vision problems

[Cynthia]

I was wondering where the best place would be to talk with someone with similar problems I have with eye problems..comes with MS..mine start going bad pretty quick right after an eye dr appt. and getting a new prescription. Also, just wondering if there is anyone out there that has the same things going on with the eyes..rapid side movement at times, the eyes not going back to normal after dilated for a while..and no, I don't take any narcotics..another MS symptom. Wondering if anyone here is suffering with similar symptoms, and what, or if, there is anything their eye dr. has done. Thanks!
In the meantime...Dec...I get new glasses..and I will be able to see much better again.

 

[Cort]

Hi Cynthia - I copied this post to the Symptoms Forum; hopefully someone can relate; I would think so - you hear quite a bit about eye problems in this disease.

 

[George]

Visual impairment???

I'm curious if anyone has had the following happen to them since they have been ill.

You get really tired and things that you know are one thing look like something else and you can't "make" yourself see what is really there.

Example; I overdid one day and the trashcan looked like a blanket. I could not bring myself to throw anything in it because my brain just refused to see a trashcan. I lay down took a 20 min power nap, woke up, the trashcan was back to being a trash can.

I've had dozens of these episodes. Anyone else?

 

[George]

Sometimes ya gotta laugh

George,

You do a good job of explaining it. Not understanding what you are seeing, or seeing something else instead of what is there. One day a broken fire hydrant gushing water 30ft in the air left me rapt and in awe because I was watching from a distance and could not grock what I was seeing. It came to me later.

I have also had episodes of temporary blindness, where my vision became completely unfocused with nothing visible but shifting light patterns. Very bad experience when you are driving. Only lasted about a minute or so, but that was enough to make me stop driving for a few months until I was sure it had cleared.

I haven't had the blindness, but blurry vision a couple of times. Now see, it's the driving thing that scares the crap out of me. I've seen trees that were broccoli and stood there in awe of broccoli that big. A cap that I kept seeing as a spider on this guys head, that was a totally freaky moment. And a water tank in the back of this guys truck that was a Japaneses screen right up until I touched it.

Does it happen to you often? Does it happen only when tired? Have you talked to your doc about it? I haven't talked to mine about it yet. I'm not sure what to tell him. (head scratch)

 

[coxy]

vision changes in a short space of time

Hi, has anyone had quite sudden changes in their eyes, within the first couple of years of having me/cfs?
I don't mean the standard problems such as watery eyes, blurryness, bright light problems etc, i mean you have been told at the opticians you need glasses where as your eyes were fine before.
Both of my children with me/cfs have glasses now, and there eyes deteriated very quickly. I also have to have glasses now, i know i'm 43yrs but my eyes were absolutely fine 6 mths before ME/CFS.

 

[_Kim_]

Hi, has anyone had quite sudden changes in their eyes, within the first couple of years of having me/cfs?
I don't mean the standard problems such as watery eyes, blurryness, bright light problems etc, i mean you have been told at the opticians you need glasses where as your eyes were fine before.
Both of my children with me/cfs have glasses now, and there eyes deteriated very quickly. I also have to have glasses now, i know i'm 43yrs but my eyes were absolutely fine 6 mths before ME/CFS.

Thank you for posting this coxy. I thought I was the only one. When I tell people that I just started wearing glasses a few yrs ago, they say, "oh, that happened to me too as I got older". But, no, it's not my reading close-up vision that has changed, it's seeing distances. My optician said he had no idea why my vision would suddenly change. He'd never seen that before in a *healthy* person.

I HATE wearing glasses. But it is nice to be able to read street signs again.

 

[Hysterical Woman]

Thank you for posting this coxy. I thought I was the only one. When I tell people that I just started wearing glasses a few yrs ago, they say, "oh, that happened to me too as I got older". But, no, it's not my reading close-up vision that has changed, it's seeing distances. My optician said he had no idea why my vision would suddenly change. He'd never seen that before in a *healthy* person.

I HATE wearing glasses. But it is nice to be able to read street signs again.

Hi Guys,

Interesting questions/posts. I am still toying with the idea of seeing an opthamologist rather than and optometrist since they know more about disease and eye issues. Just like many of us, have to be careful about where I spend money.

