Retinal Migraine attacks are Scary!

The first time I had one was quite late in my first pregnancy. I was driving at the time, which was really scary. I was quite hot so I thought I was just overheated and pulled over to wait a minute, but then the freakiest thing started to happen - out of the corner of my eye flashing lights appeared (almost as if you when you look at car headlights for too long and then it leaves patterns in your eyes) It was like that but after a few minutes it started to expand and my whole vision. I closed them but the blurriness was still there.

I felt really nervous. I didn't really know what was happening and obviously being pregnant too, my anxiety was through the roof. What was happening, is my baby ok?

After about 10 minutes the lights receded and my vision was normal again. All that was left was a feeling of that I had just run a marathon - every single muscle in my body ached and I had a throbbing headache.

I remember telling my midwife, but she just said to keep drinking lots of water and to rest as much as possible. As it was so close to the end of my pregnancy I didn't really look much further into it, but I did keep happening. Maybe I had 5 or 6 episodes up until my son was born, and then (thankfully) after he was born they disappeared completely.

That was until my second pregnancy - they were back! And early too, they started in the first trimester. I had these episodes on and off for weeks, and as my pregnancy has progressed 've been getting them twice a day. They are absolutely exhausting.

I try to lie down when I know one is about to happen, and obviously drink more water but nothing really stops them from progressing.

Obviously my main concern was the baby. I kept going back to my midwife and saying they were still happening, and then I went to the doctor too. I just really wanted to know more about it. What is it, what's happening? I wanted the gestational diabetes test because they were actually being triggered by sugar a lot of the time and I wondered if my my body couldn't process the sugar efficiently enough that was triggering these episodes. The midwife not Doctor didn’t think I had gestational diabetes and were quite reluctant to give me the test, but after going back for a third time they said OK.

To my relief (but I was also shocked) the test came back positive! But I still had no other signs. No gluclose in my urine. I had a test to see how long I might have diabetes for, and that came back negative. My BMI is average (possibly even on the lower side) I was offered to retake the test, but to be honest I was so happy to be having extra scans and extra care, I didn’t know what to do now.

Since I still didn't know what else was causing the flashing light episodes (if it wasn’t gestational diabetes) I was still worried for the baby. So at 35 weeks, I will have another growth scan and if everything looks ok I might re-take the test. The downside is I can't go in the birth center or have a water birth and we have to stay in hospital after the baby is born - there are limitations if labelled as having gestational diabetes.

We saw a specialist at the diabetes clinic and she was certain it was something called Retinal Migraine (ocular migraine) we went over my symptoms carefully and agreed that this could be it! She told me many of her patients did have them, I wasn’t alone and as long as there weren't any troubling symptoms alongside them like memory loss or physical problems we just had to learn how to manage them. Each person with migraine responds differently to various treatments and stimuli so to try and get some relief, she recommended I go through the list of triggers and try to eliminate any of those. Of course the list of possible triggers with a bit of a joke….

Included everything I consume from coffee and chocolate to cheese and then everything I experienced from sleep deprivation, stress and hormonal changes - it was pretty impossible to eliminate those triggers unless I wanted to lie in bed all day… which is impossible with a toddler!

So I figured I just have to live with my episodes of vision loss and migraines. But I was really relieved to know that there wasn't anything seriously wrong with me or the baby.

The good news is that now and I get one of these migraines, I'm more pissed off than I am freaked out… so I guess that is a positive? Thankfully. I don't panic too much. I just tell whoever I’m with that one is coming on, and if I can I lie down. I'm know that I won't be able to see for the next hour and probably be pretty exhausted and debilitated with one hell of a headache for a few hours following.

I mostly see the aurora as a heads up that I'm going to be knocked out.

So that's my weird pregnancy symptom story. It's a bit of an unusual one, but I want other mums or other pregnant ladies to know that if you ever have one - you're not alone. It is ok. It's totally bizarre, and really scary, but don't worry, you’re not dying!

And hopefully just like when I had my first baby. They will disappear soon enough.

#35weekspregnant