Ocular Migrane: What is it? Food Poisoning? Genetics? Chocolate?

I’ve had a ocular migrane before. I didjn’t knwo what one was until recently, but it has definately happened. It used to happen very infrequently, maybe once every one or two years. However, in the past 3 to 4 months, they have occured maybe two or three times.

They are terrible. They blur my entire vision. Mine is not exactly as others describe, it is more like a color full blur, like a bad Gaussian blur that eventually blocks out nearly all my sight. I just had one a few minutes ago, and it passed after 30 minutes of waiting around nearly blind. I couldn’t read text on the screen, and couldnt do much else until it was gone.

This morning I felt nauseous when I woke up around 7:30. I rushed downstairs and took a shower and the nausea went away. Then the migrane a couple hours after…

I did have some very old steak (1 week+) last night that I probably shouldnt have had since my stomach is very sensitive. It didn’t even taste good. I had mixed it with some marinara eggplant I had made (also 4+ days old). I really need to stop eating old food. It’s terrible for me. I usually avoid eating leftovers, i rpefer frozen foods, but I feel guilty when food goes bad and eventually get too it… a little too late.

The migrane didn’t start till I took a couple bites out of a chocolate muffin a co worker gave me. I wonder if that had anything to do with it…was it the trigger? Perhaps the combination of stress (from driving 1 hour + every day to work) and chocolate or other chemical trigger caused the migrane. All I had other than that since the meat was pinapple, some organic tofu hot wings, oatmeal and coffee. The coffee may add to the effect as well, as it constricts the blood vessels which is partially what causes ocular migrane, constricted blood flow behind the eyes.

The funny thing about ocular migraines is that they are not binocular, they occur whether you have one eye open or not. You can even see the blur when you close your eyes. It’s kind of scary, but reassuring at the same time. I rather know that my eyeball is fine (hard wiring), and that it’s just a glitch in my software that can more than likely be worked out (brain ;P). I know it may seem strange, but that’s how I feel anyways.

I feel a little tired now with a slight real headache. I need to eat a little more I think as my stomach still is not right. Life is really stressful during the week now, mostly due to commute. I am glad that this vision issue did not occur while driving. It did once long ago and it was not a pleasant experience at all, I was really worried I would miss something or not notice someone coming at me out of my peripheral vision. I rely on my peripheral vision alot, I normally pride myself in my ability to take in an entire visual scene at once and process it.

It’s one of the reasons I am good at gaming, and at catching people doing naughty things on their computers at the office. I can see what they are doing before they even know I am there. My brother used to hate that when I lived with my parents, no amount of alt tab can hide that taskbar!!!

It’s been tough remembering to write this blog. I will stay vigilant and try and keep up with it as much as possible, I’m already behind 5 days.