Silent migraine. What to do?

I started with these after the menopause. I had never had migraine before.

I seem to get them in batches. I had three in one week about a month ago. I haven't had one since.

I was blaming it on the fluorescent lighting in an office I was in. . I get the zig zag lines and small blind spots which last for about 20 minutes. I take ibuprofen as soon it starts and don't get headache. My fingers and lips tingle for a while longer.

I get one about 4 times a year or so. Ocular migraine. And as everyone says they last about 20 minutes. What is unnerving is that even with my eyes shut I still "see " the bright white zig zags. A recent one did happen when I was out having a coffee. Had to sit in the car for half an hour till it disappeared.

The eye hospital are not concerned at all when I mention them at my annual check up for glaucoma.

My husband gets ocular migraines quite frequently. We have never managed to find a trigger for them. Like HelterSkelter1 the hospital said it was nothing to worry about.

Mine are similar but lifelong and I can’t say if I will get the headache or not after the initial visual disturbances and sometimes speech issues and numbness. I do know the trigger for most though, which is flashing lights. The light can be simply a flicker from a passing tree sadly. I often wake up with one and can only speculate as to why. Red wine makes no difference (as I’ve been told a hundred times is the cause, it isn’t for me). Dehydration and tiredness is also a trigger. Silent ones are a blessing.

I have had them, but not for a couple of years, I had my optician check my eyes, all fine, he said causes can be stress, tiredness or dietary.

I scared my manager and her manager to death one Saturday afternoon when I suddenly told them that I couldn’t see! I told them that I thought it was a silent migraine and that it would pass, but I don’t think they believed me. That was the only time it happened to me. I got the zigzag lights before my sight went which was the giveaway.

I call them 'fly's eye', because of the way the symptoms seem to be in segments. Last 45 minutes. Brought on by catching a flash of light the wrong way, or looking at someone who is sitting in front of a window with the glare of the sun shining in, or on days when there is a grey but 'luminous' sky. It does pass, but difficult if you are trying to work through an episode, since you can't read or drive.

I've had full on migraines since I was 11 ...now 70 and still get them ...hospitalised 4 times for hemiplegia as migraine causes paralysis on one side of the body ,like a stroke .I'm on medication still for attacks which are Im glad to say less severe and preventative meds at night (also given to epileptics) . They say you grow out of them when you go through the menopause but you don't. Only time I didn't suffer was when I was pregnant ...so I'll just have to keep taking the medication .

I get them fairly often. At first they terrified me. Now I just accept them as a nuisance. They last about half an hour . I sometimes get a minor headache after. They are scary until you realise they aren't really serious. I am just glad that I get these migraines and not full blown ones. My darling sister in law missed my son's wedding a few weeks ago. Having travelled for hours the day before, she spent the day of the wedding in her hotel room being very sick and in a lot of pain. I feel blessed that it is only optic migraines that affect me.

The flashes and muzziness are not nice, I'm always expecting it to turn into the pain, though this rarely happens. I don't often get the full headachy migraine, just wake up with it on occasion.
I keep some of the migraine version of ibuprofen in the house, I don't know why but it seems to work a little faster than the normal one. I always take it with coffee as caffeine is suppose to make it work better.
I've a suspicion that mine is related to eye-strain.

I get the ocular migraines from time to time. In 2015 I had an ocular migraine at 6.30 pm in the evening. At 9.30 pm I had double vision and it turned out to be a TIA (mini stroke).
I have since learnt that very occasionally a TIA can follow so if you have double vision don't dismiss it.

My first was nothing to do with age or menopause - I was 27 and a few months pregnant for the first time. I could hardly see to drive home.
I did have high BP later on in the pregnancy, so maybe that was a factor, but my BP had traditionally been on the low side.

That'd interesting Witzend, I've actually had raised blood pressure for a couple of years, roughly coinciding with both kinds of migraine.

\Ditto, Visgirl. I have had them for years, and have been treated at a hospital eye clinic for years, as a "glaucoma" suspect, where I've mentioned them a few times, but never been given any response or advice. I see black and white striped sparkling shapes. There's no pain, and they last for anything between 10 - 25 minutes usually.

However, a few months ago it occurred to me to see if Gransnet might help and I searched the old Forums on the subject of Health and came across a whole stream about similar experiences. It seems to be called ocular migraine, and the best bit was finding out that paracetamol will help. It had never occurred to me to take anything as there was no pain. However, instead of just patiently waiting for it to stop, I now take paracetamol which speeds up recovery!

Used to have full blown migraines that lasted for a few days. Nowadays I just get vision disturbances in one eye ( always the same one) followed 30 mins or so later by bad headache over the other eye. All usually gone in a couple of hours. I do find that when I get one then I then get several more over the next couple of weeks.

I used to get a lot of full blown migraines…then the past 18 months or so I’ve been getting the Retinal Migraines. Was worried and didn’t really know what it was…like a kaleidoscope takes over your eye! My sons partner knew straightaway what it was when I described them as she gets them too…a few weeks ago I had 3 in one day….just feel a bit tired afterwards….I had one once whilst driving …luckily I could stop.

I used to have the full blown sort, where they began with visual disturbance and then severe headache accompanied by nausea and sometimes vomiting. Starting when I was 10-11, they were worse during pregnancy and tailed off during and after the menopause. I now occasionally get the visual disturbance but no headache, apparently called silent migraines?

Also suffered since childhood. I’m also on different meds two daily and a triptan when I get an attack. They have also come through in various form’s through the years. No hemiplegic hospitalisation for me thank goodness.
However two of my children seem to have inherited it for which I’m very sorry.

An apt post .. I am getting them constantly at the moment - aura numb head disoriented- almost a permanent state of not being present .. have just taken first sumatriptan reluctantly and will see what happens
I am on a course if magnesium and riboflavin which takes three months to work but thinking I might have to dip into my private health insurance and find a neurologist .. has anyone on her seen one ?

My doctor put me on Amitriptyline for silent migraines as I was getting them twice a week. The medication had helped although I have 3gad 3 in the last 6 months. Horrible things which appear to have no trigger for me.

I get frequent ocular migraine. Sometimes a couple a week then months will pass until I get another batch. Quite strange as sudden loss of central vision is very worrying. The zig Zag lights flash from this central 'blind spot' and then move slowly to my peripheral vision and then disappear. Takes 10 -20 minutes start to finish. I would panic a bit if I was driving but would pull over and stop until it had finished. No pain at all but I do feel odd not being able to see. Like most sufferers I've been advised they are not serious.

I have been getting quite a number of traditional migraines lately because of stress (moving house) and had one this morning. I need to see if I can get some better medication but Migraleve is a help. Lying down in a darkened room is the only way to overcome them and even then I will feel sleepy and fragile for the rest of the day, which is frustrating with so much l need and want to do.

Why are so many people getting them ? It’s a massive amount of people when you look into it - it’s so very common ..

Never knew this is called silent migraine - creepy name for an unpleasant condition. I started suffering from this a couple of years ago, just after getting Covid (but maybe coincidental). Bright light seems to be trigger. Did get bad full-blown migraines in my 20s. But not had one for years. Flickering light in eyes used to be signal that I was about to get one. So every time it happens now, I’m always so relieved that it’s not followed by a migraine. 🤞

@Lostmyglassesxx, migraine is the most common chronic condition - far more sufferers than anything else; about 1/4 of the population suffers from them, obviously some more severely than others.