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

[newearth1]

I have just had an episode of this as well: A jagged colourful shape to the left of whatever I focus on.  I try to look at it, and it just moves more to the left.  Presently, it is diminishing and seems to have moved out of the center of my vision and into the periphery, but I must say that my head actually feels quite heavy and "full".  I feel like my reaction time is likely very low compared to what is normal for me as well, like it takes a moments for me to process whatever I am viewing.  This is utterly disconcerting; however, I am glad to have found a forum with so many people suffering a similar anomaly of vision.

[BranHay]

Hi, the first optical migraine (with the same flickering zig-zags in the visual field) I got 30 years ago when I was about 12. Since then, I had 5-6 more until I hit 20s. In twenties I had it once or twice; in thirties maybe 2-3 times, and now in 40s had it twice... Same length of about 30-45 min, except for one time in my early 30s when it lasted about 4 hours....
Analyzing the situations I was in when I get them, this is what observed and derived from it: Strong physical or mental activity that is accompanied or followed with the about medium (or even lesser) visual straining activity (even the light reading) complemented with not enough rest and/or hydration and always, always with the lower blood sugar (I am not even border line diabetic) that you know is there since your stomach really feels empty and you have passed the over-hungry threshold will cause my optical migraine....
That all makes sense since the condition is caused by the lack of oxygen flow to the eye and the above observation surely triggers that.... Without that over-hungry feel I had never had any optical migraine....
Importantly, in most of those situation I was either going without food and water for at least 5 hours, or I had a strong unusual physical mental activity with almost none (mostly none) hydration and very late food intake of at least 3-4 hours later...
Hope this can help some of you prevent the recurrences by not letting yourself go without food for 5 hours or more and water for 4 hours or more (reduce those hours drastically if you are exercising or doing heavier mental work)..
Thanks and Good luck!

[Weezi21]

I have had optical migranes since I was sixteen, I'm now 22. I know one is coming on because I can only see half of what I'm looking at when it starts, by that time I can't speak I know what to say but I can't talk. I get really, really dizzy and nauseated. This lasts up to an hour and then I get a blistering migrane that follows, it's been so bad at times I had to be rushed to the hospital.

[jivequeen]

I had this happen to me a couple of months ago, but mine was also accompanied by a strip of black across the top of my left eye (I'm left-handed btw). I had the black strip first.  Because it didn't hurt I didn't think it was anything serious and would right itself, but after getting the kaleidescope lights and patterns I went to the eye clinic the next day.  I actually had a detached retina and was four hours away from losing my sight completely!  I had an op that afternoon to put the retina back.

All has been fine, until 2 weeks ago when I had a small flickering in the centre of my vision which then developed into a white light. It last about 5 minutes.  I went back to the eye clinic and had a scan but it seems to be a mystery.  The consultant said its probably caused by a nerve being damaged by the laser when the repair was being done and will take a while to settle.

It seems the time to worry is if you have any black areas (loss of vision), then get yourself to the eye hospital straight away as its probably a detached retina and needs to be treated asap.

[Rectifier]

Wow.  So many people with identical descriptions.  My wife just had one of the Optic Migraines for the first time.  She described it as a Jagged Semi-Circle with bright brilliant colors that vibrated and seemed to flow through the jagged shape.  She also stated the object was more brilliant and could be seen when she closed her eyes.  The episode lasted about an hour for her and she stated she had a head ache the whole time and it got worse after the shape disappeared. She also identified her blood pressure as 156/98 during the episode. She is right-handed and the object appeared in her right eye, so I agree with others that it makes no difference if you are right or left handed. Additional background is that my wife has migrane headaches, has siezures, and is currently taking blood thinners due to a clotting disorder.

[Patti_4]

I just had the zigzag rainbow to the left of my eyes, thought it was something more. I did get a headache after, which is rare for me to get any headache at all. Just finished an intense yoga class, with inversions so I'm guessing that's what caused it. I've been doing yoga for 3 years and have never experienced this before. Scared me that I could not see or read, like a blind spot, I hope I never get this again.