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Fun with Eye Exams - Bright Lights, Big Migraine

December 7th, 2008

Last week I had an eye exam. It’s not something I had ever thought was a big deal. The purpose was to check the pressure in my eyes. A particular type of glaucoma can be a side effect of Topamax, the Migraine preventive medication I am on. In addition, there is a correlation between low-tension glaucoma and Migraine. I learned this about a month ago when I first went in for the eye exam, in the early stages of a Migraine, and asked to be taken out of the bright noisy waiting room. The optometrist scolded me a bit for never having told them (in seven years as a patient) that I had Migraines. My experience has been that most doctors know very little about Migraine, and it never occurred to me to share it with them. I didn’t know it was relevant.

That first visit was a very satisfying patient experience. My optometrist was sympathetic and clearly quite knowledgeable about Migraine; she also refused to dilate me and do the full exam while I had a Migraine. She did a partial exam and I was scheduled to come back in a week. There followed a month where I had a Migraine every Wednesday. It was a good month for me, because those were the only Migraines I had. But for some reason, they kept coming on Wednesdays, and I kept rescheduling the eye exam for the next Wednesday. Finally last week I got a Migraine on Tuesday evening. It was still hanging around, slightly improved, on Wednesday, but I decided I would not cancel the appointment a fourth time. I decided to go ahead with the exam, come hell or high water. I’m not sure whether you would call what followed hell or high water. Maybe both.

First we did a visual fields test. No big deal. Lots of little lights blinking on in my visual field, and I had to press a button when I saw them. Apparently I did well. No blind spots. Then she dilated me. And shined very bright lights in my eyes. Very very bright lights. And then brighter ones. And I had to look directly into the bright lights. That is not something I have done in a very long time. I have spent several years shying away from bright lights.

When I got home I spent the evening in a dim room, blurry eyed, in sunglasses. I tried to read, work on this blog, watch tv. My Migraine came back to life with a vengeance. And hung around another 24 hours, wringing me out like a wet rag. It took days for me to feel well again. So, no, I don’t recommend getting an eye exam with a Migraine. Problem is, if I hadn’t had a Migraine I’d say the chance is pretty high I would have gotten one. The good news is I don’t have any kind of glaucoma, and I was approved to increase my medication dosage. My eyes are in good shape. It’s my brain that’s a little iffy.

- Megan

Eyeball image courtesy of Rob Bell; retina image courtesy of Eliya Selhub.

Tags: glaucoma, low-tension glaucoma, Migraine attack, Migraine trigger, optometry, Topamax
Posted in Medicine, Musings | Comments (6)

6 Responses to “Fun with Eye Exams - Bright Lights, Big Migraine”

1. Michael Edson, MS, L.Ac. Says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 7:39 pm

   In Chinese medicine, the most common pattern related to migraine headaches is Liver Yang Rising. This means that the Liver (meridian) which “opens to the eyes” is out of balance, resulting in the rise of heat.

   Interestingly, this is also the main pattern related to open-angle glaucoma (chronically high intraocular pressure).

   It might be worth getting evaluated by an acupuncturist for your migraines and glaucoma.

2. admin Says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 9:57 pm

   Well, Michael, happily, I don’t have glaucoma, but I know acupuncture does help some with their Migraines. How interesting that that the pattern for the two conditions is so similar.
   - Megan

3. Barry Wheeler Says:
   April 27th, 2009 at 7:23 pm

   Interesting to say the least. Being someone who’s developed migraines in the last few years, I’ve been searching for some alternate remedies.

4. admin Says:
   April 27th, 2009 at 10:19 pm

   Barry thanks for stopping by. I hope to do a post on complementary therapies for Migraine soon. A few things you might want to do are to sign up for the e-course on managing your life with Migraine, where I discuss a holistic approach to managing all the aspects of your life that impact your Migraines, which you can find at the upper right corner of this page; you can also register for my teleconference series one of our upcoming speakers is going to discuss complementary therapies; and you can join one of the relaxation teleclasses or purchase a relaxation audio-file, available on the products page, to practice calming your system and reducing Migraines that way.
   Best,
   Megan

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