Blinded by the light

March 24, 2005 11:51 AM

I was in a white room with florescent lights, writing on a yellow sheet of paper, when suddenly, I could no longer see anything I focused on.

My peripheral vision was fine, but anything in the center of my vision was lost. I left the exam early and walked home, noticing that I could only see about half of any object I focused on. Now, my focus seems to be back, but my peripheral vision is occupied with a throbbing waterfall-esque effect that is constantly flickering and distracting me. This doesn't hurt. What's going on?

posted by stray to Health & Fitness (25 answers total)

Do you have a history of migraines? I had similar vision-related problems and had two doctors explain them away by saying migraines could affect vision and perception. They still made me get an MRI though. I had no pain when experiencing the weirdness, but got a splitting headache later in the day.

Did you cut caffeine out, or make any similar dietary changes recently?

My experience went like this: I woke up, and I couldn't read. Yep. Couldn't read. Pretty fucked up? Yes. I got out of bed, sat down at the computer and was trying to read Boing Boing, and my brain simply could not resolve the text. I would sit and stare at a word like 'working,' ABSOLUTELY convinced it said something COMPLETELY different, like 'Telephone.' I would then stare at the word, and begin to sound it out: "Tuh - Tel - TuhWUH - Wuh - Working."

This all stands in stark contrast to the fact that I'm usually a very fast reader, so I was TERRIFIED. I walked around the house, picking up junk mail and attempting to read it out loud, and my mouth was making the same mistakes as my brain. Gradually, over the course of about an hour, it came back to me. I noticed some of the 'waterfall-esque' distortions you mentioned as well.
posted by adamkempa at 12:05 PM on March 24, 2005

I was recently examined for a floater in my eye. Your symptoms sound a lot like ones the doctor asked if I was experiencing (which I wasn't) that would indicate a more serious problem. Get it checked out.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 12:08 PM on March 24, 2005

May indicate a more serious problem. Don't wanna scare ya, but do see an ophthalmologist.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 12:10 PM on March 24, 2005

Could also be indicative of a minor stroke.
posted by rolypolyman at 12:12 PM on March 24, 2005

I used to have this happen when I would be in a truck with guys who were smoking. I'd go outside and hyperventilate to get nice fresh air back into my lungs, and my vision would gradually come back.

Then I declared the truck a no smoking zone, and everything was fine.

You might have just had some combination of stress, strange lighting, and poor air quality..?
posted by some chick at 12:22 PM on March 24, 2005

Response by poster: Huh.
Well, it seems to have passed now, but I do have a bit of a headache. Not really a migraine however.
Hrmm.
posted by stray at 12:23 PM on March 24, 2005

For the past year, I've had a visual distortion every couple of weeks. A pinpoint of white light rapidly increases to occupy the whole of my vision, like the light from a train in a tunnel. The effect lasts less than a second, but it's alarming enough that I jerk my head back every time to dodge the train, as it were.

I've been to an opthamologist and a neurologist. Each says that it's the other's problem (opthamologist: "it's in both eyes, so it must be in your brain", neurologist: "you only think it's in both eyes, but it's only in one, so it's your eye"), so it hasn't really been settled. But I felt better having seen a couple of docs and neither of them telling me that I had a brain tumor. You'd do well to do the same.
posted by waldo at 12:24 PM on March 24, 2005

This sounds a lot like either a migraine aura or a retinal detachment. It could also be just a minor issue with floaters and eye strain (fluorescent lighting can really do a number on vision, I find). In any case, I'd start by getting to an ophthalmologist soon.
posted by scody at 12:26 PM on March 24, 2005

Is it an ocular migraine?
posted by bcwinters at 12:27 PM on March 24, 2005

It could be a scintillating scotoma. Edith Frost describes a few of her cases in her weblog, and the comments sections on her entries on scintillating scotoma have become something of a de facto support group.

I've had two of these in the past year, having never had them before that. They're often experienced by people who are prone to migraines, but I've never had migraines.

On preview: "ocular migraine" and "scintillating scotoma" may or may not be the same thing; some pages seem to use them interchangeably, while others seem to use scintillating scotoma to refer specifically to the symptom, i.e., the visual disturbance, and ocular migraine to the condition.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:31 PM on March 24, 2005

Doctor! Don't mess with your vision!
posted by agregoli at 12:42 PM on March 24, 2005

sounds exactly like my (painless) migraines (not the waterfall bit, though).

it's an interesting experience, isn't it? you can't "see" right in the middle of your vision, yet there's no big gaping hole. it just somehow doesn't work. makes typing hell (i can't reliably touch type).

in my experience, i only get them if i'm pretty tired/stressed/hyped (which fits in with your exam situation).

best thing to get rid of them is have a nap.
posted by andrew cooke at 1:02 PM on March 24, 2005

(or maybe your brain is about to explode. i thought maybe i had cancer of the brain or something, but i seem to have survived these things for twenty years now)
posted by andrew cooke at 1:05 PM on March 24, 2005

I'd guess bcwinter is right - my ophthalmologist called them "optical migraines." I used to get them somewhat regularly at my old job - mine were stress induced. I would see a bright white light in front of me, but still retain peripheral vision. It was like a migraine, but I wouldn't get a migraine-level headache with it.

