to determine if I have an aneurysm or narrowing of blood vessels. JOY!

MRA is scheduled for Sept. 28th.

Split Vision 08/27/2010

Since my troubles with my migraines started hitting new levels of interesting, I have a few instances where my vision has wanted to split, but I was able to stop the process before it finished by relaxing my eyes. This has happened maybe 3 times that I haven't reported here.

Today I was unable to stop my vision from splitting as it came on too suddenly and it took several minutes to end. As always each image was a full image as one would expect from his or her eye, yet each image was offset from the other. In this instance the image from my left eye was lower and to the left of the image from my right eye.

Often altering my focus on distant objects helps relieve the problem, but it did not seem to help today. Instead I focused on an image on a coworker's dry erase board and relaxed my eyes between bouts of trying to get the two images to merge. Another coworker came along and talked about his previous and my current eye issues. He had similar issues with the visual migraines before and his seemed to be caused by an infection or fungus in his sinus cavities. I have issues with my sinuses though I'm unsure if mine would also be the same as I have been having the eye strain and split vision issues too.

Additional Information

• My vision wanted to split earlier in the day, just after I woke as I we preparing for the day. I hadn't done much more than wake and gather my clothes. The sensation passed quickly.
• The day before I had some Oral Surgery performed to remove my #2 molar (my upper right side last tooth before my wisdom tooth). I have been prescribed 1 week's worth of Amoxicillin for infection and Lortab 7.5mg for pain. I took 1 Amoxicillin tablet around 11AM yesterday but forgot my evening dose. I have taking my morning Amoxicillin today. I have not needed to take any Lortab for pain however.
• Yesterday I ate a lot of vanilla ice cream after the oral surgery. Some pasta with olive oil and Parmesan cheese, and French bread. I had nothing today before my initial bout with my vision and before the stronger event I had a sausage biscuit and 2 bottles of water plus my Amoxicillin tablet about 1 hour prior.

Different Version of Migraines?

I've been relatively Migraine free for the past month or so which is why I've stopped logging my symptoms. I did have a string of days were my eyes were very susceptible to eye strain (left eye, band along the top 1/3, lasted maybe 5 minutes per episode for about 4 episodes over 6 days).

Yesterday however I had several eye pains that felt as if someone were stabbing me in the eye or just behind the eye. These pains seemed to become reduced when I closed or covered the eye and were worst while I was gazing at the computer screen.

The pains individually lasted less than a minute, sometimes for only several seconds, but would at times repeat several times, almost as if in a rhythm, before becoming dormant again. Once I went to bed I had very few pains despite reading before going to sleep. After waking I had a few very dull pains but these ended after about an hour and were not as painful or frequent as the ones the night before.

I did not wear my glasses at all during the weekend.

Event Log 06/23/2010

Wednesday afternoon (06/23/2010) around 3PM I got a sharp pain in back of my upper neck on the left side, less than in inch from center. It was very painful for about 2 or 3 minutes before becoming more subdued. After about 10 minutes the pain had all but disappeared, replaced with a tightness that became pain if I looked to my extreme right.

Around 9PM of the same day, while playing cards at a friend's house, my index finger on my right hand went partially numb. Most notably it was numb from just under the fingernail to about mid finger on the half closest to my thumb. The numbness slowly spread until the entire top of the finger was numb as well as half of the lower finger closest to the thumb. This lasted for about 5 to 10 minutes and was completely gone after about 30 minutes (though I imaged my hand feeling somewhat odd for the rest of the night). My upper arm seemed to ache ever so slightly as well. I did not notice any chest pain or irregular heartbeat (not that I know that I would).

I have a section of my left leg, in the outside portion of the thigh just a little lower than where my hand might hang, that goes numb frequently. It has been suggested that this is a result of my weight (low circulation) or a pinched nerve. I don't know if these items are related, but thought I would add them for completeness.

Meals 06/24/2010

Breakfast

• Weight Watchers Berry Blend Yogurt with Bare Naked Granola added
• 12 oz Orange Juice.

