Sudden temporary blindness in both eyes

Thank you for your comment. I feel more on the right track. I think I found a willing new MD. He sent me forms to fill that I can carry to my appointment.

I just retired from 40 years of eye care practice myself, and I very clearly remember the first patient I saw who suffered from ophthalmic migraine. She was under great academic stress, and crashed her bike into a bus stop sign when her central vision darkened. She was terrified, justifiably.
You definitely could find a more compassionate doctor. Most ophthalmologists don't have time (time=$) to review all the ins & outs of the condition, because it is so nerve wracking to experience, and generates a thousand (justified) questions/concerns. You may be better off with an optometrist or a neuro-ophthalmic physician's assistant, both of whom are on average more inclined to prolonged patient education. (Disclosure: I am an optometrist, who worked in practice with a purely surgical ophthalmologist the last third of my career)
Any visual disturbance that shuts off your vision warrants an initial workup to be certain that it's migraine and not blood vessel obstruction or inflammation, which are far less common but have serious consequences. "Eye Migraine" is scary-- I equate them with panic attacks, which also are terrifying until you've had enough of them to recognize and learn to manage them with daily practice of stress management techniques. Good luck.

In 2014, when I was 61 years old, I was sitting at a restaurant with my family, relaxing and chatting, when suddenly my vision disappeared (binocular) and was replaced by complete color static. It looked exactly like old color TV screens looked when the local broadcast station (pre-cable) signed off for the evening after the national anthem. It was flashing in colored micro-dots exactly like that TV static. It was not visual snow overlaid on what I was seeing around me. It was complete replacement of everything. I was bringing in light, but it wasn't being . . . processed.

I was talking at the time to one of my daughters' boyfriend and was looking to my left at him, and obviously I went silent. It took a few seconds to comprehend that I was blind, but seeing only static. After probably 5-7 seconds I realized this was really happening. I suddenly had an internal panic reaction that something had happened and that this might be permanent. I might have suddenlly become blind. In a flash (no pun intended).

And then just as I felt a physical panic reaction begin to sweep through me, my vision returned to complete normal. I realized that I had turned my head and was looking straight ahead at my daughter, who was looking down the table talking to others. I turned my head back to Sam and he was looking at me with no alarm on his face.

In the midst of a massive relief, but still full of fear that it could come back at any time, I calmed myself and said, fairly coolly, "Hey, while we were talking you were looking at my face and eyes. Did you just see anything strange come over my face?" He said, "Well, your eyes widened and you stopped talking mid-sentence. Why? I thought that some idea had come into your head and you were thinking of how to say it." So I told him what happened, and asked him how long I had been silent. He said, "Ten seconds or less. Probably less."

Needless to say, for several weeks, I went through MRIs and all sorts of other tests, including when I was asleep. They considered everything from migraines to seizures to TIAs to tumors to all sorts of things. They could find nothing bad. The good news was they said, "According to what we found you have the brain of a 35-40 year old man. Brain volume decreases with age, but thats where you're at."

I was leery of driving for a while for fear it could return. But it never did. It's been more than nine years now. Still no idea. But I was thinking about it just today and decided to type in some search terms just to see if anyone else has had the same thing happen and what they learned.

Hi I’m Sharon I’ve been having what you have described for two year on and off at first they thought it was stroke but my recovery was to quick since then I’ve had it happen at least 7 times maybe more it’s so scary my heart beat felt so slow then it when my eyesight came back it was so fast I thought it was because I panicked since then I’ve had 2 echocardiogram 3 ECG bloods 2 holters and then a heart loop recorder fitted in my chest it’s picked up that I have a fast heart rate and that I produce a extra 7 beats in my lower chambers which there not worried over I’ve just recently had my eyes tested at the hospital which I waited a year for they said my eyesight is very good I do have very small cataracts but this wouldent cause my vision loss in both eyes I can only describe it as shutters going down everything is black and I can still here every thing but not see then my vision comes back in stages and all distorted I’ve had 2 brain scan one last year and another 3 weeks ago I’ve also had a phone call recently from hospital to say they picked up some irregular heart beats in my upper chambers I’m also diabetic but that under control I’m at a complete loss as I’ve other health issues arthritis spondylitis of the spine blood pressure and high cholesterol I just wish I new what it was it so scared going out on your own and you lose your eyesight last one I had was two weeks a Ho in wales and I had just got across the road and my vision went

I had a similar experience...sudden and temporary blindness in both eyes. The blindness was total and occured like a kaleidescope....closing in to blackness. I experienced a squeezing or tightening sensation in my throat and upper chest at tge same time. It lasted a few seconds. I do have vestibular migraines but was told this cannot have caused it. Im told migraine auras blocking vision typically are not total black outs, are more usually in only one eye and more specifically, last for a longer time than a few seconds. I did not go to the ER either (because it was my daughters birthday.) So far I have no answers but am waiting on an MRA next week.

Has anyone related any of these symptoms to "Too much sugar", I am experiencing kaleidoscope eye strain Migraines, Stress. The doctors can't give me an answer that I totally agree with or they don't agree all the time either. But also today I went blind in the right side of my right eye. I couldn't see anything on that side. I have no idea what all this is but I have experience what you all talk about. I thought I was having a retinal detachment. I have to wait till Monday to get hold of my eye doctor but will call one more time about all this. It calms me that your experiences help. But the racing heart I put off onto anxiety from this happening.

Hi Traces. One time I was going out to the shops and all of a sudden my sight disappeared - total blackness. I took a few steps to a bench in front of me, where I could wait. So frightening, not knowing what to do. Do I just sit there? DO I call out for help? Another time I was standing in my kitchen and my sight changed to blackness like a curtain descending - slowly from top to bottom. I have had migraines all my life but this was completely different. I was also getting other strange visual symptoms. And left sided numbness. The docs did MRI's after five years one super neuro did a MRA and found a little 6mm aneurysm pressing into the optic chiasm where the optic nerves cross. Even so, the docs said, "maybe it is, maybe it isn't, why you are having these visual disturbances. Hope you find answers!!!!!

@victori
Curtain descending is described in the amaurosis fugax video I just attached before this message. Cause TIA. I’ve had a few episodes of brief visual loss, both full and partial, all of short duration. Scary and confusing. They all followed long episodes of afib that can create blood clots. I’ve also had TIAs that caused temporary loss of speech (speaking and texting gibberish), once left arm suddenly tingling and numb with hand turning red and once caused me to just suddenly fall backwards like someone flipped my off switch. I didn’t even try to catch myself or bend into a sitting position. Just fell like a tree in the forest, no dizziness, nothing. So weird. Hope they find your cause. Scary stuff. I’m on a blood thinner now prescribed by my cardiologist so hopefully that will prevent future TIA episodes of all kinds.

About 7 years ago I was splitting some logs in my yard with my son. This is something I don't do often, but used to do a lot of when I was younger. I was about 70 then. After a few hits with the maul I suddenly noticed a loss of vision in the lower part of my right eye. I immediatly went in the house and sat down and explained what had happened. Within one to two minutes my sight returned to normal and I never experienced this again. Since I attributed it to the shock wave going up my right arm, I no longer split wood. At that time I was beginning to take night eye drops for excess eye pressure. Next time I went to the eye doc I mentioned this to him and he had no answers for me. Since then my glaucoma has progressed in my right eye so that my vision there is 20/40. Much of that vision is blurry but my brain has learned to mix that with the left eye that is much better, 20/20, so that I see normally for the most part. I do wonder if that episode somehow damaged my optic nerve to make the right eye more succeptible to pressure damage.