Flickering in eye - optical migrane?

[TineBiene7]

About once a week, I have a vision disturbance, which starts as a tiny flickering dot that gets larger and larger and turns into an irregular type of circle.  The edges of the semi-circle are like jagged "saw-type" sharp edges in brilliant colors. At first it seemed that I was seeing this in both eyes, but recently I have been able to pin it down to my left eye only. When I close my eyes I can still see the visual disturbance, only the colors are more vibrant. The semi-circle gets larger and larger until it is out of my peripheral vision, which takes about 15 to 20 minutes.  During this episode, I am unable to focus on anything (can

[philnoir]

I would think blood flow to the retina would be more important than blood pressure, but I don't really know much about the eye.

An opthamologist is a medical doctor trained in the anatomy and physiology of the eye, as well as eye diseases and their treatment, and is your best bet for getting to the bottom of this issue.

Good luck.

[sappshots]

I just had my second episode tonight, three months apart. Both were within 30 minutes of strenuous exercise, and with both I hydrated before, during and after the workout with water and vitamin water — I hope it doesn't contain aspartame.
After the workout, I went straight home, ate protein while watching TV. The small jagged circle, which had total fuzzy vision in the middle, slowly grew larger (then I could see fine through it) until it was gone within 30 minutes. No headache. Still interesting, and a bit disturbing. Beautiful, colorful shards.
Recently had eye checkup and was told my eyes are very healthy.
Think I'll go have an overdue checkup for general health because I wonder if blood pressure affects it.

[jesseritz]

I see an OD (optometrist) every year; known him for 35 years. He referred me to an eye MD (ophthalmologist) for detached vitreous (flashes); for the optical migraine he didn't refer me... we just talked about it. Keep in mind that he understands my general health. When I began getting optical migraines there wasn't the wealth of information (good and bad) on the internet. In the early 1990s there was no information about *optical* migraines. For ten years before that I searched chat rooms on Compuserve, the Source, and private dial up services (even ham and CB sites talked about other things). My point is: if you don't have a 35 year history with an OD, or don't know that there are a dozen specialties regarding the eye and don't know much about floaters (I mapped mine), glaucoma and cataracts, visit an eye doctor and establish a relationship.

[Ball123]

Visual phenomenon like this should get checked up properly. It is most likely some sort of migraine symptom but could potentially be very dangerous. Should be checked!

[nataliedawn68]

This site has helped me enormously - had my first one today. Was looking at a laptop screen, all the words starting to 'swim' around the page. Saw a zigzag pattern around a circular shape across everything I looked at. When I closed my eyes it was bright white and the zigzag was silvery and spinning around. Got really distressed and teary - very frightening experience.  Wore off after about 20 minutes and other than the worry had no other symptoms yet. Called my opticians who advised to go to A&E which I did. Had the back of my eye looked at and have a consult at hospital in 2 days. This has given me a much needed insight into what happened - thank you all for posting.

[nataliedawn68]

This site has helped me enormously - had my first one today. Was looking at a laptop screen, all the words starting to 'swim' around the page. Saw a zigzag pattern around a circular shape across everything I looked at. When I closed my eyes it was bright white and the zigzag was silvery and spinning around. Got really distressed and teary - very frightening experience.  Wore off after about 20 minutes and other than the worry had no other symptoms yet. Called my opticians who advised to go to A&E which I did. Had the back of my eye looked at and have a consult at hospital in 2 days. This has given me a much needed insight into what happened - thank you all for posting.