Hi all, I have a concern and need some reassurance. Lately, with or without dizziness I am feeling an odd visual sensation which is very hard to describe but I’ll try. I feel pressure behind and around my eyes. it feels like something is almost trying to push my eyes out of their sockets at times. And of course I have blurry vision and it feels “swimmy” . I feel this sensation every day. Not always all day though. For instance this morning started with jagged flashes of light in my right eye which lasted 20 minutes then came the swimmy, pressure vision for a few hours. That went away and then I got a terrible headache which was followed by more swimmy vision and now being topped off with dizziness. It seems to change throughout the day. But this vision stuff is scary. My neuro can’t see me for two more weeks.
What you’re describing sound exactly like the typical migraine aura of a scintillating scotoma.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma
Eye pressure etc is migraine. Blurry vision is migraine. Swimmy, migraine. I too have those symptoms every day. A lot of people here do.
Visual flickers for 20 mins is the aura. If you can get prescribed a triptan, like Zomig, you take that when you get the first sign of flickers, and it helps to prevent the terrible headache coming. Doesn’t always work but can take the edge of it.
Most people freak and think they’re having a stroke when they see the vision stuff, but try to stay calm, it’s just your brain throwing a wobbly.
x
Yeah, sounds like migraine to me. I often get the pressure around my eyes when my trigger level changes. For example, when I started the migraine diet…my dizziness went down, but I started getting the pressure around my eyes. So, it sounds like you may just be having symptom changes related to your migraine trigger level and threshold.
I may be more cautious about this than others, but while those symptoms could be migraine, if they are new to you, it couldn’t hurt to see an ophthalmologist (*not *optometrist) to rule out any serious issues, especially with flashes of light. Sudden appearance of flashes and/or floaters are a warning sign for a few eye issues in addition to migraine. I don’t know where you live, but if you want to be checked out for peace of mind, there are usually ophthalmologists who see people on an urgent basis.
Hi Whirli67,
Sounds like a text book example of scintillating scotoma - jagged flashing lights for 20 minutes for a known migraineur. Check out some of these images and see if they look familiar.