I am seeing an opthalmologist at 1:15. Both eyes are still a little blurry and they hurt!! I wonder if I don't have optic neuritis?? Is that common with Lyme? Scares the hell out of me!!
Nancy
Posted by map1131 (Member # 2022) on :
Nal, sorry you are dealing with the eye things. They are scarey for us because we know how badly the eyes can be effected by this illness.
Vision and eye problems have meant many visits to my eye doctor. Oh yeah, I've been down the specialist route too. Waste of time and money.
But I was blessed enough 15 mths ago to have my eye appt with a woman that knew lyme & company. Her mother & father and brother and herself had been down that road.
Herself and her brother are fine now after abx usage. Her parents not so lucky. She said they had many eye issues due to continuation of illness and sx.
She told me that it only makes sense when you have a lot of inflammation in your body due to lyme & company, you will also have inflammation in the eyes.
Inflammation in the eyes lead to many vision problems. These bacteria are smart enough to hide out in places they consider "the safe zone".
I've found eye abx drops and Retasis to be a great help for my blurry vision. Yes, I don't do these long term. I usually only need a three month period of Retasis and only use abx for about 2 weeks.
Retasis is a steroid for eyes. Suppose to be a big no no for lyme & company. Well, hello!!! I must control the sx that I experience somehow.
After all I've had eye doc watching me for early mucular degeneration and now being watched for thinning of the retina. I know as well as any eye doctor or specialists that my eye symtoms and changes can happen and be gone in 3mths-12 mths.
It's happened over and over again to me. Some years I had my vision literally change from one script to another, lessen or improve as much as three times a year.
Normal healthy people do not have vision changes unless there is something medically that is causing changes in the eye.
My latest eye doctor in Dec really showed his ignorance. I go back for follow up in 2 weeks to see how my eyes are doing. I left him some reading on ABC's of Lyme Disease and it's effect on the eyes.
He better of read it and be more educated about my situation or I will find someone else who does. The lyme literate eye doctor moved back home to Wisconsin or I'd be looking for her.
I wish you well. Take care of you and your eyes, however you know is best for you.
Pam
Posted by Nal (Member # 6801) on :
Thanks Pam. What did they finally determine to be the problem with your eyes?
Nancy
Posted by LymeCFIDSMCS (Member # 13573) on :
I have optic neuritis, and from what I read on PubMed it definitely occurs with some regularity in Lyme. Vision problems can also be bartonella.
I have been natural anti-inflammatories that seem to help, mainly turmeric and bromelain, and I just got an acupuncture treatment that definitely helped. There are studies on acupuncture for optic neuritis, and acupuncture seems particularly good for this so it might be worth a try.
Posted by Nal (Member # 6801) on :
Dr says its not optic nueritis. That its definately convergence syndrome. So, we'll have to see. I may try the natural anti-inflammatories though too.
Can you go competely blind with optic nueritis? Can it affect both eyes at once? Just weird.
Im getting new glasses-onces that will have prisms put into them to compensate. I wonder what other kind of eye problems you can get with Lyme. Any articles to read??
Posted by LymeCFIDSMCS (Member # 13573) on :
Optic neuritis can cause blindness but it can also resolve on its own and I think blindness is somewhat rare. From what I read, optic neuritis usually affects one eye.
Lymenet Europe has a section of articles on Lyme vision problems on the Medical boards. If you do a search on PubMed you'll also find tons of abstracts.
There are a LOT of options, it seems, when it comes to Lyme eye problems, but it sounds like your eye doc is on the ball.
Posted by Nal (Member # 6801) on :
Do a search on Pubmed for the articles?
Posted by Michelle M (Member # 7200) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nal: Do a search on Pubmed for the articles?
Type in "optic neuritis" AND lyme. Use the quotes as above.
You should receive a list of peer reviewed abstracts to click on and read.
Michelle
Posted by Michelle M (Member # 7200) on :
I just did a Google search, same as above, in Google Scholar. (Find this under "More" when you go to Google.) It brings up journal articles.
Tried to paste a link in here, but it doesn't like the query language and won't let me. But you can do it -- easy!
Hugs,
Michelle
Posted by IMHisda (Member # 6998) on :
Hi I wouldn't worry too much about it. I had many eye symptoms (eye pain, light sensitivity, floaters, blurry vision, things appearing like they are 3d even if they are 2d)and eventually went to see an opthalmologist who happen to train in a Lyme endemic area and saw a lot of Lyme related eye problems. He put plugs in my tear ducts so my dry eyes wouldn't get too bad, told me to wear my glasses most of the week and use drops more. It's basically gotten a lot better. With my work background in eye disorders/blindness it seems Lyme usually doesn't affect folks (at least with irreversible damage)as much as other eye disorders.
Posted by Robin123 (Member # 9197) on :
I saw a neuro-opthalmologist for blurred vision and eye muscle pain. He had to anesthetize my eyes for me to be able to look at his bright light. All tests came back normal. He gave me a steroid to take. I did a tiny bit just to check it out. I noticed no change.
The next day, I tried Ultra mangosteen juice, a strong anti-inflammatory juice. Within one hour, my sinuses ran, and the eye muscle pain and blurred vision subsided. 24 hours later, the light sensitivity ended.
So, for me, all eye symptoms are Lyme-induced, and the mangosteen juice stops all symptoms. If you try it, drink a lot of water with it.
[ 27. February 2008, 10:53 AM: Message edited by: Robin123 ]
Posted by map1131 (Member # 2022) on :
I've also started doing Xango a couple months ago. I'm about done with my three months of retasis for inflammation of the eyes.
Hopefully next week the eye doc sees improvement when looking deep into my eyes? lol Well, in comparison to what he saw in Dec. Thinning of the retina in one area? I don't need to look that up to know it's not good.
But I've been at this lyme & company stuff so long and I know things can and do change.
But I know one thing for sure....if this eye doc or any eye doctor ever pulls something unknown out of one of my eyes again like in Dec visit. It will NOT go in the trash. He couldn't believe that eye was not bothering me.
He literally used some instrument to pull this from underneath the skin of numbed eye. Red 1-2 cm squiggly S-shaped unknown. Not lint or thread he said.
He threw it in the trash. If anyone finds more of these unknowns in my eyes, you better believe it will be going to some lab somewhere for analysis.
I wanted to smack him upside the head when I seen him a week later to check my contact rx. By then I had thought about it and was firing questions at him about this unknown growing out of my eye.
Pam
Posted by Nal (Member # 6801) on :
You guys have been great--thank you. I was told that optic nueritis usually strikes one eye at a time too. I honestly think most of my problems come from the muscles in my eyes if that makes sense. I can "see" just fine-things just get a little distorted at times and my eyes will hurt.