I'm so glad you posted this, and I'd love to get the link to the forum you mentioned. I have had this strange thing from time to time since way back in high school that I don't think is a migrain, but has similar symptoms to what you described.
What's really odd is that I may have one of these episodes, then it may be years before I have another, or at times I've had several within a week then they are gone. What happens in my case is like a funny feeling starts setting in out of the blue, I've never been able to pinpoint what triggers it. I just kind of get a slightly dizzy feeling and can't really focus my mind clearly. Then it's like you said, I'll get like a greyed out area, then a bright zig-zag pattern that is a thin line and reminds me of shiny silvery foil color. This feeling goes deeper and I can't focus good, if I happen to be driving I'll pull over till it passes.
Then afer usually about 10 minutes, it lets up and is gone. But I'm left with a heavy headache and feel completely drained of energy. If I'm home and can, I lay down and go to sleep.
My earliest memory of this was back in high school. I went to a doctor about it then, and he diagnosed me as having vertigo and said it was my inner ear. I knew that wasn't it. He told me to take some motion sickness perscription pills for a few days before I felt this coming on. I tried to explain that I had no idea when it was coming on, and his pills had zero effect after it had already started.
Over the years, I mentioned it to a few different doctors and they all looked at me like I was making it up. Some said 'oh it's probably just happening when you're real tired' and another told me that 'it wasn't anything serious, if it was serious you wouldn't stay in control and would go into a seizure or pass out or have a car accident while it's happening". They acted like the fact that I am still in control of myself shows that it's nothing serious.
I was tested for low and for high blood sugur, etc, etc. I've always been in perfect health and no one could ever tell me anything about what might be causing it. They ruled out seizures, and they ruled out migraines. I even asked my eye doctor about it and they tested my optic nerves all out, but found nothing. But I don't think any of them really ever understood what was happening, so eventually I quit even mentioning it. But it definitely is real when I have one of these.
I did read one interesting article in Discovery magazine many years ago, where a person described this same thing that happens to me. He was the only other person that I'd read about that had my exact symptoms without other more serious things going on. In the article a research doctor had written a paper about it, and his theory was that a small part of the brain just falls asleep for some reason, much like if you sit crooked and your leg falls asleep, then it tingles when the blood rushes back in. That's the best explanation I've found so far for what I have experienced. It's been a while since I've had a spell of this. I'd love to look at the forum you mentioned and see if anyone there has had a similar experience to mine.
