When I first became ill, some 27 years ago, one symptom I developed within days was “flickering” vision.
This really took two forms:
At first, usually when sitting in a room with fluorescent lights, such as a doctor’s office, it would occasionally appear to me that all the lights in the room would blink off for a split second – actually faster than a literal "blink of the eye." When I asked others present about this, no one else seemed to notice the “blink” of the lights. I assumed that the lights really were blinking very occasionally (fluorescent lights can blink like that) and that somehow my vision had become hypersensitive to an effect that others simply ignored. That was my theory, at least.
The other form “flickering vision” was less subtle. After a few months of illness, I noticed that, when standing in bright sunlight, my vision would sometimes rapidly flicker. Again, I was not actually blinking. Sometimes this effect went away if I stayed in the sun long enough, but sometimes it persisted. I think this can happen normally for a few moments if you move rapidly from a very dark environment to a very bright one, but it would typically happen to me well after I should have become light adapted - and sometimes it would not go away.
I’m not really sure if these two forms of “flickering” vision were a manifestation of the same underlying cause. I suppose this might have been some kind of photophobia, but my vision did not seem "painfully bright." This kind of thing also seems like it might be a symptom of migraine, but I never had any headaches associated with it.
I mention all this because it was definitely associated with the sudden onset of my other symptoms. Fortunately, this one did seem to diminish over time.
I wonder if anyone else has experienced something similar.
Thanks,
Forbin
This really took two forms:
At first, usually when sitting in a room with fluorescent lights, such as a doctor’s office, it would occasionally appear to me that all the lights in the room would blink off for a split second – actually faster than a literal "blink of the eye." When I asked others present about this, no one else seemed to notice the “blink” of the lights. I assumed that the lights really were blinking very occasionally (fluorescent lights can blink like that) and that somehow my vision had become hypersensitive to an effect that others simply ignored. That was my theory, at least.
The other form “flickering vision” was less subtle. After a few months of illness, I noticed that, when standing in bright sunlight, my vision would sometimes rapidly flicker. Again, I was not actually blinking. Sometimes this effect went away if I stayed in the sun long enough, but sometimes it persisted. I think this can happen normally for a few moments if you move rapidly from a very dark environment to a very bright one, but it would typically happen to me well after I should have become light adapted - and sometimes it would not go away.
I’m not really sure if these two forms of “flickering” vision were a manifestation of the same underlying cause. I suppose this might have been some kind of photophobia, but my vision did not seem "painfully bright." This kind of thing also seems like it might be a symptom of migraine, but I never had any headaches associated with it.
I mention all this because it was definitely associated with the sudden onset of my other symptoms. Fortunately, this one did seem to diminish over time.
I wonder if anyone else has experienced something similar.
Thanks,
Forbin