Take Care,

HW

 

[flybro]

I've had to wear glasses since I was 14, I'm the only one in mt family that had glasses so young, I was wearing glasses before my Mum who only had one eye. One of the sysmptoms I remeber before I had my glasses was the words all running together, wether on the blackboard, handwritten in a book, or print.

Then at 25 I had a car crash, straight through the screen at 60mph. Even though I had a glass scar on my left eye, and my left eyelid and eyelash had to be stitched back together, for two years after the crash I didn't need glasses.

My eyesight stayed with the same prescrition until it started to detirorate last year. I now have three pairs of glasses that I swap between depending on what my eyes are doing.

I also have what I call echo vision, sometimes what I have just looked at superimposess itself on what I am looking at. The colours from the TV/Monitor sometimes bleed out beyond the TV/Monitor frames. I also get floaters, and stars, and occasionally the watery effect sometimes seen in sci-fi films.

I also fractured my skull when I was 9 years old, I am the only person in my family to have had head injuries as well, so I sometimes wonder if my sight is linked to that.

 

[Victoria]

I've had severe myopia since I was 7 yrs old. At the age of 16 I got contact lenses - soft ones. When I swapped to contact lenses (as many blonde 16 yr old do, apparently LOL), my deterioration seemed to slow down.

The deterioration seemed to get suddenly worse a few years ago.

I got new bi-focal lenses about 12 months ago. A thorough investigation by an Opthamologist end Dec revealed my sight has deteriorated dramatically in recent months. I am currently juggling bi-focal contact lenses & reading glasses together to use the computer at work. So I seem to have bi-focal contact lenses, reading glasses, my very old ordinary glasses, sunglasses & sunglasses which go over the old glasses. Boy, is my handbag getting full.

When I finish work & get some money, I will be filling the new prescription for ordinary glasses (expensive no doubt with my complicated prescription). I may well decode to go back to glasses full time (as it's getting impossible to see with contact lenses).

I recommend to anyone with severe vision problems to see an Opthamologist. They have more experience with eye disease (as well as eye surgery).

So, is the last 12 months deterioration due to age, overuse, CFS/FM or what?

 

[Lesley]

Consider a developmental optometrist for children

My daughter had vision problems that were corrected with vision therapy working with a developmental optometrist. They deal with problems involving how the eyes work together. These are not problems with the eye itself, but with control of the eyes. They can be associated with dysautonomia, so it's not uncommon in PWCs.

One problem is convergence, which is the eyes moving together and apart to see objects at different distances. Her eyes would move too far to the center, then sort of wobble. This made words blur on the page, and she didn't space properly when writing.

Another problem is tracking, which is the eyes moving together while scanning from side to side as you do when you read. One of her eyes would lag behind, then jump to catch up.

All of these kinds of "skills" are learned by children, and because they don't know any other way of seeing they won't complain. In younger children, this could explain a lot of problems in school.

My daughter had headaches, and I had heard a discussion of these kinds of problems so I had it checked out. The pediatrician's quick eye exam, and even an ordinary exam by an optometrist or opthamologist, may not find these problems. You may need to see a developmental optometrist.

Here is a list of symptoms of developmental vision problems: http://covd.org/Home/Parents/SymptomsChecklist/tabid/279/Default.aspx

Although they talk about this causing learning problems, my daughter was a good student and a voracious reader. It was just a lot harder for her than it should have been. Homework took forever, and was very tiring.

 

[Lesley]

Just one thing to add. The severity of these problems can vary depending on level of fatigue. When I took my daughter in during the summer the doc said the problem wasn't severe enough to treat, but that I should bring her back once she was back in school. At that point, the problem was much worse.

 

[fds66]

I find that my vision changes depending on how tired I am. When I'm in a bad patch then my vision is definitely worse both the long distance vision and the close to stuff. My optician says that he's not surprised that the muscles in my eyes are affected as well. I had to have reading glasses a few years early according to him. I now have long distance glasses (not strong ones - have had those since pre-ME) and I have to have reading glasses. I am bad though and don't wear them most of the time because I hate wearing glasses - my optician tells me off for not wearing them (bad girl lol)