Migraines and computer monitors? at SpottedWalrus by Josh Pigford

Migraines and computer monitors?

So this past Friday was quite an interesting day.

It was a normal day of work here in my home office and I had just had a nice, hardy Grilled Steak Stuffed Burrito from the one and only Taco Bell.

I soon began to notice that my peripheral vision in my right eye was going in and out. I was beginning to think I was taking crazy pills so I went and took my contacts out and put my glasses on only for it to get worse.

Within an hour of that I had a pounding headache. I went back to my bedroom to try and maybe rest a little to see if that would help, but this headache had no intention of letting me do any such thing.

Thirty minutes later I called my wife to come home and take me to the E.R…I felt like my head was about to explode and I could barely walk…much less drive.

Long story short…1 CAT Scan, 1 MRI, tons of pain meds, throwing up, and 6 hours in the E.R., it seems I had a nasty migraine. I’ve never had one before and I sure as hades don’t want one again. So, I’m curious…has anyone heard of any correlation between migraines and computer monitors?

I sit in front of a monitor some 8-10 hours a day 5-6 days a week and if that ultimately will cause me to have more migraines, then I really need to do something about it.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 6:57 am and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

May 21 2007

5 Responses to “Migraines and computer monitors?”

Migraines are no fun, I sympathize with you. I’ve had them come up because of the food I was eating. Lots of cheese can bring them on for me. And some people say the types of lights you are using can bring them on. Did you recently switch to CFL bulbs in your office near your computer?

Michael Clark on May 21st, 2007 at 11:50 am

Dude, that sounds horrible.

Chris on May 21st, 2007 at 11:05 pm

I get migraines every few weeks, although I haven’t noticed a correlation between them and computer monitors. A friend told me there can be a correlation though. There are probably much bigger triggers such as food (nitrates — hot dogs, salami), caffeine, etc. I highly recommend you see a neurologist. There are some really good drugs out there these days that will take away the brunt of the migraine. You have to try them out to find what’s best for you.

EV on May 30th, 2007 at 9:45 pm

I had a very similar experience a few years ago. For some stupid reason I waited 2 days before going to the ER. They shot me full of some happy juice and it went away.

For you, it could have been a perfect storm of stress, sodium (mmm…taco bell) and eye strain that caused you to slip into one.

I’ve had a migraine start to come back about 6 times since my 2 days of hell. My Dr. said to be aware of the warning signs (for you its vision loss, for me its light & noise sensitivity) and hit your pain killers ASAP. I haven’t had a bad one since my first episode.

Ken on July 8th, 2007 at 7:10 pm