flashing lights again,!!!

[Lancashirelass07]

does anyone with open angle glaucoma ,experience flashing zigzag light. Like migraine aura,

Iam sure it started the same time glaucoma was diagnosed. Fairly random, about once a month. Gp. Thinks they are migraine,

[Sorshup]

Whilst I humbly await the possibility of others reporting similarly, I think your GP will be correct, and the onset coinciding with diagnosis (the condition itself lready having been present for an unknown length of time) might have an anxiety association. And you do say monthly.... (if relevant).

[Lancashirelass07 in reply to Sorshup]

thanks for your reply, I don't think monthly ,in my case has any meaning ,since all this started at 70 . No migraine before that. That's why I thought the glaucoma connection is more likely.

[Sorshup in reply to Lancashirelass07]

Thank you for the feedback, It occurred to me tat you might also have been wondering whether any drops medication might be influencing but since that is daily a monthly frequency doesn't fit. I have had visual migraines but only quite frequently over a few weeks about ten years ago. Weird, could make no association. I suggest you just pursue it with your GP, and just enjoy the light show !

[JustAmanda]

I too have that occasionally - just the visual aura with no headache.

I’m aware that mine always follow something visual, like a reflection on my phone screen, or white snow through a car window. The episodes last for about 30 minutes and are quite infrequent.

I have no idea whether they’re related to anything. My daughter, a GP, thinks mine is ocular migraine.

Are you aware of any possible triggers?

[AlfredV in reply to JustAmanda]

I've had this also 4 times in the last year but never before and in both cases the second episode was a few days after the first. Similar triggers I think.

[Lancashirelass07 in reply to JustAmanda]

thank s for replying, not sure about triggers ,sun light , sleepless nights , stress. I feel really miserable, there doesn't seem any end. Before I became 70. I never had either, migraine or glaucoma.

[KayGeeBee]

I used to get the migraine aura a long time before I got glaucoma. Just the aura, no headaches. Like a C-shape that started in the centre of vision then got bigger and bigger until after 30 mins it had gone. The auras stopped about 15 years ago, years before glaucoma diagnosis. Extreme physical activity became the trigger, such as chain-sawing. So it may just be coincidental in your case, with a trigger still to find, but possibly not chain-sawing!

[Lancashirelass07 in reply to KayGeeBee]

I appreciate you taking time to reply, just feeling self pity, triggers maybe bright sun, sleepless nights, anxiety. After 10 years still not sure neurologist not really interested unless you have more than 5 attacks a month

[Beecalmed]

I’m convinced my migraines and auras are part of an inability of my body to process biological or emotional stresses and consequently closing blood flow down in a fight or flight mode. I now believe I need to avoid certain biological stressors and reduce emotional stress and anxiety to which although I appear as cool as a cucumber underneath my body is having a physical reaction. This reaction causes the symptoms of visual auras, migraine headaches, numbness in extremities, Raynauds, low blood pressure, tinnitus and a number of other conditions including …glaucoma.

I think migraine and glaucoma are linked. But I don’t think Glaucoma causes migraine.

Lots of new research is coming in about migraine (read about g-pants) but migraine as a term covers a varied range of headache based symptoms that may not actually all have a common cause.

I’ve made lifestyle changes that seem to have reduced my migraines. I do get the aura occasionally but not the head pain so much these days.

[sheelc]

Hi, it's so difficult to link the migraine aura with a glaucoma diagnosis, so many other factors at play. I've had the zigzag flash since about 2019, before I was diagnosed with ocular hypertension in 2023. They were very infrequent amd dormant for a few years but re-appeared after SLT, probably the stress & flashing lights of the laser. I suspect, for me and like others, it's more stress/trigger related but as it's so infrequent and usually only last 10 mins I try and relax through an episode. The eye clinic didn't seem overly bothered when I mentioned it but I suppose if they were occurring frequently then maybe that's a different matter.