Week 2, Run 2 - crazy migraine-o-vision is back

[stevecramp]

More weird weather, glorious sunshine and blue skies! Probably best to take the big coat off now.

Nice weather brings more people to jog around. Checking the map, after 0.5km or so the, the not-so private, private road becomes a public right of way. Merging with a muddy public footpath from a little foot bridge over the river. Everyone, it seems, sensibly avoids the mud and walks straight through the pedestrian gate and along the tarmac road (probably illegally and risking fake guard dogs). The electric gate something to do with the water company. To allow entry for the couple of houses and to stop access to the reservoir from the likes of joy riders, murderers in transit vans dumping their dead and other none idyllic car based shenanigans.

In scary-am-I-going-to-die news. The crazy post run migraine-o-vision is back. Previously it was blind spots but today its colourful triangular blob patterns. Need a lie down. Is it down to low blood sugar, high blood pressure, dehydration or looking too long at New Order's new album cover?

[poppypug Graduate]

Hi Steve

You have a real talent for writing , you are HILARIOUS !!!!  Hmmmm, so your secret private is not so secret private after all

Now then , it is very strange that you have mentioned these disturbances in your vision . I suffer from occasional ocular migraines, ( where it feels like Ive got Kaleidoscope eyes ) its horrible , and usually followed by a blinding headache . I checked with an optician and they couldn't put it down to a particular reason or trigger . I had one last week and then have had another today . Pah ! Its like buses , you wait for ages and then they all come at once !

I think you would be best getting this checked out , just to put your mind at rest . As my Mam would say " You only get one pair ! "

Oh the optician did mention something, youre not a raging, hormonal  menopausal woman by any chance ? No, didn't think so

Get it checked out Crampy ! You know it makes sense !

Well done on your run , btw xxx

[stevecramp in reply to poppypug]

I did bring it up with the doctor last time it happened. But I don't think I really managed to put over how concerned I was, or how serious I thought it might be. He laughed at me! Said these things happen when you suddenly start exercising after 40 odd years of idleness.

I read a post this week on here about ocular migraines... and then I go and have one today! NHS direct lists all kinds of potential causes, including bending over! I could tick a few off their list, high blood pressure, exercise, heat but not the raging, hormonal menopausal woman!

Less concerned now that I know it's a thing, I didn't even know it was called an ocular migraine until this week. 

[poppypug Graduate in reply to stevecramp]

Everydays a school day Steve  

Yes someone posted on here last week about having one. It was the first time I had heard of anyone else having one ! Then a few more folk said that they had them as well !

Did you get a really bad headache afterwards ? Xxx

[TurboTortoise Graduate in reply to poppypug]

Funny you should mention ocular migraines. I get them now and then. The first time was a few years ago, it was a hot day and I was possibly a bit dehydrated. I was in Peter Jones of all places, looking at curtain fabric, of all things, and I suddenly saw this (admittedly rather pretty) jaggedy spinning rainbow appear in the corner of my left eye, followed by a complete grey-out, for a while I lost all vision in that eye. I thought my retina was detaching, so went outside and sat on the stairs and tried not to panic until the grey started shifting and I realised it was probably nothing too serious. Also I kept thinking of the irony of that John Betjeman one-liner about how when the end of the world came, he wanted to be in the haberdashery department of Peter Jones because nothing bad could ever happen there...

So it passed and strangely I didn't get a headache afterwards. I had another one about a year later, it was in fact after a particularly hot and strenous run early on in C25K. I also find if I look at reflected LED lights on very polished white surfaces (eg the floor of the curtain dept in Peter Jones, people's glamorous quartz kitchen worktops) I get slight visual disturbances - that ominous flickering... but never a headache. Weird! I once asked the optician about them and she just looked blank and shrugged.

Anyway, I'm still alive...

[poppypug Graduate in reply to TurboTortoise]

Tee Hee , Oh you do paint an amazing picture Emma ! " In the Haberdashery Department at Peter Jones " !!

My first one was in Woolies next to the Bargain Bucket xxx

[TurboTortoise Graduate in reply to poppypug]

Were you staring at brightly coloured Pick n Mix?

[poppypug Graduate in reply to TurboTortoise]

No it was the Cheeky Girls Greatest Hits CD- a musical masterpiece ! xx

[TurboTortoise Graduate in reply to poppypug]

[stevecramp in reply to poppypug]

Not really, a slight headache but nothing too bad. Each time I go to sleep and wake up feeling all odd and confused like the whole world has been rebooted and is slightly different some how.  Think I am just weird. 

[poppypug Graduate in reply to stevecramp]

Hmmm.... I can see in one of your replies that you are going to see the Doc next week , so worth a mention .

Then you will know for sure that yes ,you are just weird !

I am joking  

Good Luck and let us know how you go on xxx

[TurboTortoise Graduate in reply to poppypug]

Sings: "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes!"

[poppypug Graduate in reply to TurboTortoise]

Afternoon Em !

