I’ve been noticing something strange these days, i have never experienced it before.
My eyesight has been terrible the past days, specially when im experiencing pain and symptoms from ES.
Iknow that there has been a long time since i’ve cheked my sight, and iknow that some medication can affect your eyes but is it possible that eyesight can be relatable to ES ?
-Henrik
Yes, esp. the vascular cases.
Known mechanisms (among others):
a) it can impact jugular veins → cause IIH → affect the optical nerve. Swollen optical nerve from IIH is actually an emergency and there are emergency surgeries to “open” the nerve sheath and release the CSF fluid to prevent from blindness
b) compression of internal carotid arteries - while might not directly cause blindness, but reduced oxygen and nutrients supply to the brain affects practically everything the brain processes. Also, the ophthalmic artery (critical for the eye) is branched off the ICA, so obviously compressing the ICA affects the blood supply through the ophthalmic artery
Thank you so much for the enlightment on that one.
Last time i cheked my eyesight was about 3-4 years ago, the optician could find crooked corneas and that im myopic about 0.25 left eye and 0.75 on the right eye and i got glasses for that when i was reading/ watching movies. At that time and for many years until now i’ve never experienced that much problem with my eyesight, at that time and also until recently i rarley used glasses only for the things im refering to.
But now my eyesight is very disturbed/disrupted. I can’t even get a full resolution off a person in the supermarket standing maybe 2-3 meters infront off me it seems like my vision is very blurred at times.
Watching movies has been way worse though, i can read the subtitles but not without putting in a little bit off effort but i can’t focus on people,machinery, explosions or shifting scenes in a dialouge in movies and if i try to process shadows or coloured shadows in movies and textiles/ materials it’s terribel. When watching sports i can’t focus on the bar in the left upper corner where the goal results is updating, and the players on the football pitch is way out off focuse.
When i say coloured shadows, i’ve aways liked painting and when i try to process different shades off a colour my eyes can’t keep up with what is going on offcorse it can be a kind off a latency in how my brain functions right now with all what is going on with ES but it seems like it’s about my eyesight.
And the other day i was helping my wife to make a furniture to the bathroom out off some steel rack and plywood, simple squared mesurment and simple squared cutting with the table saw, but i noticed that i was fumbling around when i was trying to read the tape messure, the small mm (european)lines was completely out off focuse i could not read them. I could read the cm lines and the correct numbers but not the small mm lines. And the distance from the tape messure to my eyes was as close as it could possible be.
Driving is also completely different, i can see far out on the road my side view is somewhat okey, people walking down the streets and obsticles in front off me is somewhat okey, trees and nature also some what okey. But signs, big vertical signs on buildings, directional signs and road information is hard to process i have to drive really close to even try to eyeball what it is.
Reading books is somewhat okey, i have to pull the book very close to me but my eyes/brain sometimes struggle to process what is actually going on with the information that is written it can offcorse come from tiredness/lack off proper sleep and many things from ES but i belive i have a eyesight problem. Im 26 years soon 27 years old, and i don’t belive that eyesight can change so much in 3-4 years?
What should i do ?
Wait it out and see? Since my surgery is schedueld very soon.
Try to get an appointment with an optician and explain them and then chek if i need to correct my glasses/lenses ?
Or is there anything other in suggestion ?
I take vitamins and omega-3 fish oil every day, and thats for brain function and the eyes so iknow that is not the case.
This is the best option for now
Henrik,
It is possible for vision to change for the worse over time if it has already been diagnosed as near or farsighted. However, since your vision has changed so much, you should go see an optician. As @vdm pointed out, the pressure from IH can affect the optic nerve, & you want to make sure there isn’t too much pressure behind & inside your eyes which can lead to blindness if not corrected. If that all checks out ok, I would wait to get new glasses until after your ES surgery so you can see if the surgery helps your eyes improve.
Again thank you very much for the enlightment and support.
What should i tell to an optician ? How do i explain it very simple? Because i doubt they know what Eagle Syndrome is.
The past months i feel i’ve been almost lecturing people within the healthcare system about Eagle Syndrome and that can sometimes lead to missunderstanding with what i actually need and it can be difficult to explain it in the best way specially when you have the bad days with a lot off pain and you are tired/exhausted from the symptoms one may experience.
Sometimes i just have to explain that it is pain/problems with trigemenal nerve but it is more than that and then they get a somewhat understanding off what it is or can be.
