#526 GoodbyeHalcyondays

"1. Name or screen name (optional): GoodbyeHalyconDays

2. Email (optional):

3. Location (optional): Louisiana

4. Age: 18

5. Sex: F

6. Nationality and Race (optional): white

7. Do you have classic migraine (migraine with aura) or common migraine (migraine without aura)? When did it begin?

Never had a migraine in my life!

8. What do you take for your classic or common migraine and does it help?

Nothing.

9. Have you been diagnosed with persistent aura (prolonged migraine aura status)?

Yes. My neuro-opthamologist said he believed I had it and didn't give me treatment because he told me it was uncureable and I have to learn to live with it until it hopefully goes away on its own. I have my doubts.

10. What is your visual problem and how long does it last?

Noticed something strange with my vision in April 2007 (patterns, etc.), but since late July 2007 I've had static in both my eyes, that grows more and more each day.

11. Any other problems that you think might be related?

Not really. I'm completely healthy, or so doctors tell me. The only thing I struggle with is anxiety, which seems might as well come hand and hand with VS.

12. What do you take or do for your vision problem and does it help?

Nothing. I've never tried to treat it, my doctor tried to get me to take cymbalta for the panic attacks but after one try I couldn't stand it. It had no affect on my vision, but made me worse than happy. Exercise, rest, and a vacation really helped me a lot, but the anxiety is still there.

13. Have you found a trigger for your vision problem?

I'm a heavy computer user. XD Also, I've been suffering with PTSD/anxiety attacks ever since my uncle was murdered in April 2007. His daughter said she experienced VS for over two months but it went away. She detailed what she saw so calmly that it scared me a little because it sounds like what I have now, which hasn't gone away for a year.

14. What tests have you had and the results?

MRI: Normal . . . blood work: Normal . . . Visual Field test: Normal . . . Retina checked: Healthy . . . so in other words, NORMAL.

15. Drug history (pre VS):

None.

16. Drug history (post VS - effect on VS - negative, positive, not at all):

None.

17. Do you have a positive family history for migraine? If yes, who is affected?

Yes. Aunts, cousins, Great-Grandfather, and that's all I know.

18. Other information you want to provide?"

(GoodbyeHalcyondays [subject #526], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Sticky - Sofia Greene's survey about persistent visual disturbances, February 24, 2008)

"Visual Snow - 3 (Annoying, but easily ignored during the day. Nightime is another story.)

After-images - 5 (I wish this symptom didn't exist)

Floaters - 5 (I hate the ones I see in the sky even more than the ones I see in the house)

Persistent tinnitus - 2 (Some nights I dont notice it all, some rare nights it's hell.)

Feeling slightly fatigued and 'weird' - 2 (I get this only on nights where the tinnitus acts up)

Shimmering-- 4 (Only whenever I'm tired I see a lot of shimmering in all my vision in both eyes. It drives me nuts! It's always acompained by a fuzzy spider-shape thing)"

(GoodbyeHalcyondays [subject #526], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Sticky - Symptoms we all have, February 24, 2008)

"Sorry for the late response!! During the weekdays I'm really busy with college, especially since this is mid-exams week. Finally they are over!!

April 13th 2007 was when my uncle died. I meant by something strange was that I started having an increase in floaters. I saw static not only on white walls, but on every wall I would see of any color. I never use to see floaters inside, only outside, so it alarmed me. It was like I had only two or three floaters and then in a few weeks I had ten new unfamilar ones. Sometimes it would seem like my vision would flicker too. Gradually my symptoms would get worse so I went to a retina specialist but he told me it was normal for people with floaters. For months I felt at loss because I didn't know why my floaters were getting so bad. I hadn't even had them a year, what would they be in ten?

July 26th is when I began having visual snow. It started during the evening when I was having a hard time sleeping. The summer always messes up my sleeping patterns. My vision started flashing and I saw this huge geometric pattern from the corner of my eye that seemed to come close and closer until it filled my vision with lots of different patterns inside it. It looked a lot like this: [here]

(WARNING: MAY MAKE YOU DIZZY)

Then I started to see a lot of grain even when I would close my eyes and it scared me so much I couldn't sleep that evening, which made it even worse. I never experienced visual snow before, so when it first came it has never left.

I developed the afterimages very recently, and they haven't stopped. I think I have more negative afterimages than positive.

My tinnitus isn't persistent. It's more on the lines of on and off for now, sometimes I have it one ear, then the next day it's in both. Some days it even goes away.

The shimmering began August 6th 2007. It hasn't stopped, every night I had it along with hallucinations when I'm really tired. One time I saw actual letters, but they were jumbled together and I couldn't understand them. It's really scary, but I know it's my brain and it's not real.

