Ocular Migraine

I was driving on the highway on my way to Boston when I noticed a small blurry spot in my field of vision.   The spot was slightly to the left and just below my eyes' focal point.   As I drove the spot grew into a portrait shaped rectangle with prism-like edges.    If I tried to look straight at it, the shape would just move and stay to the lower left of my visual center.  

Now I was getting nervous.  I couldn't really see with this kaleidoscope area blocking a portion of my vision.   I took the next exit and pulled into a gas station.   When I closed my eyes, I could still see the confetti colored pattern, but now it had sprouted an arc up and to the left of the original rectangle.   There were skinny black triangles and bright white triangles, but there were also slivers of color as well, red, green, blue.    I tried blocking one eye at a time and still the pattern was there, and blocking my vision.    With both eyes closed the background was black but the colorful prism pattern remained.

Fast forward six hours, I'll spare you the details on that!   Something called an ocular migraine was floated as the likely diagnosis.   It is known to present itself with exactly this visual phenomenon.    Just twenty minutes after it had started, the aura moved to the outer edges of my vision and eventually disappeared.   



Thee Phases of Ocular Migraine

The doctor, upon discovering that I was a painter, asked me if I could draw what I had experienced (obviously, no one is able to capture it with a camera).   I drew a (poor) rendition of it for him with a black pen.   He pulled out his iPhone and showed me another artist's rendering of the condition - almost identical!  It has an interesting abstract flare to it.

Here is a painting of the three phases of what I remember seeing in full color.  Perhaps this can serve as a reference for future victims of this scary phenomenon, which by the way, is not a serious health issue.   And, as for the word "migraine" in the title, the condition can occur without a big headache, which was the case with me.