Incidentally, I haven't had one since switching jobs a couple years ago.
posted by Dallasfilm at 1:13 PM on March 24, 2005

odinsdream - you're not alone. Anytime I see anyone else having trouble with their eyes my eyes start to water too. My eyes are real sensitive so even watching something innocuous like putting in eye drops will cause me to have a little internal anxiety attack. Freaks me out.

Sorry, guess this if off topic.
posted by Dallasfilm at 1:16 PM on March 24, 2005

Thanks for this thread! I skiied twice this year, both in white-out storm conditions, and dark floating dots obstructing my vision both times. It had never happened to me before, and it scared me. I discovered that if I focused on the trees or anything else that broke up the sensation of being surrounded by total whiteness, the floaters went away, and I could see again.

I suppose that doesn't have too much to do with the original question, unless the combination of light-colored paper and bright lights created a similar "white-out" condition that caused the vision disorientation. Sorry for the derail, but thanks for the floater link!
posted by equipoise at 1:51 PM on March 24, 2005

I've had migraines for a while; the description sounds exactly like what happens during migraine onset for me. A little patch of vision stops resolving properly, almost as if I looked at something way too bright for too long. Soon enough, it turns into a blind spot. Sometimes it seems like it's writhing or crawling. Over time, most of the time, the patch gets bigger and bigger until I can't see anything. Sometimes, blessedly, it gets smaller, stops, goes away.

See your doctor. There are some blessedly rare bad things that this could be, and most of those benefit from being caught early. In the case where it's not one of those things, then you'll at least know you're OK.
posted by felix at 2:20 PM on March 24, 2005

Response by poster: Well, whatta ya know. After my last comment about having a bit of a headache, I sat down to read, and was hit head on by a nasty migraine. I tried to sleep it off with my head under a pillow for a few hours, and I feel much better now. I think it was probably stress + dehydration + bright lights, but I'll mention it to my doctor next time I'm there.

Thanks muchly for the links and the comments, there's a lot of great info in there which i'll look into!

I love Ask.Me.
posted by stray at 4:23 PM on March 24, 2005

This only happens to me when I'm revved up like a deuce.
posted by SlyBevel at 4:26 PM on March 24, 2005

I had symptoms once a lot like this, that then progressed to a numbness in one of my arms (sounds like a stroke, right?). The doctors said that this, too, was a migraine, that they can mimic things that are much scarier, like strokes.

Their advice? When I start to feel anything out of the ordinary like that, take 3-4 ibuprofen. About two times since then, I've gotten weird vision things, taken the Advil, and about 1/2 hour later, I have only a dull headache, and the vision symptoms have gone away. So in my case (as is yours, on preview) it appears they're right - what at first shows no signs of a headache turns out to be a headache.
posted by mabelstreet at 6:02 PM on March 24, 2005

Sounds like a migraine to me (I'm a neurologist). But there are other, nastier things that can mimic migraines. You should see a doctor.
posted by ikkyu2 at 7:18 PM on March 24, 2005

A friend of mine experienced something similar to that. He was diagnosed with a mild form of glaucoma (elevated blood pressure in the eyes). The treatment was pretty mild and as far as I know, there have been any side effects or reoccurances. Long story short, get it checked out, post haste.
posted by electroboy at 6:32 AM on March 25, 2005

I'd also get thee to a doctor asap. Vision, even for those of us with extremely poor eyesight*, is far too precious to lose.

Sudden showers of light, increase in floaters, and tiny black specks in your field of vision? Also, get to a doctor asap. I had that; and a new, dark floater.

Turned out to be retinal tears (rips, not weeping tears) and it was lasered. It's happened again, and each time, been attended to by laser surgery, and on one occurence, surgery by freezing the tear.

Untreated retinal tears may lead to retinal detachment, which is far worse.

*Because my eyesight is so nearsighted, people like me are more prone to retinal tears after the age of 40. No fun, because the floaters remain after surgery, and one's eyesight is already poor.
posted by Savannah at 7:59 AM on March 25, 2005

You made my day, SlyBevel.
posted by steelbuddha at 9:13 AM on March 25, 2005

You neglected to mention whether the effect differed from eye to eye (close one eye, try to read, etc) - if it affects both eyes the same, then that strikes me as a pretty easy way to rule out most forms of eye damage and most eye conditions. So the migrane theory still seems like a good place to start. Of course, IANAD :)
posted by -harlequin- at 12:31 PM on March 25, 2005