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I think he can rule out the "beginning of glaucoma" since he's only 18, and he's experienced these strange vision phenomenon since he was 11.
Migraine can certainly be a cause of those symptoms, including momentary blindness. Migraine can also be _triggered_ by a spike in blood pressure so his hypertension issue could be contributing to the problem. Definitely check with an opthemologist; tell the doctor your experiences and combine the consultation with a full eye exam.
My mom has experienced temporary blindness in the past when she's had migraines. Even sometimes, she'll get "spots" or ziggly lines in her vision field.
It could be migraine auras or something neurological. Please get a neuro-ophthalmologist to check out your optic nerves and get an MRI of your brain.
My eyeballs are perfectly healthy and I went totally blind. Blindness isn't always in the eyes. Sometimes it's in the brain. Not to scare you, but please get your brain checked out too. Better safe than sorry.
I was thinking "rule out the most obvious possibility first." And the most obvious possibility is something going on with his eyesight. The second most obvious possibility would be migraine. "Something in the brain" would be down the list a bit, since he's had this problem for the past 7 years, through puberty.
If the "regular, non-specialist" doctors say "nope, not eyesight problem, nope, not migraine," THEN you look for a specialist. Unless it's life-or-death, but again if he's been going through this sporadically since he was 11 years old, he'd have been dead years ago if it was a life-or-death situation.
My mom has experienced temporary blindness in the past when she's had migraines. Even sometimes, she'll get "spots" or ziggly lines in her vision field.
Same here. I don't have what is known as "migraine syndrome," which is a chronic migraine problem. My mom and my sister both have that. I do get migraines on occasion, most often my first day of menstruation each month (but not every month and it even skipped a whole year one year). My mom and sister take prescription meds for it, I try to stave it off with an alieve the second I feel the first symptoms. If I catch it in time, I don't get the headache. If I don't catch it in time, I'm miserable for the rest of the day, and sometimes the following day as well.
I get pretty rainbow light shows in my vision, and sometimes my field of vision narrows, and *very* rarely I'll go blind for a couple of seconds.
Wow I get those too. Both the camera flash empty spots and the rainbow lightshows.
But I rarely get headaches or migranes, so....
Migraines don't always involve a headache. Sometimes all you can be having is the migraine auras and that's still considered a migraine.
I have a friend that gets such bad auras in her vision and goes blind for such long periods of time that she actually has to function as a blind person. She uses a cane and braille and everything, and it's all due to migraine auras and migraine blindness.
brain tumours, retinal problems and other weird and wonderful conditions, while possible, would be extremely rare in an otherwise healthy young person.
migraine, however, is common. and the symptoms fit. i wouldnt suggest you need to go anywhere other than your family doctor, in the first instance.
Again, it sounds a LOT like an opthalmic / ocular migraine. I've been getting something like this for years and usually it's just blind spot right in the middle of my vision. If I look at something head on it's like I'm seeing thro rippling water. They don't hurt and they happen very infrequently. Last time I checked my opthalmologist said it wasn't anything to worry about altho at my next check-up I will probably ask him again.
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