Hey all, nice to know I'm not alone with this!
I have a mechanical mitral valve as of June this year and a 10/10 rehabilitation according to my surgeon, cardios and nurses, I'm on around 6-7mg Warfarin/Coumadin a day. I used to get aura migraines through most of my adult life, maybe two a year. Then when I got endocarditis and it
massively hit one morning, they went up to 4+ a
day... Now my visual weirdnesses can be categorised three ways:
1) Small silver floating dots that appear quite often in my peripheral vision and disappear quickly, probably related to oxygen supply to the brain (like hanging upside down when I was a kid)
2) Aura migraines, no pain, they start at the focal point as a barely noticeable pulsing dot, usually on the right, then slowly grow and move outwards around the eye over the course of 20-30 mins, no pain but a kind of very slight dull throb, I've always been able to ignore these and get on with things as best I can (I don't drive).
3) Either the cross-eyed/double vision people describe above, or a similar thing where a portion (top/bottom) of one eye goes completely blurred, so I can move a hand in/out of that area and not see it at all. I've had none of these for months until this week, I got one at work yesterday after a few hours looking at a screen.
I had a full eye test after I came out of hospital and that was totally fine, one doctor suggested an opthalmologist but in a more recent cardiologist appointment, he said that would do no good, and whilst I might potentially want to see a nurologist in the future, there's likely nothing they can do. I've been keeping a note in my iCal of every event and any details, more recently with potential triggers. As for those, I've narrowed them down to these:
A) Tiredness
B) Being hung over (yup, I can drink alcohol as well on Warfarin as I could before, yay!)
C) Caffeine, an occupational hazard...
D) Computer screens - possibly only those with a certain refresh rate. Another occupational hazard and one I can't really avoid without a total career change.
E) Food, although there's seemingly no correlation between food that affects my INR and these episodes
F) Stress, usually another work thing
I've always been sensitive to computer monitor refresh rates, in the CRT days I'd get massive eye-strain induced headaches if I even looked at anything below 75Hz. Modern LCD screens have less visible flicker and usually run at 60Hz, I've noticed on two post-op breaks to Berlin and Malta where I've hardly looked at a screen at all, I've had none of the auras, then I come back and resume work/normal life and a few days later I'll get one. There doesn't seen to be any other common denominator, so my thinking is very much down this route at the moment.
Looking forward to getting to the bottom of this one, my cardiologist agreed that it's best I continue this self-analysis of lifestyle/occupational triggers and try and work something out long-term that doesn't involve me ditching my career and becoming a gardener
Cheers,
Stuart
