Logging SS Occurrences?

[JelloPat]

Thanks Alice and all for these posts - I've been experiencing SS on
and off since 1996 when I had my first one on a ski-lift. I assumed
it was a snow-blindness type of phenomenon, but it has recurred at all
different times of day and locations and levels of brightness/
darkness. So nice to see that it's "not just me." My episodes are
always painless, and not accompanied by irritability as far as I can
tell. Purely visual. Sometimes they last 5 minutes, sometimes 20.

Anyway, I've been a browser of this site for awhile now, and like many
others, I, too, can find no particular thing that triggers my episodes
other than that (again, as many others have mentioned) at times they
appear to be triggered by seeing a bright flash or glint in just the
right spot in the field of vision, or even something you would
normally not consider bright, but which appears bright by contrast
with surrounding darker images. I have had them most frequently when
working on the computer, or outside during the day.

After nearly a year without any incidence, last fall I had three in
rapid succession one evening, and then after a 6-month respite, I had
two in rapid succession while working on the computer just this last
month (May 2009). At that point, I started a log in Excel. I have
columns for Date, Time, PossibleTrigger?, Elapsed Time in Minutes,
Notes on Experience, and Notes on Possible Corellations (for example,
after the May episode(s), I noted that the previous day I had taken
taking a twice the recommended dose of Claritin (loratadine) for a
severe allergy/congestion experience.

Is anyone else keeping a diary or log? I encourage this, in case at
some point a partial breakthrough is had somewhere in the medical/
cranial/neurological/psychological world. Then we can come forth with
our logs and offer additional chronological evidence to be analyzed in
support of or to dispel whatever hypotheses are advanced.

It's a thought.

Until a solution is found... happy viewing!

- Pat

[2CV67]

I am also logging my SS experiences, 39 since 2003 including 18 in
2008 but zero in 2009 so far.

I log date, time, activity, duration, direction & anything unusual,
but I don't see any pattern at all (no pun intended).

[zigzag]

I keep track of mine. I am looking for similarities,and "conditions"
that may trigger them. Nearly all of mine happen at home, and when I
have been on the computer a lot. It's entirely possible that I will
never have another one, but I would hate to see them go. I think we
should also list any other medical anomalies we have. I never want to
sound like I am neurotic, and seeking attention, or sympathy.

When people tell us "Oh it's all in your head" we can reply "You can
say that again!" I find myself wondering if the auras actually serve a
vital purpose. Repairing something ? Preventing permanent damage ? I
live in the desert, and one of my most profound auras appeared after I
peeked ouside from a dark curtain into a piercing light. I recently
had my first blind spot. I was looking at a clock, and numbers
vanished !

[Kevin]

You may be on to something zigzag,

I recall an article (why can't I find these later?) about CSD
(cortical spreading depression) that mentioned its results mimicked
the chemical effect on brain tissue of a whole night's sleep in only a
few minutes.
IMO: If you think of neurons as chemical batteries (I suppose they
literally are), the CSD wave is a sort of deep cycle discharge that
flushes out neurotransmitter chemicals that build up in the
interstitial spaces. I've long thought my CSD seizures were a
mechanism for "resetting" visual brain tissue that has become
overloaded and unstable. If you watch an animation of one traveling
through the visual cortex, it just looks like that's what's happening.

http://www.migraine-aura.org/content/index_en.html

It's a brain cramp!

On that note. My new prescription eyeglasses seem to have ameliorated
my migraine aura attacks. I think my last one was May 22. I would
never have thought something so simple would fix this weird problem
but it did (so far). Perhaps my brain was working too hard making
images from my bad eyesight. I can't think of anything different that
would account for the respite from these attacks.