I am so glad you all are here! Last Friday I had this horrible pain in my left eye ( not above the eye like found with sinus)and now today it is started up again. Not only the eye but my neck and mid-to-upper back. It's the eye that has me puzzled. I read that vision problems can be caused by Bartonella and/or lyme. I just haven't heard of actual eyeball pain. Anyone gone through this,and if so, which one is causing it? Had thorough vision screen in September and everything was fine. Thanks.
Posted by Tincup (Member # 5829) on :
So, going no where fast....
Sorry about having a pain in your eye... but I guess it beats having it somewhere else. It would be pretty hard to sit down if THAT happened.
I have had "fleeting" sharp pain in my eye before. Just out of the blue it hits, lasts a few seconds.. then is gone.
I seem to go through "spells" of that.. where all is fine for a while.. then bam.. pain is back.
I've never figured out what caused it though... as it was only one of a zillion symptoms.. and many symptoms were much worse.
I do want to say if you have eye pain you should tell your doctor.
There are two things we don't mess with here.
Eye problems is one of them... and the heart stuff. It is vital to get a doctors opinion anytime you have problems with either eyes or the heart.
But to respond to what you are asking... yes, it is something I get with Lyme and the coinfections.
Posted by sutherngrl (Member # 16270) on :
I get eye pain. Sometimes it feels like the eye ball is bruised from the inside or like it aches like a muscle aches; or it just feels very sore. Usually when my eyes hurt I also have light sensitivity.
Eye pain can also be a migraine!
Posted by pab (Member # 904) on :
Tight muscles in your neck & shoulders can cause eye pain. I've had really bad eye pain and it's usually from my tight muscles. I get chiropractic adjustments and use heat to make it go away.
Posted by TxLymie (Member # 20847) on :
I have a sporadic left eye pain as well. Comes and goes but always seems to be worse when I am herxing or when lyme is at its peak.
Mine is always at night and it is more of a sharp stinging that wakes me up. Then I can't open my eye at all...very painful. But will go away 5-20 min after I put a warm washcloth on it.
Before I knew I had lyme I went to an eye doc thinking I had an infection and he said I just had dry eyes. Yeah right....I don't think dry eyes affects only one eye and comes and goes?
After getting the lyme dx I figured it is just one of the many mystery symptoms that I don't know how to get rid of.
Let me know if you find anything that helps!
Posted by Pinelady (Member # 18524) on :
I had severe eye pain when I first started
treatment. Doc also gave me antibiotic eye drops.
It even hurt if I forgot and rubbed my eye. But the
main problem was a occasional deep stabbing pain.
It went away further in treatment.
Posted by anthropisces (Member # 15672) on :
I've had left eye pain. It is pretty wierd to have just your eyeball hurting...unless you count your whole upper left torso and arm providing some excruciating pain. I've always attributed the eye issues to Bartonella.
Posted by Robin123 (Member # 9197) on :
You might try some mangosteen juice and see if it helps. It's an anti-inflammatory antioxidant juice that scarfs up free radicals. It stopped all eye symptoms for me in 24 hours time! We're all different, so you'd have to see if if helps you.
There are lots of brands in health food stores and online. I get the Ultra one, with 70 minerals added. If you try it, go slowly and drink water too.
Posted by 17hens (Member # 23747) on :
My daughter has had eye pain. She discribes it as the back of her eye ball throbbing.
Her whole eye area looks puffy when this happens.
It's soothing for her to put a cool wash cloth on her eye.
She's had it twice, each time for a few days and it goes away by itself.
When I told her LLMD, he said he's had quite a few of his patients complain about eye pain recently.
Posted by feelfit (Member # 12770) on :
Left eye pain here as well. It is my entire eyeball and it throbs and actually feels like it is being pulled out of the socket. I have this a few times per week.
Mine is accompanied by neck, ear, and global head pain as well. It is said that Bartonella really loves the eyes...
Oh and my eye drains and swells when this happens. I can look down and see the swollen cheek and eye orbit area.
Like you, thouroughly tested by neuro-opthamalogist and everything is a-ok....
