Hacker News Reader

This sounds like scintillating scotoma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma

It doesn't: the GP didn't mention any scintillation.

My aura was similar to their description. I would be reading, and the words before or after the current one would be gone. I figured it was the migraine disrupting the visual processing parts of the brain so much so that the automatic filling in of the blind spot stopped working.

I thought the blind spot was out near the periphery of your vision , not near the center

The optic disc is quite close to the macula, which has the most cone-rich area of the retina (the fovea) & is where light is focused by the lens.

I used to experience weird "I know there's something there but can't see it" (e.g., words, my hand) at particular angles from the center of what I was looking at. It turned out that my blood pressure was so low that I was very near to fainting. It was especially bad on days when I was dehydrated, which was the big clue. Once I started drinking water much more often, the experience hasn't happened again.

I realize there are people experiencing migraines and other painful experiences, but if you have occasional "I can't see right / my head hurts" experiences, consider seeing if drinking a lot more water helps. ;)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com