Does this sound like a typical migraine aura?

[inksmudge]

So last May I suddenly, without any apparent explanation, began getting flashes of light in my vision. There are three types that I get:

1) Small pinpricks of light. These appear usually every couple of minutes, though occasionally I'll have several in one minute and other times they seem to go away gradually and even disappear for a few weeks. But for the most part, they're always there as I've gone 3 months without a significant pause in the flashes. Each flash lasts only for a split-second. Sometimes the sparks of light are colored dark blue or orange, or any color really, though most of the time they just look like white light.

2) Largish, circular moving dots. These are not always there and come in bursts. Every few months I'll be doing nothing in particular when suddenly I notice a dot that is darker at the edges and bright in the center whoosh gently across my vision, remaining in my vision for probably 3 seconds on average before disappearing. Then many more quickly follow. Oftentimes there are several moving in my vision at once, all appearing and vanishing at different times, all moving in different directions. These episodes of lights last usually no longer than 15 seconds when the last light leaves and no more appear. The lights themselves may be colored dark blue or indigo around the edges, though sometimes it's just a black/dark grey/shadow border. I experience no other symptoms when these lights occur, nor am I doing anything unusual when they happen.

3) Sudden, bright flashes of light that take up most of my vision. These are also fairly rare compared to the first type of lights I described and occur about as rarely as the second type. The flashes are bright, usually white, cream, or slightly neon greenish and are incredibly easy to believe are actually happening. They usually move quickly downwards, have no definitive shape or borders, and give the impression of a very bright object falling in front of you. One time I was standing in my hallway when one of these flashes occurred and I ducked and covered my face as I thought that the (still lit?) lightbulb had fallen down (I know that wouldn't happen but that's what my reflexes believed were happening) from above and was about to hit me in the face. This type of flash does not occur in groups, so once I get a light like this, I don't get another for months.

I went to my optometrist when the first type of lights started as we thought I could have a retinal tear, but my eyes were dilated and inspected and they said everything was fine. We were still concerned though, so we went to see a very experienced ophthalmologist for a second opinion and they confirmed that there was nothing wrong with my eyes, and that the lights would have to originate from my brain. At an contact lens fitting appointment another doctor offered to take a look, examined my eyes, and said the same thing as the other two and recommended I see a neurologist.

The neurologist immediately diagnosed me with ocular migraines since my mother occasionally suffers from them, but my mother's are the typical kind and her experience is very different from mine. Besides very mild myopia, my vision is otherwise normal and I do not experience tunnel vision or zig-zagging lights or any of the other visual symptoms typically associated with ocular migraines. I occasionally have minor headaches due to dehydration or emotional distress, but there is no correlation whatsoever to those headaches and the lights. Headache or no headache, the lights remain unaffected. I was prescribed topamax and sent on my way. The topamax did not reduce the lights at all, in fact, they may have even been increased in frequency. I took this medication for three months before I had to stop as it was severely interfering with my concentration, memory, ability to use basic grammar, as well as catalyzing one of the worst episodes of depression I've ever had. At this point, I had an MRI done to make sure that I didn't have any growth or lesions in my brain causing these symptoms and everything came back relatively normal. My neurologist is still insisting that the lights are a migraine aura, but that just doesn't feel right to me. I haven't heard of any migraine sufferers that have the same situation I do, but I'm also not an expert and for all I know, this could be extremely common. The neurologist also says that it could be hormones causing it, but I am also unsure of that. In the end, she wrote in her chart essentially that I was experiencing frequent migraines that were resistant to treatment, "without status migrainous" and told me that there's nothing we can do since the other medications would make me more depressed than topamax did. Thankfully the lights aren't debilitating but they are annoying and the third type of light I described does mean that driving is unwise as I'd likely swerve or slam on the breaks if one happened in the car.

A bit of extra information in case any of it matters: I am 17 years old and female. I received a mild concussion spring of 2014 but had no lasting effects beyond the first month of original concussion symptoms. After coming off of topamax, I began having infrequent dizzy spells which still happen every now and then. The dizziness occurs without any other symptoms and has no correlation to the lights.

So basically, do the lights I described sound like a typical migraine aura? Or an ocular migraine? Has anyone else experienced something similar and if you did, what was the cause and were you able to make the flashes go away? I personally haven't been able to find any information on this online, so if you have any ideas about what could be causing this besides migraine, please share them. Thank you in advance =)