Hi My name is Rachel and I suffer from ocular migraines and also floaters. I am STILL in treatment trying to address my problem and am waiting to see some more specialists. I created the following images to show my doctors what I see and they found them so useful that I hoped others could also benefit from seeing them. I am still in progress making these and please bear with me as I am not a true artist...these are merely meant to be a representation of what I see during my episodes. I plan on preparing more images as time allows. Please view these as education materials only. I was for a time, going crazy--feeling like I am all alone but hopefully this will make at least one person feel like they are not suffering alone or silently. Some of these images or a likeness of them are to be published in a medical journal by one of my neurologists although he hasn't a clue when that will be. I will follow-up with more information on that in the future. Email me with questions and or comments

I have spent much of my time researching floaters and ocular migraines as I believe, and have been told by doctors, that I have definitely have the ocular migraine and also some floaters. In the past year I have been in the ER to get an MRI, saw three neurologists, one neuro-ophthalmologist (who is great!), two different eye doctors, and a retinal specialist. Only the retinal specialist could see the floaters and recommended I return on an annual basis. He said that my vitreous is intact but it is liquefying and that there is really nothing that can be done about them. He also said that the laser surgery wouldn't work and that it really doesn't relieve floaters for many people. He was referring to a doctor in Virgina specifically.

Just to give you some background on me. I am 29 years old and very healthy with the exception of GERD (acid reflux controlled by Prilosec), mild anemia and my visual problems/migraines. I have a strong maternal history of migraines (with and without auras), affecting my sisters, and mother and maternal uncles. I have been diagnosed with ocular migraines by 4 separate doctors. I seldom get a headache and if I do, I get a very painful one that lasts no longer than 90 seconds, which through my research have concluded that they are called Idiopathic Stabbing Headaches. The MRI came up negative for any abnormalities. In fact, the radiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where I spent a few days after some odd migranous symptoms (auras, weakness and numbness in my right arm, and slurred speech) said my brain was "beautiful."

In addition to the ocular migraines, I am fairly sure that I have a many nearly transparent floater(s) in my left eye which was meant to be represented in the following image (the dot in the sky is meant to represent a cell-like structure) in the sky. I see it only in my left eye and it moves around. It varies from large to small, one to dozens of them. Sometimes it looks like I can see all the cells oozing down my line of sight usually when looking out at the sky. In addition, I sometimes notice a transparent thread-like floater. I usually only see the floater(s) when it is very bright out and I am looking far away such as I do when I drive my car or ride my horse but sometimes I can see them when I watch TV and such. This is what concerns me the most. I fear they will only get worse and the other eye will begin to have the same issues.

I have also created some other images to represent the auras I see when I am having a migranous attack. The first aura occurred in 1992 and my vision blurred in the middle and as I was reading a paper all the letters started floating around in a circular bend. (I hope to create an image like this, I just keep forgetting about it because it was so long ago). My latest auras, all occurring in the past 8 months, are almost always preceded by a day at the mountain and the most vibrant, vicious migraine aura attack occurred on a very sunny, very windy, and very cold day at Sugarloaf in Maine which resulted in the purple dots. Normally, after a day on the slopes, I would get a shimmering orb in the sky as I was driving home. Nearly every time I have been snowboarding the snow starts to shimmer. A few other random episodes brought on shimmering skies. However, these were never preceded by a day at the mountains, they just occurred randomly. Although, both occurred in the winter months on an overcast day while driving. After the "many purple dots" incident I had several days of frequent flashes of colorful lights and it culminated with an episode of slurred speech and also loss of feeling/coordination in my right arm for 3 days hence I ended up in the ER. When I get the migraine aura I believe it to be in one eye but at the time these things were happening to me I wasn't aware that they were localized in one eye. I was more concerned with pretending it wasn't there and praying for my vision. (I was also convinced that I had some kind of tumor or brain disorder.) And luckily, I have not had an aura episode since being the emergency room.

My physician has me on 20 mgs of Elavil in a hope to ward off the auras. The elavil actually caused me to black out at times from changes in my blood pressure. In addition to all these things, I have been seeing my regular eye doctor, having my eyes dilated on 2 occasions, and both dilations revealed healthy eyes. He has also tried to rule out the possibility of eye strain so we have been testing out toric contact lenses and new glasses. I am highly myopic, -5.0/-5.25 in my eyes coupled with moderate astigmatism. And the toric lenses are great for sports and everyday activities and the glasses are better for working and reading.

Now my big issue now is that I see this random quick flash of light in my central field of vision. It is very small but bright flash, from the size of a thumbtack to a pinpoint and I notice it most when I change my focus from near to far or vice versa. I notice it more so as I work on the computer during the day as I look down and up as I type or read something. I have also seen it when I ride my horse. A few other times I have seen a small black spot in the distance, if only for a split second, then everything was fine.

And this is the lovely floater I see in my left eye most of the time.