Scintillating scotoma (vision)

[Dan Stoner]

Over the weekend I developed a visual artifact. Post-run this turned into terrible migraine headache and eventually nausea and puking. It was warm and humid (sudden jump in temps here in Florida) and I didn't drink anything or have any water to splash on myself.  I think I was borderline heat exhaustion. Probably didn't help that I applied hot pad to my head to try and make the headache go away.

This morning I completed a long hard run in the cold (in the 20s with wind chill). The water fountains were shut off at my usual stop due to the cold so I didn't drink anything during the run.

No issues during the run but after getting to work I noticed the visual artifact again.  No headache (yet). 

Freaked me out. Research leads me to think it is Scintillating scotoma.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma

I immediately drank a glass of water and the shimmering went away.

So I'm thinking that dehydration may contribute to Scintillating scotoma.

Getting older is fun.

- Dan Stoner

[Tuck]

Well, it doesn't sound like this, which would be a real cause for concern:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000730.htm

That was my initial diagnoses back when I wound up in the stroke ward for a few days.  Not a fun place to be...

But the neuro doc changed the diagnosis after I gave him some research showing that the symptoms could appear without being caused by a stroke.

The final diagnosis was migraine.  Which means "there's a problem in your brain, and we don't know what's causing it."

One of the symptoms I had was a blind spot, it sounds like what's described in the link you provided, but with fewer fireworks.

I've only had it happen two times.  Now that I know the trigger, I avoid it like the plague, as I'd rather not have the effect become permanent.  (The first attack left me with a mild speech impediment.  The doc was able to confirm it, but no-one notices it but me.  It seems to be getting better since I've gone on the stricter keto diet (Thanks, Patrick!).

I also had this, which was definitely no fun:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressive_aphasia

The second time I also got receptive aphasia.  Even less fun.

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Tucker

 

[Tuck]

BTW, didn't you used to be in Boston?

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Tucker

 

[Tuck]

These were the emails I was sending as it was happening (I wanted a record):

"Not able communication... "

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/huaraches/OT$3A$20Mislabeled$20Gluten$20Free$20Pasta/huaraches/hNNsZwtRE_A/6ZNKUpDEglMJ

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Tucker

 

[Dan Stoner]

I have never lived in Boston, although I visited there once.

I went to the eye doc today just to be sure. All is good with the eyes. He said it was almost surely a "migraine" and that he gets something similar once or twice a year.

I am now reading up on migraines, unfortunately the triggers are poorly understood and vary by individual. Some people seem to have diet triggers. Some people have visual triggers (like if they see bright lights or sun reflection). Could be yeast (too much) or magnesium (not enough). Chocolate. Tea tannins. ....

My favorite potential cause is this guy:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wG7NJ8rax0

In my case both instances are correlated with "did not drink anything during a long hard run" so I guess I will try to be more aware of that.

- Dan Stoner

[Tuck]

It only took me 4 years to go from stroke to cause... Be patient.  But you're definitely on the right track.

Don't know where I got the idea about Boston!

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Tucker

 

[Deacon Patrick]

If any of your triggers are body alignment or stress related, floor living/sleeping may be highly helpful. My TBI headaches (which make the migraines I used to have seem like fuzzy kittens) have all but vanished.

A friend of mine gets visual aura migraines from not drinking enough water. At least they stop after he drinks water, and generally correlate with times when he wasn't drinking much before them.

With abandon,

Patrick

[Doug Sims]

My wife's migraines have almost completely disappeared since she started taking Magnesium supplements. No because of me though, I've been telling her she needs them for years. It took a "Dr. Oz" episode to get her to try them... :/

At least I didn't have to convince her to take Epsom salt baths. Now the whole family demands epsom salt when they take a bath.

On Thu, Jan 8, 2015 at 7:53 PM, Dan Stoner <dans...@gmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ancestral-running/feb6900a-290a-4852-8ddf-19175095e112%40googlegroups.com.