The vet called around 12:30 pm yesterday and said she wanted to test Tanner for vitamin E deficiency, but the blood she had taken hadn't been prepared properly so since she was in the area, could she come by and take another sample? The prospect of a half day off and not paying a farm call fee sealed the deal.
As I was at home waiting for her to arrive, I suddenly got a bright spot in my vision. You know when you look at something bright, like a flashlight or camera flash, and then you have spots in your vision? Well that's what I had, but I hadn't looked at anything bright and it wasn't fading away like a normal bright spot.
I am severely myopic / nearsighted. If my vision wasn't correctable through contact lenses, glasses, etc I would be considered legally blind. For those of you with contacts, my prescription was -10.00 for both eyes. A year ago I had surgery to insert permanent contact lenses through cataract surgery (that's the simplified version, I'm pretty sure it's not really like that but that's what makes sense to me). It was a huge success, I see 20/20 in both eyes! (I do still have consistent dreams that I can't see without glasses, despite knowing that I had surgery.)
I share that info because I am very familiar with eye doctors. I've seen quite a few. And each one has made sure to warn me about retinal detachment. The general sentiment was "You're at risk for retinal detachment. Watch out for an increase in floaters. If that happens, go to the emergency room or YOU WILL GO BLIND."
So of course when I had this bright spot that wasn't going away and I consulted Dr. Google, it led me to articles on retinal detachment. I am doubly at risk because I have severe myopia and have had cataract-ish surgery. I immediately felt light-headed and started panicking.
I called my eye doctor's office...no answer. Called my regular doctor's office...put on hold for a long time, then they couldn't fit me in that day.
I had just resolved to go to the walk-in clinic when the bright spot went away. Deciding that I was probably okay for the moment, I opted to ignore the entire incident until I could see my doctor today at 4:30.
Except of course I couldn't ignore it. I kept reading article after article about retinal detachment and how serious it was.
I called my eye doctor's office and made an appointment for Thursday without going into details, telling myself "Self, if your retina hasn't detached by now, it'll hold til 4:30 this afternoon for the regular doctor and then Thursday for a more in-depth exam."
Self does not listen very well. So I called the eye doctor back and explained the situation, and said I was nervous about retinal detachment. The eye doctor said that if it was retinal detachment I would experience something like a curtain falling across my vision (which the articles said, but I cherry-picked what suited my hypochondria). She said that it sounded like an ocular migraine.
A second consult with Dr. Google showed that it does indeed sound like an ocular migraine! PHEW
I had considered the possibility of it being a migraine-related incident, but dismissed it because I've only had two migraines in my life, one as a teenager and one last year, and this did not feel like that. Also, I didn't get a headache after the bright spot faded.
But an ocular migraine occurs without a headache. Super weird, yo!
According to All About Vision,
Ocular migraines are painless, temporary visual disturbances that can affect one or both eyes. Though they can be frightening, ocular migraines typically are harmless and self-resolve without medication within 20 to 30 minutes.
You might see a small, enlarging blind spot (scotoma) in your central vision with bright, flashing or flickering lights (scintillations), or wavy or zig-zag lines surrounding the blind spot. The blind spot usually enlarges and may move across your field of vision.
One possible trigger is stress, and boy was I stressed this past weekend.
I'll still go to the eye doctor on Thursday and will monitor my vision closely, but I'm feeling much much better.
So that, my friends, is ocular migraines, brought to you by Hypochondriacs Anonymous.
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