Dealing With Headaches

In this blog, I refer a lot to auras. They are “spots before your eyes” — flashes, squiggles, blurs and other visual hallucinations that often warns you that a whopper of a migraine is on its way. When you go get treatments, you will be asked if you get auras before your migraines. Some medications are being developed specfically for auras with migraines.

Auras before migraines don’t have to be strictly visual — some are audial and some people feel euphoric for absolutely no reason at all (why can’t I be one of those people?), but for the purposes of this article, we will just stick to visual auras.

But how about if you get auras and never get a migraine? This is a sign to contact your doctor right away.

“Ewww, Gross!” Warning

Signs that you have aura-like hallucinations like flashes, “floaters” (a bright glob or cobweb that doesn’t go away) or a series of bright little spots can be the sign of a detatched retina or other deeply gross eye damage. I don’t know about you, but I faint whenever someone begins putting on a contact lens, so just contemplating a torn retina for me makes me scream inside.

If you have a history of having auras before migraines, don’t blame yourself if you think you are just getting a migraine. However, if you have visual auras without migraines, then you need to see your doctor or your eye doctor. Prepare to spend a day at the hospital to get your head examined with scanning machines of one sort or another. If you ignore a sudden onslaught of auras without migraines, the damage to your retina will become so bad that you will loose your vision in that eye.

A blow to the head, such as a fall even a day ago can be the cause of the auras without migraines. Sometimes you will get auras without migraines due to getting older. In the latter case, the auras without migraines tend to come on gradually and can fade in and out of your perception.

Why Am I Banging On About This?

I guess this discussion about auras without migraines is a little off topic, but I have had a couple of my Mom’s girlfriends ask me about this phenomenon, so perhaps there might be more.

I have had a floater in my left eye for several years after I got punched in the face (I was in an abusive relationship which I left in 2004). I was ashamed to get my eye checked. Years later, I did get it checked out and, fortunately, there wasn’t any damage to my retina. I still see fairly well out of the eye and have seen the spot for so long I can ignore it (except for right now as I’m writing about it — but by bedtime tonight, I probably won’t notice it again).

Whatever your reason for checking about auras or for taking the time to read this post, I hope this helps.