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paulablake

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Joined: 18 Mar 2004
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Location: UK

Loss of Vision Posted: 03-18-04 19:41pm


Hello i am a 32 year old british woman, who has been getting migraines since I was 17. They follow a pattern, I start to see a small light zig zag shaped, like when you look into a light or someone takes a flash pic and everything had this in hte middle htat you look at. Over the period of 25 minutes this gets larger and forms a circle until I can see only through the very centre of hte 'loop' like tunnel vision, if I take a migraine high street pill at this point, I usually dont get a headache, if I dont I get one. I have been to doctors, optopetrists and no one can put their finger on ewhy I get them, that, or htey cant be bothered! I am just wondering if anyone gets similar symptoms, and if anyone has any miracle cures cos I am getting fed up now!! I heard feverfew is goo, does anyone know? Paula

Straight

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Joined: 20 Mar 2004
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Location: Sweden

Re: Loss of Vision
Posted: 03-20-04 00:51am

paulablake wrote:

"...I start to see a small light zig zag shaped, like when you look into a light or someone takes a flash pic and everything had this in hte middle htat you look at." etc.

i have had exactly the same symptoms. I have a book (somewhere collecting a ton of dust) that describes this as quite common. As with you, if I can get to the tablets “in time” i’m spared the actual migraine. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help very much if it comes on while I sleep (as with last night!) because this “vision” business doesn’t wake me. Naturally, it is this very sort of attack that puts me off the most as I wake with the most painful of headaches. It is now 5 pm and it is still lingering just a bit. I use tablets called “naproxen” but I don’t know if it goes by the same name in english-speaking countries.

oopoopoop

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Feverfew Posted: 03-20-04 01:11am


My boyfriend has had serious serious migraines since he was a teenager. Two years ago he spent 6 weeks off work...Last summer he started getting his pre-migraine symptoms, and someone recommended feverfew. Even though he is normally very anti any kind of alternative therapy, he tried it. Took the pills every day for about a month and the migraine never came on, and he hasn't had one since.

Justnow

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Joined: 25 Mar 2004
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Posted: 03-25-04 08:35am


I am 16 and I am starting to get these migrains. A little while ago in the summer is when they started and I just passed it off as a heat thing. Then again it happened when I was in school (very hot that day) an then after I was playing hockey where again I was getting hot and when this does happen to me I get a little bit jumpy so my mother took me to the doctor he told me what it was and that it is caused by eating msg and things like that. So tonight I fried up some steak and put some montreal steat spice on it and just as I was doing it I thought that this is probally exactly what the doctor was talking about and sure unuff I got one and now and prolly for about 2 days I will have a head ache.

Forum Girl

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Joined: 15 Oct 2003
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Location: Orlando, Florida

Posted: 03-25-04 11:32am


What you are describing is what I have. My migraines always start in my eyes with the spots and weird colors and partial loss of sight. That lasts about a half hour or so and then it will go away and whichever side of my body the migraine is going to be on, the opposite arm will suddenly and instantly go to sleep. It feels just like you've slept on it wrong and lost feeling in it. That lasts maybe 5 or 10 minutes and then instantly wakes up again. After that, the side of my face will go numb and tingle. That only lasts a few minutes and then as soon as it goes away the headache hits me full force. The first time this happened to me was when I was in the 10th grade and it scared me to death. My teacher noticed I was acting weird and asked if I was feeling well and sent me to the office to call my mom. The school sent me home and my mom and dad both rushed home from work because after I told my mom all about my symptoms she thought I was having a stroke. I got an emergency doctors appointment and found out it was a migraine. Because my first symptom started with my eyes I was referred to the eye doctor and a neurologist. The neurologist came to the same conclusion that I was suffering from migraines. The eye doctor however pinpointed it down to what is called (forgive the spelling) an opthamonal migraine. I know I didn't even come close to spelling that right. But it basically means its a migraine that starts in your eyes. He said you can have different experiences with it in that you may have white lights zigzagging across your eyes or see very colorful "auras" in your field of vision (i've had that a couple of times...It kinda looks like tv fuzz but its lots of different colors) or you can get spots in your eyes that disrupt your vision and cause temporary partial blindness. I almost always have that and the best way to figure out if i'm experiencing that and about to have a migraine is to look at words in a book or on a piece of paper. If you look at a sentence or a line in a book (look at the whole line not just a few words) I notice that words will just be totally missing. Anyways, I know I wrote a lot but I knew exactly what you were talking about and I wanted to tell you my story. I feel your pain - migraines suck!

Justnow

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Joined: 25 Mar 2004
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Posted: 03-25-04 11:44am


I m very glad to know that other people are haveing the same thing as me. I thought that I should share somthing that the doctor said so that u know what is going on back there. There is a nerve at the back of your eye and when this happens the nerver does what ever lets say crubches up with another one. Then after, the nerve will relax and hit up againt other nerves and thats what causes the head ache.

Straight

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Joined: 20 Mar 2004
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Location: Sweden

Posted: 03-25-04 17:40pm

justnow wrote:

so tonight I fried up some steak and put some montreal steat spice on it and just as I was doing it I thought that this is probally exactly what the doctor was talking about and sure unuff I got one and now and prolly for about 2 days I will have a head ache.

believe it or not, you are very lucky, "justnow". You've only begun to get these headaches and yet you are already "on the right track" to discovering the causes! Many people don't even know it's a migraine and even when they realize it they have no clue to "why". I wish I was a lucky as you when I was 16! When I was that age people used to think it was only "highly intelligent people" who got miraines! Therefor, I must have been imaging all that pain! Count your blessings, "justnow"!

Straight

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Joined: 20 Mar 2004
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Posted: 03-25-04 17:54pm

floridagirl wrote:

"...The side of my face will go numb and tingle. That only lasts a few minutes and then as soon as it goes away the headache hits me full force.

I feel your pain - migraines suck!"

during a period of only 1 year, I had similar “warning signs”. A numb-ness (that “sleeping feeling”) would start in the little finger of one hand and slowly move across to the adjacent fingers (keeping 2 or 3 fingers numb) but “releasing” the previous fingers, one at a time. After getting to the thumb, it would then start on the other thumb and works its’ way across that hand in the same manner. It was very strange but it was nice to have the “warning”. After about one year the “warning signs” went back to the “flashing before the eyes” once again. I’ve also had that “numb-ness” in the tip of my tongue for a short period.

Oh yes! They "suck" alright!!!