Question:
My symptoms started while I was reading in the afternoon, room light ok,glasses on. The word I was trying to read became dark, with the rest ofthe text around it still ok. In a period of about 10 minutes, the darkspot expanded to form a shape of about 1/4" thick, 2" high and 4" wide,made of colored, dark wiggly lines. The area inside this shape wasreadable, and the area outside it was too. If I looked up at the wall,the shape traveled to there too. I tried closing each eye separately,and the shape was in both eyes, singularly and together. I couldn't seeit when I closed my eyes. It was the same with or without my glasses on.It went away after about 15 minutes.

During the next hour or so, I developed a good headache, had somedizziness, and some trouble finding certain words for things, with someslurring of my speech. At first I thought I had a stroke, but afterreading some of the posts in this website, I'm not so sure anymore. This wasthe only time I've experienced this. Any ideas from anyone?

Answer: I'd be thinking stroke, or actually a transient ichemia as I gather thesymptoms stopped and you recovered completey.

Ocular migraine *is* basically a transient ichemia--a self-limiting,short duration stroke leaving no permenant damage----the visual effectscaused by an interuption in blood flow to part of the retina. It'socular migraine when the symptoms are limited to the eyes.

"Trouble finding words", known as transient amnestic aphasia, andslurring of speech can indeed be a transient ichemia or stroke effectingpart of the brain. In your case, it is possible the transient ichemia inthe eye continued at a location in your brain, or the entire event waslocalized in the brain.

But there are also other possible causes, including hypotensionlow blood pressure) seizure disorder, medicine side effects, tumors, etc.

Sometimes these things are isolated events and mean little as far asfuture disease and sometimes they are markers for a coming serious event.

Obviously, you should be evaluated by a doctor.