I had migraines caused by serious hormone fluctuations and then ocular migraines (the halos and spots in the middle of vision).  Those, the ocular, don’t hurt but they are terrifying and take a good bit of time to get them to stop.  I would immediately try to just go to sleep for awhile.  The migraines I had for many years and a single one would often last two solid weeks.  They were debilitating, but the medications given to me by neurologists were even worse. 

I read a lot but no longer under direct light.  Light has to be very muted or I am in serious pain.

The worst of the migraines I’ve had (other than the ones that led to strokes, obviously) was when I got cluster migraines. All of them with enough vision difficulties that I could only see out of the corner of one eye, followed by severe headaches and nausea. And I got these up to six times a day.
*shudder*

hulitoons - 09 May 2008 12:55 PM

I had migraines caused by serious hormone fluctuations and then ocular migraines (the halos and spots in the middle of vision).  Those, the ocular, don’t hurt but they are terrifying and take a good bit of time to get them to stop.  I would immediately try to just go to sleep for awhile.  The migraines I had for many years and a single one would often last two solid weeks.  They were debilitating, but the medications given to me by neurologists were even worse. 

I read a lot but no longer under direct light.  Light has to be very muted or I am in serious pain.

That sounds similar to what my Mum suffered from.  She’d been suffering from severe migraines and spots in the vision since she was in her 20’s.  She’d been through CAT scans and the like and they couldn’t find anything wrong.  Eventually (about 5 years ago), someone managed to diagnose that what she had was arterial arthritis - arthritis in the artery that leads up to the brain.  After four years on cortisone, she’s not had any problems since.