My-Graine

My eyes went wacky today. I was playing pickleball, and noticed that I was seeing what looked like negative afterimages one would see after looking at the sun. But, since I had reached for a high shot, and had been briefly blinded by the sun, I just figured my eyes were taking their time getting back to normal.

Then, as I walked back to the car, I noticed some blurring in my peripheral vision, on the bottom edge of my left eye. I figured my sun glasses were smudged, and I trudged on to the car. However, once I got there, I realized the blurring was actually alive. I was seeing fractured shimmers, with pretty colors. It almost seemed like I was underwater, looking up at the sunlight playing on a windy surface.  Wow! thought I... how strange!

This is kinda what it looked like:

I figured that maybe, just maybe, I was dehydrated. I had just played about six games of pickleball with only one break. I grabbed my bottle of water and began to guzzle it down. The shimmering continued as I began the drive home, then it began to progress across the field of vision of my left eye and only the least bit on the right. The vision on the periphery improved as the fractured shimmers progressed toward the center of my vision in my left eye. As I drove there was a moving, crooked line of color down the center of my vision - enough to blur the white line of the road, but not much more. How annoying! How strange! And...  how (just a tiny bit) frightening.

By the time I walked into the house, about 25 minutes after first noticing this strange effect. It was gone. I hate it when things like this happen. Do I call a doctor about something that is no longer a problem? And next... what doctor do I call? Is it a problem with my brain? Is it simply my eyes? Do I see an MD, or an eye doctor? Do I wait to see if this happens again? Oh, what to do?!
I finally decided to call a local optometrist. We Dreamers had recently decided to switch to a small, local practice, but had yet to make an appointment. I explained what was happening. The receptionist explained that they had no openings until next week, but she put me on hold, and evidently talked to the Optometrist. He would make room for me within the next hour. So, off I went, feeling a bit weird about seeing a doctor while having no symptoms.

I really like the Optometrist. He was very interested in my symptoms. He was very thorough. After listening to my description of the vision impairment, and examining my eyes, he inquired as to whether I had a headache. Nope. Well, maybe just a little. Then he explained that I had experienced an ocular migraine. I had a migraine aura, without the headache. It can be brought on my bright lights and dehydration. Hmmm.... spot on! I consider myself lucky. If I must have a migraine, I'd much rather have it my way!