scintillating scotoma/Ocular Migraine???

[SimpleGrace]

Is scintillating scotoma/ocular migraine a symptom of MS?

[jazzgirl]

Not for me, but I did have a central scotoma w/raging optic neuritis...

What you're describing sounds more like something that goes along with classic migraine. I have been reading your posts and see that you're being worked up for a possible diagnosis of MS. Check out the MS Society's website for all kinds of info. That's where you'll get the best, and most recent, info about the disease.

www.nationalmssociety.org

Good luck to you!

[Redwings]

Is scintillating scotoma/ocular migraine a symptom of MS?

No. It's a symptom of the migraine process, which is a different entity than MS.

Most people with migraines (classic with aura or simply the visual aura of ocular migraine) don't have MS. (I have ocular migraines and I don't have MS; I have NMO.) Although migraine is more common in the MS population than in the general population (the workings of that association aren't yet understood), that doesn't automatically mean that ocular migraine is a symptom of MS instead of an effect of a coincident migraine process.

The salient points here are:

1) Coincident doesn't automatically mean cause and effect. Ocular migraine may simply be independently coexistent with MS, so can't be used as evidence of MS.

2) Ocular migraine is not optic neuritis, which has a greater association with MS. So the short-term (typically lasting 20 to 30 minutes), dynamic scintillating scotoma of ocular migraine shouldn't be mistaken for the longer-term, more static scotoma(s) of ON, and therefore mistakenly assumed to be a symptom or evidence of MS.

[SimpleGrace]

THANK YOU! That is exactly the information I was looking for!

This is the first time I have had one of these, so it caught me off-guard. I've never had migraines of any kind before.

I WAS just diagnosed with closed-angle glaucoma (I'm only 39!) in both eyes and am scheduled for a laser surgery in a week.

Weird how all these things are happening at the same time yet seem to be unrelated.

[Redwings]

Hi Michelle:
The closed-angle glaucoma is definitely unrelated to MS. It's genetic, related to the shape of your eyes. Like how tall or short you are, how big or small your nose and ears are, the width of your angles is determined by how big or small, shallow or deep your eyeballs are. Narrow angles occur in smaller, shallower eyes. In comparison, I'm nearsighted with deep eyes. My angles are wide enough to drive a semi through!

[SimpleGrace]

Great, the one thing on me that's tiny turns out to be my eye angles! LOL! Why couldn't it have been my caboose?

[jumpinjiminy]

My first scintillating scotoma happened about three weeks before a bunch of symptoms started coming on. I'd had plenty of bad headaches by that time and never thought of them as migraines, but never had an aura preceding them that I'm aware of. It opened a whole new perspective on what a migraine is. And to be honest, that thing freaked me out!

All of the docs I've seen tell me I have migraines, despite my refusal to believe them. "No, they're just bad tension headaches!" is what I tell them. LOL. I might make it my mission in life to drive the docs crazy. Turn about is fair play. Ya think?

Ever since then, my headaches have changed. They now come in multiple locations they've never had them before, and I see a lot of stars before my vision starts blurring. That's usually the first sign that another extended episode of blurred vision is going to hit, a shower of stars.

The one thing that happened that hasn't overlapped with the migraine diagnosis is a fixed scotoma. Those are dark spots in your vision that stick around for weeks or months at a time. If you start getting those, it might help to be seen/tested to sort things out. Having a neuro-ophthalmologist helps in tremendously. There is no other specialist that has the depth of knowledge they do in discriminating the difference - not the neurologists (unless they have this as a sub-specialty), not the ophthalmologists, and not the GPs.

If you have any weird eye things going on (flashing lights, colored lights, jerky eyes, double vision), there are quite a few here that can relate. RW came to my rescue with her sound guidance last year when my vision got bad. I still don't have any answers, but understand better what's happening when it does happen. It helps to reduce the anxiety.

I hope your glaucoma surgery goes well, and welcome to limbo. <- those of us with MS symptoms but no diagnosis

[SimpleGrace]

I just saw your reply today. So sorry it took me so long to respond. I talked to my cousin (who is an optometrist) about all of these issues, and he seems to think that an episode I had last summer was likely a mild episode of Optic Neuritis, the scintillating stonoma was an optic migraine, and the open angle glaucoma surgery I'm having tomorrow is unrelated to either. So, essentially I have three eye things going on at the same time. However, one is a brain/eye thing, one is a total brain thing, and one is a total eye thing. Could it get any crazier!? He also said that if I have another experience like last summer, to get my booty in to see him immediately. (I just waited it out and it went away after a week or two.) I know better now!