My aunt does have migraines too, but she has the headache with aura. My cousin doesn't have the headaches, but she gets auras.

I'll try to do some illustrations and post them here soon."

(GoodbyeHalcyondays [subject #526], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - GoodbyeHalcyondays, February 27, 2008)

"Sorry I don't have any illustrations yet... there are so many great ones here that I'm trying to think of how to do mine.

(1) April 13th 2007 was when my uncle died. I meant by something strange was that I started having an increase in floaters. I saw static not only on white walls, but on every wall I would see of any color. I never use to see floaters inside, only outside, so it alarmed me. I could see my floaters better on white walls and it looked like similar to static. I read that this is normal and I didn't think there was a connection with VS, since VS static is a lot worse. I never saw floaters on white walls until April 2007 when I returned to work. (My work was closed for spring break.)

(2) I've had floaters since 2006. It's been so long, but I had my first floater in August 2006. Can't remember the exact date. I have two tiny ones that are grayish and one that is black. I only saw them outside on bright days. I was told that I have more floaters in my left eye than my right (I'm nearsighted). I haven't seen those particular ones in a while, but they will be sure to come back.

(3) Tinnitus started in September 14th, 2007. I was watching a movie and I was really tired so I tried to go to sleep but I couldn't. My ears started ringing so loudly I had to get up and try to do breathing techniques to calm myself down. The next night it wasn't nearly as loud. I notice the more relaxed I am/my eyes are during the day, the less ringing there is in my ears.

(4) I think I started noticing it [i.e. significant worsening of floaters, static] after I went back to school a week later. (I was on spring break when I heard the news)

(5) Yes, in both cases. [The aunt with a history of migraine is the widow of the murdered uncle and the cousin with aura his daughter.]

(6) She lives in another country and it's very hard to get in contact with her on the phone. She isn't much of a computer person either. She doesn't speak english very well... I might see her in a few months and then I'll be able to talk to her and explain the survery to her a lot better than on the phone."

(GoodbyeHalcyondays [subject #526], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - GoodbyeHalcyondays, March 1 and 2, 2008; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"I have tinnitus almost everyday. Sometimes it felt like the tinnitus had gone away a few times. Unless I'm so used to it by now that I thought it was gone but it wasn't?

I'll be sure to ask her those questions.

Sometimes I get tingling feelings on my scalp but I think those are anxiety symptoms. I am very sensitive to light and sound though, one time I was in the movie theater and had a headache. I just had to go see Harry Potter, of all shows, which is nothing but a bunch of flashing lights and booming noise in the dark. I thought my VS had better effects at times. Saw the Harry Potter film during the beginning of August 2007

I'm really close to my aunt's family, so to me her husband was almost like a dad to me. I haven't had therapy because my real dad refuses anything is wrong with me and that everything is just in my head. He told me to grow up, LOL.

I heard about what happened the day the attack. He was in a coma then but I didn't learn he died until the next day.

I didn't witness the event, but the details of what happened scared me since I had been in the apartment just a few months before and seen that guy downstairs of their apartment. He was really weird and thinking back I wish I knew what I know now. I get lots of nightmares even today about what could have occurred that day. One time I was trying to go to sleep when I heard a slam and scream. I thought I was going nuts!

Symptoms:

Suddenly become angry or irritable
Have a hard time sleeping
Have trouble concentrating
Fear for your safety and always feel on guard
Be very startled when someone surprises you

I think mine has been getting better over time. My cousin has PTSD too, and has it far more worse degree than mine because he witnessed it and almost lost his life as well. He never had VS though, but his sister has. His younger brother is seeing a child psychiatrist. The other two heard what happened from upstairs.

Sarah A [subject #432], Scintillating scotoma, 2007. © 2007 Sarah A (larger image see here)

I've been looking at your site and I have had a similar looking attack to Sarah A's (see here) in mid-October 2007!!!! So that was an aura? I was really stressed out that day after seeing my uncle's grave with my aunt and her kids. (My family lives in another country, I live in the USA and so this was my first visit after he died.) Anyhow, it only lasted three minutes and only went away after I did something anti-anxiety breathing. The more I panicked the more it grew. (I think I had it in my left eye.)"

(GoodbyeHalcyondays [subject #526], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - GoodbyeHalcyondays, March 1, 2008; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"My mother has migraines, but only headaches. My dad said he had them as a kid but they went away when he became an adult?"

(GoodbyeHalcyondays [subject #526], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - GoodbyeHalcyondays, March 1, 2008)

"My cousin [subject #534] is 14, but I think she was 13 at the time. I'm not sure when it started for her and when it ended. I'll have to ask her."

(GoodbyeHalcyondays [subject #526], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - GoodbyeHalcyondays, March 2, 2008)

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