Oh no. Not now!

As I started playing the second hymn at Nuuanu Congregational Church this morning, I could see the telltale symptoms of an ocular migraine starting. A tiny medallion appeared in my vision, and it was pulsating, shimmering larger and smaller with every moment. It appeared in both eyes.

In case you’ve never heard of an ocular migraine, here’s a description I found on the internet:

Ocular migraine aura is a temporary visual disturbance that occurs before or during a migraine headache. It is caused by a wave of electrical activity in the brain that temporarily affects the visual cortex. 

Symptoms: Shimmering or shimmering lights, Blind spots, Zigzagging lines or patterns, Blurred vision, and Loss of vision in one eye. 

My husband, Carl, used to get migraine headaches with auras, so when I started getting them, I knew what he was talking about.

I’ve been experiencing visual auras like this for the past fifteen years or so, about once a year. The first time it happened, I called my eye doctor because I was worried. I even consulted a neurologist, but was told to largely ignore it, although now I note the aura in my calendar. The episodes usually only last about twenty minutes or so. However, I’ve always had the visual auras when I was at home, never while playing a service, and luckily, never while driving!

By the time of the third hymn, it was unfortunately not a familiar tune. During the first verse, it looked like this, and was manageable. Luckily I had practiced the hymn before the service, so at least I wasn’t sightreading it! This image is a representation of what I was experiencing (only the first page of the hymn is shown.)

Here’s what it was like by the second verse — still manageable. By turning my head, I was able to see around the medallion image, although it was getting larger and harder to ignore.

By the time of the third verse, though, I had more or less memorized the melody and harmony and I got through it all right in spite of my seeing something like this! Thank goodness, by the end of the sermon, the visual aura was gone and my vision was back to normal. Whew!

Hope this doesn’t happen again!