Posted by chopper (Member # 24841) on :
Interesting, just a the past few months I have been complaining to my PCP that my left eye ball hurts, feels like pressure coming from the inside. I saw an eye doctor who found nothing but the need for reading glasses for fine print. I was still concerned and discussed with my PCP again who said he thinks it in an ocipital migraine. I am not convinced it is a migraine,as I also experiencs neck and shoulder muscle pain with it. Sometimes I have a headache with the eye pain, but other times my eye just hurts. I was diagnosed with Lyme twice, after the second time in 2002 I have never felt well again, and I wonder if it is a flare of a new Lyme symptom. Does anyone have the eye pain go away when they are on an antibiotic for awhile? I had an MRI of the head done yesterday, and have an appointment with a new neurologist next month, maybe they will shed some light on it. Do you think a neurologist will have knowledge of and consider Lyme if nothing else is apparent?
Posted by Robin123 (Member # 9197) on :
Speaking for myself, my eye symptoms were not affected by the antibiotic I went on.
Then I passed a neuro-opthalmologist's tests, except for him having to anesthetize my eyes for me to be able to look at the light.
Chopper, I doubt the neurologist will consider Lyme. Doctors who are not LLMDs (Lyme-literate medical doctors associated with ILADS) generally are not educated about Lyme's impact.
Only the mangosteen juice works for my eyes. See my post above. I have Lyme only, no co's.
Posted by Lemon-Lyme (Member # 19229) on :
Maybe conjunctivitis?
When I was off of antibiotics for a month, my left eye began hurting too, pretty similar to the symptoms listed here. My left eyeball was sore, with a weird pressure to it. It felt pretty much the same as pink eye does, without the pinkness part... so I just assumed at the time Lyme was causing some conjunctivitis types of issues.
Posted by beths (Member # 18864) on :
My eyes have been hurting lately..I feel a sharp sudden pain, or else a bruise. I started using allergy drops (in just 1 eye-how weird is that).
I noticed if I forget my drops, the pain is really bad.
It is pollen season-my eyes aren't red, but something is really irrating them
Posted by psano2 (Member # 11711) on :
I had left eye pain as well. It's not conjunctivitis. Sometimes I could make it feel better by closing my eye and then massaging the eyeball very lightly.
It went away w/ treatment.
Posted by Sick Tick (Member # 23003) on :
Optic neuritis? That is what I was told.....inflammation of the optic nerve from Lyme per my optometrist.
Posted by Ann in CA (Member # 97) on :
Left eye pain for me also. Bitten on left arm, within days ear ache tooth ache and finally searing pain behind/in left eye. Dentist found nothing, doc diagnosed sinus infection (not!), when bullseye rash showed up three weeks later at site of bite, doc said the one week abx for sinus infection was enough even if it had been lyme.
Fast forward six years, finally tested positive on WB for lyme. One month doxy. Two years later. lyme induced iritis in left eye. (eyeache, occasional sharp pain in left eye all those years) By the time I got to LLMD and neuro opthamologist, dry eye was blamed for the pain. It did get better with abx, but to this day is painful at times. Using the Systane eye drops helps if I use them before there is any sign of pressure or pain...every couple of hours.
Additionally, I just had cataract surgery (left eye only had cataract--20 years earlier than my mom developed cataracts) so be really careful when on high dose doxy or probably anytime in the sun to protect with good sunglasses.
I have only been diagnosed with lyme, and recently positive for babsiosis on Igenix test.
Best wishes!
Posted by Limeaid (Member # 22357) on :
I have had the same thing with my left eye as well. It would include my eye and the whole socket, and would be this aching and severe throbbing. So bad it would keep me up at night. I started using a gel ice pack and that would help some, as well as Ibuprofen. I went to an eye doctor and it was benign. I was given some eye drops that helped some. It was just another symptom of lyme. It does flare up now and again. I should also say that I do also have blurry vision here and there, as well as depth perception issues. This disease is so strange, isn't it?!?!?!?!
Posted by riverspirit (Member # 19435) on :
Uncanny. Why just the left eye? I have this also! After many years of "cfids", this symptom cropped up only a couple of years ago....
Now, only after having a lyme diagnosis am I able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. So many strange, disparate symptoms.
Sometimes mine is intense, sometimes almost not noticeable. Sometimes there's itching, but usually just a deep pain/soreness that comes from "inside".
Thank you for all the support here. Peace and ease, riverspirit
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