Frequent aura attacks - only very slight headache afterw...

Sorry to read about your symptoms, but relieved to find someone has the same symptoms I've been having. Exactly the same. I used to have horrible migraines without auras. Then the migraines stopped when I was about 50 and a few years later the auras started. It might be a year between auras, or sometimes two or three in one day. (I once had two going on at the same time, one nested inside the other.) They do seem related to neck pain sometimes. They rarely interfere with my vision enough to be disabling. Slight hand numbness sometimes. Oherwise, just pretty light shows that I can't share with anybody.

, where I see a tiny bright squiggly line which gradually becomes bigger and bigger till it fills my complete eyeball with a zig zag circle. I take two tablets and lie down with a pillow over my head and sit back and watch the free psychedelic show. They last almost exactly 25 minutes each time. They used to scare me, but not any longer. The only common trigger I can think of is bright light such as the sun reflecting off a car windscreen , or off a rain soaked road etc. I have started to get headaches afterwards now as well.

I notice that this is quite an old discussion but I wonder if anyone had been or going through migraine auras (mainly without head pain) but I am experiencing sinus pressure (well I think it is) mainly over one eye.

I had migraine auras some time ago, about four a month for a while and then they stopped. I was going into menopause and so I thought they were hormone related. Well i'm two years meno now and they have returned.

In the last three weeks just under, I have had seven. When the first one happened I wasnt suprised as I was given a strong coffee and after swimming it came on. The second one was after some rose wine and I presumed that caused that one.

They mainly come in the mornings but the third one happened in the evening when I entered the bathroom and I wondered if the bright light had brought that one on. Another time one came on after I looked at a car headlight while driving. There seems to be quite a few triggers. One was brought on the first time round while looking at my phone in a darkened room.

The frequency of them worries me again, I recently had an eye test which was OK, I need reading glasses..

I have just had one this morning, first for a few months, didn't last very long this time. I find that if I take two paracetamol straight away and lie down with a cushion over my face to block out all light, they can pass after about 20 mins. The last half dozen or so have also brought on headaches at the back of my head that last quite a few hours.I am also super sensitive to bright light all the time as well as noise. I nearly jump out of my skin at sudden noise,"people think I am putting it on" yet I can listen to loud music  no problem.

Thanks for your reply, yes I had one last night while looking at my phone in a dimmed room, I had this intolerence to bright lights once before but it seemed to have got better only to return! I wouldnt say that its the light all the time with me though. I'm hoping when my new reading glasses is sorted it might help as I am using unprescribed ones at present!

Your comment on rose wine is interesting, I've suspected that myself as a trigger.  I have silent migraines, just the aura and the feeling of being body snatched for 3 days and it's getting worse as I approach menopause  (same frequency as yours).  At the moment I'm experimenting with taking one piriton a day as, when I had to take it for 3 weeks following a several horse fly bites, my auras disappeared. Of course this could be a complete coincidence which is why, after coming off it, I'm trying it again. A few people have told me that their doctor has prescribed them a type of antihistamine as a migraine preventative so maybe it works. I too got my eyes tested and found I needed low magnification reading glasses. Your auras sound like they're hormone related, 2 others in my family have migraines that accelerated into menopause and didn't stop until it was all over, my Mum had her last migraine aged 61 and never had another. Hope things improve for you, Anne 

Dear Anne

Yes I have read about antihistamines helping . It's strange they have trailed off abit but the last two have been exactly 20 days apart (I'm keeping a diary!) I am.like I might have said two years post meno and I had my ovaries removed due to family history and all that, I suppose it ia all hormone related , I presume I still have some hormones still up and down even in surgical menopause! I just feel unsettled if I get too many in one go as I was worried it was a sign I might suffer a stroke or something! X

Know exactly what you mean! Had my cholesterol checked for that reason and found to my horror it was 6.49, have been taking benecol ever since which has lowered it a lot. I also keep a diary but have never found a pattern to the attacks other than they've increased overall as I approach menopause. At the moment I keep feeling like my brain wants to have an attack but the antihistamine is keeping it from going critical. Will keep on with it and see what happens. Anne X 

