optical migraines?

[Nona]

dear friend has had what she says are optical migraines Hx for past 6 years; she says w/ variable occurrence, e.g., x3/ week; one in 8 months. she wants to learn to fly. has had enhanced MRI w/ neg findings; normal neurological; normal EEG, blah blah. says the episodes are w/o any pain but w/ flashing scotoma of 20 minutes or so duration. should she consider medicaton? other diagnostic procedures?

thanks, nona

 

[bbchien]

This is a hard one, Nona. The visual phenomena may or may not be such that they cover some/much/little of the visual fields during an episode. There are NO migraine protocols, and these are left to the discretion of the Federal Examiners in OKC.

Their outside expert is Dr. Jack Hastings of the Univ. of Oklahoma in Tulsa. If she wants to pursue this, she should likely see HIM before applying.

 

[Nona]

Dr. Bruce,

thank you for your reply. Yes, she tells me that the experience of them is that it begins as though she has a smudge on one lens of her glasses, very small. but then, over the course of the next 20 minutes or so, it develops into a scintillating flashing like thing that grows until it reaches the outer part of her eyes, and then it disappears. When I asked her today, after reading your post, she said that at no times has her vision ever been so occluded that she couldn't see to do whatever her task was that she was doing. Oh, and then she added that they are almost invariably brought on by days of very bright sunshine w/ cloudless skies or spending long hours at the computer (she is a CIS specialist). Would she just call Dr. Hastings directly?

thanks,

Nona

 

[bbchien]

Email me. I've got Jack's contact information in the file but I won't be his friend if I post it.

Bruce

 

[gprellwitz]

Magowana,
First, Welcome to PoA!
You might want to start a new thread about this. Not only is this thread almost seven years old, but ocular (optical) migraines, the subject of this thread, are very different things than the sort of migraine that could conceivably be confused with a headache.

And sorry, but I can't address "regular" migraines, but one of the docs will, I'm sure!

 

[JeffDG]

How to know am having a normal Headache or Migraine? What is the different? How to cure it? I always have problem in knowing whether I have a Migraine or just an ordinary Headache. Obviously, I always have a bad headache that can last for about 2 to 5 days. Ordinary medicine such as Paracetamol (500mg x 2) is not really effective for me. It makes me taking another strong medicine such as Ponstan (500mg) to reduce my headache. However, the painkiller could not last long, sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. I just think that my headache become worst in some way that sometimes Ponstan no more effective for me and force me to take another medicine such as Sonap (275mg) which is usually used for Migraine. It is mean that am having a Migraine or we have some level of Headaches?

Migraine is not a severity of headache, despite popular misconception to the contrary. There are specific neurological differences that distinguish tension headache from migraine. Basically, a tension headache is muscular in origin, with tension in muscles around the head. Migraine is vascular in origin, coming from the expansion of blood vessels.

You can have mild migraine headaches, and you can have extremely severe tension headaches.

There are specific meds that are prescribed for migraines. They are not pain killers, but vascular constrictors. The most widely known is Imitrex (sumitripan), but they generally fall into the triptan class of medications. Because their effect is throughout the body, constricting blood vessels in someone who has partial blockage in the coronary arteries can result in serious consequences.

The only way to really determine if you have migraine or severe tension headache is for your doctor to conduct an appropriate diagnosis, often involving a referral to a neurologist.