… update further… I’ve been reading “Migraine” by the late Oliver Sacks. Not finished reading it yet and I would say it is quite a technical - medic oriented - book, not intended for easy reading but I’ve discovered that the visual effect I had was a scotoma. I think a scintillating scotoma; maybe a negative scotoma. In the book, there is an almost exact representation of what I could see. Quite remarkable to find such a thing!
Of the other things that I’ve read in the book so far, the most interesting is that Sacks separates migraine from epilepsy and both of these from similar effects driven by some abnormality. Thus, he would clearly distinguish between a “normal” Migraine (my words) and one driven by an AVM or tumour or any other abnormality.
The one thing that might help us in this forum is Sacks’ view that migraine aura are almost always bilateral – that the sensations may start in one hemisphere but almost always transgress into the other hemisphere. His view is that any apparent migraine that doesn’t traverse the body should be treated with strong suspicion. In other words, there may be some less benign thing driving the apparent migraine, like an AVM.
Equally, whilst I had a scotoma, it was not – by Sacks’ definition – caused by migraine but by some other factor.
I hope this helps one or two people…
Best wishes,
Richard