Me too, I had cholesterol checked thought it would be good but was 6.6! Couldn't believe it as I didnt think it would be bad as my diet I didnt think was too bad, I have started to take benecol too I hope it Helps! X

Yes same here, hate eggs, rarely eat cheese, don't like red meat and don't go in for greasy food only a rare takeaway. Your body produces its own cholesterol and in our case it's naturally fairly high. Have just had a 3rd test done  ( proper fasting one this time) after having one benecol drink a day for 3 months and I'm down to 4.49 so there's hope for us all! Anne X 

Hi. Hope you are doing better! It stinks doesn't it? Especially when you haven't had one in a while then one pops up out of nowhere and you wind up back on the computer looking for answers that for the most part aren't there! ugh. I got my first one 4 years ago when I was 53. I was putting in a hanging light and the little LED flashlight I had leaning on something to light up the wires caught me in the eye. I got the spots like you get when you look at the sun and took a break and went on computer but it didn't go away. The the aura started. I thought I was stroking out! Scary the first time. It passed in about 20 minutes but I did have a little tunnel vision after for another 5 minutes. (haven't had the tunnel vision since that first time.) I went a good year before another one and I never had a migraine that I was aware of before. (I get the aura with a tiny headache after and just feel tired.) After a year I got another, then 6 months later another and nothing until about 6 months ago when my daughter broke her arm and needed surgery. Very stressed out. But I got one about 2 weeks after her surgery and another the next day and then again the next day. I got one about 5 weeks later then nothing in Nov. and Dec and just had one yesterday. Every time except for yesterday it was light triggered or when I was sick. I had pink eye I caught from my daughter after she broke her arm. (really bad, I looked like a monster!) that's when I got 3 in a row. But I have been stressed out pretty good the last 6-7 months. But yesterday I was a happy camper, super bowl sunday, was working on a project I really wanted to work on, and when I got out of the shower I looked in the mirror and the zig zag lines were already pretty full blown. (in the past I always noticed it start because my very center focus was off, then it would progress and in about 4 or 5 minutes I knew what it was for sure. I don't recall a light trigger although I was on my phone and computer before the shower. I hate LED and flourecent lights now! If the mouse turns upside down and I see that little red laser light I immediately turn it over! I bought sunglasses to prevent migraines. $140. To their credit I have not gotten one since while wearing them. Hope you are doing better. It helps knowing that this is usually a benign condition. I'm not a rush to the doctor guy so much to my wife's dismay I haven't gone yet. Mine follow all the patterns almost exactly, but the one difference is that mine started at 53 with no history of migraines. Although my mom had them and my daughter had two.

I haven't had a migraine for a while now, but one started while I was driving this morning. Saw the small bright lighting in the corner of my eye , so knew one would come on in about 3 minutes. At this point I usually lie down with a pillow over my head and take 2 paracetamol. After about 20 minutes I am ok. Because I was driving I couldnt stop and didn't have anything to drink with me, so I just sucked on the tablets. The taste is awful,but the symptoms vanished almost immediately.

Very similar to my aura, oldhamred.  Driving in bright sunlight is often a trigger for mine, especially if I get dazzled or drive through dappled sunlight under trees - almost like a strobe effect.  I first notice a small blindspot e.g. if I look at a numberplate, some of the letters may be missing and then a few minutes later comes the shimmering.  Like you, mine lasts 20 minutes or so - I've timed them - 18 to 21 minutes.  I don't know why that is.  Always find them scary when they happen, though I've had so many over the years.  I don't always get migraine pain after the aura - sometimes it's just the shimmering lights.

I hate reflections from car window or bonnets. It’s like somebody shining a very very bright light directly into your eye. I too start with the tiny blind spot in centre of vision then soon becomes the squiggly white jagged lines. Next time I will again try sucking paracetamol tablets without a drink , maybe it goes into your system quicker.

Maybe there is a connection.