I've been having migraines with auras but usually only slighty painful headache, but today's was different.

The first time it happened I almost went to the ER. I thought I was having a stroke or aneurysm. I was in the middle of cooking dinner and all of the sudden my vision started getting wonky. I couldn't focus well, then it was kinda like tunnel vision. Like I was going to pass out but not exactly. It wasnt dark it was like missing information. Just nothing. I remember my husband had me sit down at the table and I leaned onto the table with my forehead in my hands. Trying to remain calm but anxiety ramping up and the fight or flight response setting in. When I would open my eyes the lights would do weird things. Instead of the light being constant, it was like the ceiling fan blades were moving in front of the light. (which the ceiling fan blades are behind the light fixture, plus our fan blades were not actually moving at the time.) It lasted about 25 minutes before my vision seemed normal again. Later I had a slight headache. I went to see my eye doc the next day and she did all the exams and looked at my retinas etc. She confirmed ocular migraine or migraines with auras.

I have had a couple more since that first time. Both similar. Main thing that was different was the lights were more shaky, shimmering.

Today's was quite different. I am a night shift worker and got off yesterday and went to bed about 9 am then slept until 4 pm. So last night even though I was off, I couldn't get sleepy. I ended up watching TV and even playing video games until 430 am or so. I finally went to bed and was about to fall asleep when the first thing I noticed was this weird flash of light. It was like my phone had turned on for a few seconds then turned off. But it wasn't exactly where my phone was. I remember saying to myself, that was weird. I closed my eyes and had started to fall asleep. But then I opened my eyes and the shadow on my ceiling was going crazy. Super shaky zigzaggy lines in a circular type pattern. The best way I can describe it is the black smoke on Voldemort in the movies, but a big cloud of it. It was like two cartoon characters having a tussle and the dust cloud is all you see, but it's made up of black smokey lines. Then I noticed it everywhere. Around my arms, anywhere I looked. I got up and went to the bathroom and took out my contacts. I recognized it for what it was so I tried to stay calm. However, it is quite unsettling, even after having experienced it several times before. I got back in bed and just went to sleep. I did notice I had tinnitus as I fell asleep.

I got up about 930 am, went to several appointments, stopped and got my husband a coffee and took it to him at work, went grocery shopping and came home. No headache and hadn't even thought about what I experienced earlier that morning. Right after dinner tho, I had a raging migraine hit. So like 14 hours after the aura. It had me almost scared of an aneurysm again because of how intense the pain was on just my right side. So I took ibuprofen and went to bed. Put an ice pack in my groin (my sister is a nurse and she said to try that) and the pain has since diminished some. Not gone but much more tolerable.

I guess I am wondering if that is normal for those of you who get auras. For the pain to come so much later than the aura?