LIVING WITH MIGRAINES

I Can’t See Clearly Now Migraine’s Come On

Help, my eyes have gone wonky

Photo by David Cassolato from Pexels

That no one dies of migraine seems to someone deep in an attack as an ambiguous blessing.― Joan Didion, The White Album: Essays

How do you describe the aura of a migraine to someone who hasn’t experienced one?

There may be sparks, zigzags, blind spots. Your vision may blur, flash, or ripple. Sometimes for me is when it is like a computer screen saver kicked in and the picture I view has gotten cut into random shapes. Tthose shapes are floating and rotating nearish to their original position but not quite locking into place.

Or I will look at things and realize I’m not seeing everything. The missing bits aren’t black or blank they just don’t exist. I can’t quite explain this one because there is no physical way to represent it. It is very disorienting.

For me, it usually starts at the edges of my vision and then moves to the center as things become more intense. There is a brief moment of questioning, “is this a migraine aura,” and then it is clear. Well, not clear as far as vision goes. So very not clear vision, but clearly, it is a migraine.

“Uh oh, my eyes have gone wonky again. Must be a migraine coming on,” is what I usually say to…