-Henrik
You can try to tell the optician that your vision suddenly got worse, and also that you have a very rare condition potentially causing intracranial hypertension, which sometimes induces pressure around the optic nerve.
And that you want to get a full check up including checking the eye pressure and anything else the optician can think of.
Thank you !
I’m not sure what the system is in Norway; in the UK opticians routinely check the eye pressure & would spot if there was an issue with the optic nerve too, but as the others have said, it would be good to get yours checked out.
Are your eyes feeling dry/ scratchy/ gritty at all? A few of us have had dry eyes, possibly related to ES, which can make the vision not quite so good too…
Hope you get on okay!
Again thank you for your support, i truly love this community site !
I’ve contacted the local optician, and explained it very shortly.
They are setting me up for eyesight test and also pressure test tomorrow.
Yes my eyes feel very dry at times, i have to blink or hold my eyes open for a long time to get some fluid going and then my eyesight gets slightly better but not so much just the dry sensation i guess.
And sometimes my eyes are sore and alot off fluid comes out. The draining off fluid gets worse when it’s cold.
If you have periodic dry eyes, you should mention that at your appt. tomorrow as well. There are eye drops that can help with that.
Thank you !
I will mention this too.
My dry eyes started at the same time as my ES symptoms worsened, not sure if it’s down to inflammation & possibly an auto immune condition, or whether it’s the styloids affecting the Trigeminal nerve which has a motor effect on the eyes, so whether that’s affected tear production…
Good you’re getting yours checked out!
I was at the optician today.
She did a chek up on my eyes with the reading tests, and also did a picture scan off my optical nerve and my sideviews. And also a pressure test.
My optical nerve was fine, it was big and free off any compression, the blood vains was in the correct color and shape however it was my sideview that was somewhat off in the scan/pictures.
And also she was not happy with the other cheks she did, she seemed like she couldn’t quiet come to any conclusion so she has refered me to a eye doctor at the hospital as she did not have so much equipment to chek for other possible things.
She agreed that since ES plossible will cause compression on different nerves and specially IJV and trigemenal nerve she will have a specialist at the hospital take care off the remaining things that can somewhat create a conclusion for my eyesight problem.
So what she could do now is that she will prescribe eye drops and make me a pair off glasses that is configured to the settings she could find for my eyes.
I tried some test glasses in this configuration and it was way better and comfortable.
If you want to know the readings for pressure test, it was 13.5 wich she could tell me was a normal reading. It should not go over 20. So everything under 20 was normal.
As for the dry eyes (I also used to have them before the surgery, now they are slightly better, though far from “normal”, especially in the morning): the lacrimal glands (the ones producing tears, Lacrimal gland - Wikipedia) are controlled by a branch of the trigeminal nerve. Also the blood supply comes from the ophthalmic artery, a branch of ICA. So possibly any compression on the trigeminal nerve and/or ICA might interfere with tear production, but it’s hard to say.
Also, I’m more and more reading about various side effects of COVID virus. Some people start having vascular issues, some others start rapidly feel (and look) older.
UQ claims they found some way to reverse/slow down damage to the brain caused by C19:
Interesting view.
I mentioned earlier in one off my posts, about that i also have been diagnosed with FHH(Familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia) im under medication for that and take regularly blood tests.
So iknow that FHH can cause imbalance within the production off fluid all over your body. So i will also take a blood test to see if there is any changes since last time i had tests for that.
My opthmologist’s assistant has a daughter with hEDS, and says she needs several pair of glasses to accommodate her frequently adjusting prescription. I know mine changes throughout the day - I assumed with inflammation.
Recently I’ve noticed a very weird phenomenon -that after a massage, I need to wear my reading glasses to dive home; they work better than my distance glasses for some reason!
I’m never sure how much of this is due to overall inflammation (autoimmune disease), head pressure (I did have jugular decompression in January) and/or EDS (weak and pliable connective tissue.)
I notice my vision changes from morning to evening with reading being more difficult for me in the evening. Part of that is because I wear soft contacts, & I think my eyes dry out a bit over the day which causes the contacts to get dry so they don’t work as well. By night time, I need to put reading glasses on over my contacts to read.
Does temperature play a role for you here ? I mean from winter to summer temps.
I’m glad that you’ve been checked over, hope the eye drops & glasses help!