Seeing spots again
Friday January 26, 2001 – 5:00 pmNote: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.
Had my first ocular migraine since before Thanksgiving.
Discovered Napster!
Update: Comments are closed on this post; the discussion continues on this newer one.
December 12th, 2003 at 11:00 pm
I think that I am having a "painless" or "silent" migraine so much of the time now. I had migraines (the throw up, pounding kind) earlier in my life and now have the silent ones. I’ve seen wavering (like the person who described his as the thing in the Schwartzenager - spelling - film), had half a page disappear, topza and lavender block C and U like those running Christmas lights, a butterscotch colored scarf, a cassette tape blowing around, and many times I catch sight of just a sparkler out of the corner of my eye. Sometimes after walking in the the extreme hot or cold, I feel feel as if I have had a combination deja vu - did I dream that experience — disoriented — yet I function very well; it’s as if I’m in two worlds for a while. I also smell things, sometimes very, very intensily, so much so that I jump up, even though I know what it really is! Other times I will smell the same smell for a long time repeatedly. They continue — both sight and the smell ones, while I close my eyes to go to sleep. I awaken just fine! I am writing this because I just had one and decided, finally, to look this up online. I was so glad tohear the person who asked about disorientation. I have experienced that a few times. I have been checked out by an the eye doctor and a neurologist. I do worry sometimes that this is indicative of other horrible things to come! Thanks for your site!
January 1st, 2004 at 4:21 am
Priscilla, your posting is intriguing.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a condition so similar to the painless migraine with lots of floaters, scotomata, scintillating patterns — very little colour, whitish, electric and odd apperceptive states — compounded of both deja vus and jamais vus, sometimes very disorienting with memory lapses which I now think about on the model of the visual scotoma — that for at least six years have been an almost daily occurence.
SS last from a few minutes to about 45 minutes but the clutter rarely recedes altogether. In my teens and twenties, the pattern had been more focused. It would occur once every few weeks and last about an hour. It became more and more diffuse through the ensuing decades — still with no pain.
Like you, I cope and get a lot of done but it really is a very strange reality to have to deal with and steer through all this invisible stuff and not have any way to refer to it in the shared language.
I’d be grateful for any insight.