Hows 'dem bones ?

Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies

Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly................ xxx

[getfitgran Graduate]

Something like this happened to me last year,  I was on holiday in Turkey and a few times after a run my vision became a  blurred, I  put it down to running (roughly 3 k) in the heat and maybe a bit dehydrated.  Then it happened again in Sept which I found much more worrying as I was just sitting at my desk. Told the practice nurse at this stage and she said I should have seen the doctor and if it happened again to do so. Finally on Christmas eve morning whilst having a cup of tea my peripheral vision in my left eye disappeared completely.  Doctor thought it was perhaps a blockage in a blood vessel going to my eye  but sent me for tests, CT scan, MRI,  hospital thought it might have been a mini stroke. results came back Scans showed no sign of damage to my brain   and luckily for me they believe it was an optical or retinal migrane. in my case no headache but just vision becoming impaired.  

I would definately get it checked out though because I had a full MOT and discovered I have a heart murmur I knew nothing about.

[stevecramp in reply to getfitgran]

Glad you are okay, sounds really scary.  I'm due to see the Doc next week, about my high blood pressure - which could be the reason + dehydration - will bring it up then

[getfitgran Graduate in reply to stevecramp]

I also have high blood pressure, something I've had since my early 30's, Not overweight, exercise regularly etc, but just in my genes nothing I can do about that,  according to the doctor if I was overweight and didn't exercise it would be worse.  The problem with high blood pressure is you are left open to things like TIA  - mini strokes where you can have one or more symptoms temporarily of a stoke,  if you have a TIA then the chances of taking a full blown stroke are a lot higher. It was for this reason I was sent for the CT and MRI. Not only find myself taking medications now for BP but have also now been prescribed asprin to thin my blood and cholestrol medication.   I have only recently come back to running after about 4 months off whilst things were checked out.   if you have High blood pressure then Push to get it checked out, its all very fine people giving advice and self diagnosing through the internet, it really needs to be checked out properly . 

[Ullyrunner Graduate]

Ooh not nice. I occasionally ( fortunately  fairly rare these days) get a migraine which is always preceded by visual disturbance - like a hedgehog zig zag shape of bright light which makes me feel very disorientated. I think it was mainly hormones but sometimes brought on by really 'close' weather or things like very bright reflected light on water etc.

Best get it checked out - Dr Google isn't always to be trusted!

[AncientMum Graduate]

Yes, I've had them too. First time when I was pregnant with my second child - quite scary as I was effectively blind but had a toddler running around the house completely hidden from me. The Dr suggested blood pressure but it was fine. It now happens to me maybe 2-3 times a year, each time visual disturbances, followed by almost complete loss of vision, then a short but intense headache, then back to normal. Has happened maybe 3 times after running but, as I know my bp is fine, I just take paracetamol and go lie in a dark room until the headache goes again. Its horrid but I always put it down to being dehydrated.

[misswobble Graduate]

Oh gawd, I do sympathise. I get the occasional migraine, nothing like as often as I used to. I put it down to stress.  I get horrible visual disturbances, sickness and I can't bear the light so have to go to bed in a darkened room til it passes.  I get frogspawn in my vision and then silver flashing zig zags and triangles. Absolutely awful.  

[stevecramp in reply to misswobble]

Sounds horrible.  This is only the third time it's happened to me. Always about an hour after exercise while glaring at a computer screen. 

[Irishprincess Graduate]

Those migraines sound awful and scary. But I love your posts as you are so funny and make me laugh and I'm really looking forward to reading about all your runs! "Murderers dumping their dead". Haha! And of course runners often find the body 😯

[stevecramp in reply to Irishprincess]

Haha that's true. It is near a bit of a rough area too and  a couple of years ago a body was found in the water!!  Hope I don't have to start hurdling bodies,  hard enough as it is.

[poppypug Graduate in reply to Irishprincess]

Ha ha Your Maj !

And dog walkers ..... they always find the body too xxx

[PippiRuns]

It sounds like a 'migraine with an aura' and is fairly common. I don't know if it can be related to running, but I would go see a neurologist.

[Kellywillow Graduate]

I had one of those migraines a couple of years ago  ... whilst watching Downton. Lady Mary suddenly had no nose! And then I realised there were gaps in my vision. Then a twinkling arc appeared.  Very scary (I thought it was a brain tumour!! ).  I've always been prone to migraine type headaches but never visual. I actually found a YouTube post where someone had made a film of his visual migraine effects which was very reassuring (it looked just like mine). No headache followed and the gp and optician found nothing wrong. Not had one since - so far! My mum had migraine headaches for years and then found they disappeared when she changed her diet to help her arthritis (the arthritis got better as well). 

[TurboTortoise Graduate]

Isn't it remarkable that we all 'see' exactly the same thing, everyone's descriptions are so uncannily accurate... twinkling arcs, silver flashing zig zags, spinning circular saws, rainbow triangles...