I have had blurred vision since all this began . and its getting worse .
I feel I am between a rock and a hard place.
I have been having vision problems for the last few weeks eye doc said my vision was OK,I did not need an optometrist I needed an opthamologist. The doc then told me4 I may have dry eyes so I been on eye drops for a week or so. Putting on good sunglasses help a lot and I need them when I drive they really relax my eyes. I can feel my eyes squinting now even with sun glasses. searching the internet found a possible problem called blepharospasm that affects he eyes like this. I blink more than normal and seem to close my eyes a lot. At a parkinson meet I spoke with a man there who has the same problem, We both share the same neurologist and I think he told me he has been on dry eye drops for 6 months and no help, I noticed he had on sunglasses at the meeting so they were helping him. There are a couple of things docs can do but no cure. and you can literaly be blind from having your eyes closed so much, some have their eyes closed for day and some weeks. Jerry
I too have same problem and I observed that unclean ears when cleaning gives problem
So clean gently 
I have learned people mean different things when they say ‘double vision.’ And visiting with my optometrist yesterday I learned even more! Whether objects are over each other or under or beside, how quickly they align when helped. I’m getting prisms in my lenses, which should fairly well fix my problem.
You did not state your age, but I know what you mean. I am only 54 but feel more like 90. My eyesight is screwed, worse on days that I am nauseated most. Seeing double and worse keeps me from driving and takes away so much independence. Although there are many flavors of Ataxia, some things seem to be more common among sufferers and the vision thing is one of them. Just keep the faith and know that, unfortunately, our bodies do not last forever and if this didn't get us something even worse might. I don't know about you but for me, thinking that there are people that are WAY worse off helps. Count your blessings, that helps too. None of us are getting out of this life alive!
Hi Lassie, I understand how frustrating and scary it can be not to be able to focus great. Please don't think it's only going to get worse. Emotions can make things worse for us and spin us out of control. Please don't let that happen. I have to monitor going there too! It sure is challenging.
I ended up getting a tint to my glasses that are really making a huge difference seeing things much more clearly and not as blurry.
They aren't as dark as my sunglasses so I can still see in the dark with them. But they are enough to where they are a bit darker than regular glasses (2 shades darker) so others can actually see the tint too. I had anti glare before. I thought it must be dry eye also and took over the counter drops for a while and still do when things get out of control and I just can't stand it anymore, which did seem and do seem to make them less tiered. Getting a tint happened by accident getting it darker. It helps my eye's not work so hard at trying to focus.
Resting them more helps too. I have been told over and over again about the 20/20/20 rule. 20 minutes watching a t.v. screen or computer, phone etc. look 20 ft away for 20 seconds to give them a rest. Keep repeating. My eye Dr said we are using more technology that makes it worse. I hope that helps you some.
I have blurry vision, especially in my left eye. It is worse when I'm tired. I wear my sunglasses when I'm outside or in the car, as that seems to help. I don't have nystagmus (like some ataxians), but my eyes definitely have a mind of their own. I use drops for dry eyes also, but really notice no difference. My advice would be to talk with an eye doctor, to see what may be helpful for you. My best to you...,;o)
Lassie Elena, go see a neuro-ophtalmologist if you have one in your area. He/she should be more apt to figure out if the problem is neurological or not, I think.
Best wishes to you.
go see a neuro ophthalmologist, a regular doc may not know ataxia. i have eye problems...
lorraine
Cicina said:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19726938
cicina I read that and could not get it. This article concerns SCA7.
I know gelu65, these medical papers might as well be written in Chinese for me too sometimes!
What I understand is that people with SCA, often have vision problems due to retinal abnormalities.
In general, my understanding of ataxia, is that in itself, ataxia is a symptom of degeneration of the cerebellum, due to degenerative disease, or injury such as caused by stroke, tumor, head trauma etc…so, depending of the extent of the degeneration or the injury, certain functions or organs of the body will be affected.
For example, In my case, a stroke damaged my cerebellum and I have a two inch lesion on it. I have ataxia with intention tremors, mostly on my left side, a vision field loss which according to my neuro ophthalmologist will not come back, and a total loss of balance with uncoordination of my left side.
What I am trying to explain is that depending of where an injury or the degeneration of the cerebellum is located, the symptoms, whether visual problems or speech and/or swallowing problems, will be more or less severe.
In the case of an injury, the damage is done and often does not heal. In the case of hereditary/degenerative ataxia, problems worsen and some may appear as the disease progress. Thus worsening of symptoms as time goes by.
Gelu, this is my understanding of this very complex and frustrating ataxia business. If I am wrong, please, correct me.
I wish you the very best! Take care.
The word ataxia means incoordination. Double vision is ocular ataxia which is incoordination
of the muscle movement of the eyes. An ophthalmologist and/or neuro ophthalmologist may be able to help. There sometimes are prism glasses or eye muscle exercises that can help. Hope this helps.
But blurred vision is not necessarily double vision. I think that prism can help double visionas well as eye exercises, but not blurred vision, which is what Lassie Elena was talking about.
Heltup said: My husband reminds me of that each day, that some people are worse. I do keep the faith and count my blessings each and every day.
You did not state your age, but I know what you mean. I am only 54 but feel more like 90. My eyesight is screwed, worse on days that I am nauseated most. Seeing double and worse keeps me from driving and takes away so much independence. Although there are many flavors of Ataxia, some things seem to be more common among sufferers and the vision thing is one of them. Just keep the faith and know that, unfortunately, our bodies do not last forever and if this didn't get us something even worse might. I don't know about you but for me, thinking that there are people that are WAY worse off helps. Count your blessings, that helps too. None of us are getting out of this life alive!