[hvert]

I am having a weird problem and wonder if anyone has any ideas.

A month ago, I started to notice flickering lights. It was like the lights in the room flickered. I thought it was an electrical problem in my house, as it happened maybe once or twice a day.

I then noticed it happening in other places and started asking people if they saw it. They didn't.

I did a volunteer shift in a low light Christmas decorated environment and had flashes every five minutes. It drove me nuts. I scheduled an appointment with my eye doctor for the next day, worried about a detached retina.

He examined my eyes and found that they were healthy. He had no idea why this would be happening. I am not having migraines or any other symptom.

Has anyone else run into this kind of problem? I am not even sure where to go next.

[Yoda]

I had something similar and my ophthalmologist said I was having migraines without the headache.

[hvert]

Bizarre! Did it ever go away?

[unaluna]

I used to have a problem where if i really hadnt gotten enough sleep the night before, then after looking in the mirror in the morning i would keep getting mirror-like flashes in my eye. But that stopped after i started taking topamax. I also stopped having deja-vu's all the time, mostly under stressful conditions like family dinners. So maybe check the side effects of your meds and see if any of them say seizures? Also did your eye dr check your blood pressure? Hows your blood sugar?

[hvert]

I'm not on any meds and haven't been to a regular doctor for about 17 years. I don't have health insurance and guess I have irrational feelings about doctors that prevented me from going when I did have insurance.

I did check my blood sugar myself a year or two ago and it was fine- but diabetes runs in my family and I have been slightly overweight for far too long now. I will check my blood pressure again -- it's always been low, but I haven't actually checked for a few years. They didn't check at the office.

Reading about this ocular migraine makes some of the stuff the eye doctor said make more sense. When he suggested migraines, I didn't understand that you could have them without also having a headache.

[SnakeCharmer]

I've had that sort of thing on and off for about 30 years, mostly off. It was diagnosed several times as "ophthalamic migraine." It's like having the warning aura of a migraine without actually getting the painful headache part. Sometimes I feel nausea or intestinal discomfort, but usually not. I don't take medication for it. But I have had times when I had it almost all the time for a year or more. That was before I figured out the triggers.

It always gets worse with fluctuations in female hormones and if I eat too much of the foods that are known as migraine triggers -- when I gave up chocolate (), grape juice and aged cheese it dramatically improved. Oh, and nitrate and nitrate food preservatives! Those are the worst. Which I forget this time of year because many Xmas goodies are made with dried fruit, like dates, which usually contain it. Salami, lunch meat, hot dogs, Hickory Farms Sausages and treats. All full of nitrates and nitrites. The holidays are a terrible time for migraine triggers.

I've also run to the eye doctor thinking I was having a detached retina, but my eyes have been okay.

The topamax drug Hankster takes is often prescribed for migraines. On a more serious note, seeing flashing and flickering lights can be a warning aura for seizures. Topamax is prescribed for seizures, too.

Here's some WebMD info on migraine triggers. If I avoid the food triggers, I usually don't have symptoms. If I eat one date or a piece of dried pineapple or a single slice of salami, the lights will flicker for 3 days.

Frequently Asked Questions About Food Triggers, Migraines, and Headaches

[hvert]

That list of forbidden foods is discouraging!!!! I'm trying to remember when I started in on the dates this season!

I am going to have to pay attention to this. I had never heard of warning auras. The descriptions of the eye tricks don't quite match, but I am still googling. Thank you all for giving me some words to use to look this up.

[unaluna]

Thanks snake charmer. I dont know why i am so stingy with my words. I THINK all that stuff that you so eloquently explain, but i feel like i am not allowed the floor time to actually say it. Its like i have to hit and run. So thank you for explaining it.

[MotownJohnny]

Could be occular migraines - that is one of several visual symptoms you could have, others being auras and waivy lines and dark holes in the center of the field of vision. Photosensitivity, too, bright light can seem very bright.

Occular migraines are like "Migraine Lite" - they don't have the head pain of a full migraine, but the visual symptoms, and may have other symptoms like weakness, fatigue, nausea, dizzyness.

Had them for years - they are overall harmless, and usually just treated with OTC meds like Excedrin Migraine - but you can get a presciption if they are bad.

Good luck.

[Rainydaiz]

Yes I had one of these - an occular migraine.

[SnakeCharmer]

Opthalamic and occular migraine are different names for the same process. I think. Pretty sure. As Motown said, they're considered harmless, or as my doctor said, benign. But they can bug the living daylights out of you, especially before you know what they are.

Hvert, please don't be discouraged by that list of trigger foods. I eat most of the foods on it without difficulty. They don't bother me at all. With some trial and error, I figured out the ones that do. Dates are a big one for me, one of the worst, along with purple grape juice and pomegranate juice, which is popular now. I can easily live without those things.

If you started eating the Christmas season dates recently, I'd be suspicious of that. Dates didn't bother me until I was at least 40. Don't know if it was my biochemistry or a change in how dates are preserved. I'm pretty sure it's the preservative and not the actual dates. I'm the woman holding up progress in the grocery aisles reading the fine print on the backs of packages to make sure there's no nitrates, nitrites or sulfates.

Ah, Hankster, I admire your short, pithy messages and perfect metaphors. It's a lot harder to say something meaningful in a few words than it is to ramble on and finally get it out. Thank you for your kind words. I needed that!

[hvert]

I want to thank all of you for this information!

I have been taking aspirin to see if that has any sort of preventative effect on the flickering. I'm not sure if it's having a positive effect, but I do think it is helping - I forgot to take it this morning and have been getting the flashes again. The flickering mostly stopped for a few days, but just a few minutes ago the lights seemed to flicker about five times in five minutes.

So I guess this is still a trial and error process. The only pattern I have been able to absolutely identify is that it only happens in low light environments.

I wonder if it is a hypersensitivity to fluctuations in the power. I have always been more sensitive than other people to that - is it possible that it's suddenly become 10x worse? I feel like it is crazy to say that.

Hankster, I love your messages too

[hvert]

Just updating this in case anyone else has the same mystery. I think this is a sinus issue.

I have been having some low-grade tooth pain and worried that I had bad breath. I went to the dentist today because the pain in my wisdom tooth area was pretty constant.

My teeth are fine. I told my dentist about my recent vision thing. She suggested that this is a sinus issue - the sinus membrane overlaps with the wisdom tooth area. When I got home, I googled and found that flashing lights are also connected to sinus issues.

So the light flashing + tooth pain + bad breath seems to indicate that this is a sinus issue. I don't really have a stuffed up nose or any of the other symptoms. Now that I think about it, the light flashing problem started right around Thanksgiving, which is when I had a strange sort of cold.

[Fresia]

If it happens again for the fickering lights, I would suggest taking Excedrin instead of just aspirin, which is what the doc recommended OTC. Excedrin or the generic migraine formula (acetaminophen/ aspirin/ caffeine) can help with ocular migraines as well as sinus migraines.

I hope your find some relief soon.

[hvert]

Thank you! I will try that. It's weird, because I don't feel like I have a headache - just this tooth issue and flickering light thing. I'm still getting used to the idea that migraines can be like this!