Lunch

• Hook and Ladder sandwich (8" on wheat) from Firehouse fully involved
• Jalapeño Chips
• Large Diet Coke

Diner

• 8 oz Homemade Chicken Salad
• 1 oz Feta Cheese w/ 1 tbl Olive Oil
• 12 pitted green olives

Snacks & Drinks

• 12 oz diet coke
• 12 oz orange juice

Event Log 06/22/2010

While getting some cheese for my pasta, I got a particularly strong glare of light in my eyes which became a mild visual migraine. The shape was roughly crescent shaped, opened to the right with a bit of a squiggle on the lower end. The crescent scintillated while the area within the crescent was a bright blue. The whole event passed relatively quickly, and I had no after effects (no headache, nausea, etc).

Meals 06/23/2010

Breakfast

• 12 oz Orange Juice

Lunch

• Mama Alma's Veggie Quesadilla w/ Rice and Beans (Rice and beans mostly untouched)
• 20 oz Diet Coke

Diner

• Chick-fil-a Spicy Chicken Sandwich with Pepper Jack cheese
• Waffle Fries
• Large Diet Coke

Snacks & Drinks

• 20 oz Diet Coke
• 20 oz Dr. Pepper

Meals 06/22/2010

Breakfast

• Weight Watchers Berry Blend Yogurt with Bare Naked Granola added
• 12 oz Orange Juice.

Lunch

• Qdoba Vegetarian Taco Salad with corn and beans salsa, grilled veggies, cheese and sour cream
• Chocolate Chip Cookie
• Large Diet Coke

Diner

• Large bowl of wheat pasta w/ olives, tomatoes, and feta cheese dressed with olive oil
• Hard Roll

Snacks & Drinks

• 12 oz Diet Coke
• 2 x 12 oz (approx) glass of Diet V8 Fusion
• 9 Oreo cookies

Meals 06/21/2010

Breakfast

• Weight Watchers Key Lime Pie Yogurt with Bare Naked Granola added
• 12 oz Orange Juice.

Lunch

• Black Bean Burger, Dressed from Baker's Burgers
• Fries from Baker's Burgers
• 2 x 16 oz fountain Diet Coke

Diner

• Grilled Hamburger on Hard roll with mayo and mustard

Snacks & Drinks

• 2 x 12 oz Diet Coke
• 2 oz of Feta Cheese w/ 1 tbl Olive Oil, 20 olives, 2 hard rolls
• 20 oz Diet V8 Juice

Event Log 06/18/2010

Today I stopped by the local Subway to get a sub for lunch. While waiting in line I stood under a spinning ceiling fan. The fan overlapped a light and the two together caused a strobe like effect. I've watched strobe lights before and have never had any ill effect from watching. In fact there's a pretty well known avatar that some people use on internet forms that flashes quite fast and displays the words "I hope you have a seizure". I've never experienced any ill effects for the display.

This time however, with everything bright except for the rhythmic shadows created by the fan/light combo, I could tell my eyes were reacting poorly. It felt as if my eyes wanted to cross and split into double vision. I covered the top portion of my sight to exclude the fan's blades and almost immediately felt better. When I removed my hand and begin seeing the fan again, I instantly felt worse. In fact I started to become very nauseous and I'm convinced if I had forced myself to continue to experience the display, I would have passed out. The nausea took a few minutes to pass after I left the fan's caustic effects behind me and I'm left with only the slightest bit of a headache right behind my left eye.

Friday 06/04/2010 12:30PM

Shortly after lunch while exiting the restroom and walking down the short corridor back to my cube, my focus quickly went from normal, to out, and then back to normal again in the course of maybe a second. Afterwards my balance was effected such that while I could walk somewhat normally, I had trouble walking a straight line for more than about ten feet. My balance was restored after maybe 5-10 minutes and I was left with a VERY mild headache behind each ear, just above the bony knot behind the ends of the earpieces of my glasses.

Breakfast (8:20 am) was a Sausage Egg and Cheese Biscuit and V8 Fusion Juice (Tropical Blend I believe).

Lunch (11:30 am) was a Veggie Cheese Quesadilla, Rice, and Beans with Sweet Tea from Mamma Alma's. (Veggies included broccoli, cauliflower, zuchinni, bell pepper, onions, and perhaps others).

After lunch (12:05 - 12:30 pm) I had a portion (maybe 8 oz) of a 20 ounce Diet Coke before the change in focus and balance.