Dose anyone else have major problems with thier vision ....is this a nromal thing to happen....just wondering....
When I'm in the midst of a really bad attack, my vision goes haywire and reading a book or computer screen is really difficult.
Vision is a huge problem for me. My field of vision shimmers (kind of like looking just above a lighted candle and everything slightly sways); have a hard time focusing, have bouts of double vision and vertigo; and have trouble with depth perception often knocking my glasses over when I reach to grab them. Like Poppy above, the double vision gets particularly bad during an attack and my head feels real full and inflamed; and any reading at all causes a nasty headache. I also get motion sick very easily whether it be a short drive in the car or probably worst of all a stop at the grocery store.
Medications like Meclizine and Dramamine help stabilize my vision; but played havoc with my balance so I had to discontinue.
I think I am even more clumsy coz I cannot see things close up.Toothpaste goes everywhere.Soap and even toothbrushes go on the floor.Poor vision and Ataxia are a bad combination.
Hiya!
I have bad visual disturbance too, double vision and nystagmus, I try to describe it to people by likening it to being very drunk and wearing someone else's bi-focal glasses haha to me that sums up the balance issues and the vision problems xx
Yes I have major problems with my vision...Constant double one...Please read the short discussion we had on it.
Diplopia ( double vision) is common. It can be corrected with prism in your glasses. Severe cases may corrected surgically. I was originally diagnosed with this years ago at an eye clinic in a hospital but my regular optometrist is able to deal with this. I see him annually.
Susan
Yes, I have double vision, especially when tired. Also, when walking with my cane outside, if I have to turn my head (when crossing a parking lot to look both ways for cars, for instance), I may lose my balance as my eyes don't seem to follow my head movement. Therefore, I have to stop moving, look both ways, than continue. I think it may have something to do with my peripheral vision. It's difficult to explain. I constantly drop things, as I over-shoot with my hands, compliments of my vision and focusing, I believe. Ataxia definitely causes vision problems! I don't have another cause to blame it on...,ha! I do appreciate all the suggestions, like prism glasses..., thank you Susan! ;o)
My husband has double vision , He now has a prism in his glasses 4.5 strength. We were told by a prism doctor that the strongest the prism can get is 5.0. If he takes his glasses off he has double vision. If he closes one eye and only looks out of one eye the double vision disappears. He also has glaucoma and has no depth perception . I think we are at getting the strongest prism as his vision has got worst. Our glaucoma doctor told us a new set ot glasses will do him no good his vision will get no better. H takes 2 different kind of drops every day.
Just noticed in the last month that my vision is now slightly blurry all the time. Need readers to see the computer screen. My eyeglasses are not strong enough.
Is this how it has started for those of you with double vision??
I find vision or lack of it varies
Throughout the day
Seasonal regards
Barney
Hi Ken,
I have had double vision all my life. Even as a child, when I wore glasses for a few years, I had prisms in my glasses. I also have nystagmus. But it is the double vision that has affected me greatly!
My brain has always just compensated. In the past 8 years though, the double vision has got much worse! I have gone from needing prisms in my glasses with diopters of 10-12-14-18-25 in the last 10 years. Although for the last couple of years my eyes have been stable. 6 years ago, at 12 or so diopters, I saw an ophthalmologist who was anxious to do surgery BUT he could not guarantee that it would help. He could not even guarantee it would not cause any other damage! These are my eyes! I said bye!
My current ophthalmologist of many years, Dr Isaza at McMaster, was wary of doing surgery because it was like trying to hit a moving target. I think she was scared of my situation. So one day she closed her clinic and took a few of her patients and took us to an even more specialized ophthalmologist in Toronto, Dr Kraft at Western/Sick Kids. Turns out my eyes were stable at that point and he said I was a good candidate for surgery. I saw him in early Dec 2011 and had surgery Jan 2012. (there must have been a cancellation).
Dr Isaza did the (day) surgery at McMaster. What she did was cut the muscles attached to the interior of each of my eyes and reattach them to physically adjust my double vision. It took a while for my eyes to heal, but when they did I was down to 6 diopters!!! I chose not even to get prisms then. Six diopters is nothing, I thought. My eyes are stiill at 6 almost a year later, but the 6 diopter double vision is bothering me a little bit more now. So I am going to get a 6 diopter prism soon.
But still no progression of the double vision for about 3 years now!! My neuro and ophthalmologist both think the double vision is one of the symptoms of as yet un-dx type ataxia. If the double vision does start to worsen again, there is the option of doing te surgery again but this time on the muscles on the outside of my eyes.
...Lisa
I saw an optician recently.There was nothing wrong with long distance vision but I need glasses for close up stuff and have not got in the habit of wearing them.I discussed varifocals but both opticians I have seen have advised me against the.
I keep having to take glasses on and off as I cannot make the adjustment.When they come off I need to wait before any movement as I would fall over.The room spins but I don;t think it is double vision.It is difficult to say when you have ataxia because you can't remember a time when the room did not spin.
Hi, Ken.
Yes, I have suffered from double vision for the past four years. Started when looking to the right I'd have double vision and nystagmus. It has progressed so that I have double vision and nystagmus when looking in all directions. I have slight double vision when looking straight forward. I also have motion sickness that can be quite severe depending on what I am doing and trying to look at. (Shopping is the worst)
I have tried prisms, but they make my balance problems and depth perception problems worse. I can cover one eye to eliminate the double vision, but the seeing eye starts to dance around and the covered eye turns in towards my nose. This happens in both eyes. Needless to say, patching one eye is not an option for me. :)
Lately, my eyes will just seem to go off in whatever direction they want to and then wander back and the motion sickness can stop me from doing anything but waiting for it to be over. I take Dramamine every day for the motion sickness and for the most part it works.
Hope this helps.
Sue
Hi Ken - It takes some time for me to focus on smaller details; however the bigger things seem okay.
A few years ago, I had several issues with vision - I had an AVM of the cerebellum removed around then too which vision issues seem to be prevalent with that too, so unsure of the exact cause - including a left eye that was crossed.
I had surgery where they.clipped the inside and outside eye muscles??? to allow it to relax and "re-gro back to center. Before I had the surgery, I wore a black-patch over my left eye (when I wanted to go for that haute-couture pirate-chique look) or eye-glasses with an occluded left eye to try and decrease my double vision, vertigo, and balance issues.
Oh, also, I got a second opinion from another optomologist before deciding to have the surgery.
Hi Ken. I have a lot of vision problems also. I find that I have to close one eye to see some things. If my head is moving I find it hard to focus on things. I think it’s a common problem with head injury patients.
My expierence is variable
Ie tired is different vision
Than first thing in morning.
Seasonal regards
Barney
I've had double vision ever since ataxia began, 25 years ago. I tried prism in my glasses for years, then a new opthalmologist recommended contact lenses, monovision I think they call it. One eye sees better for distance, the other for reading. It works well for me.
In 2009 i had a cataract op with now two artificial lenses in my eyes. Now - since one year - my eyes are getting tired relatively soon. It depends on my actual condition. On some days i have to stop reading on the notebook in the evening, because i cannot read any more or not much. In theses moments i have got a sort of cloud before my eyes, which makes my vision even bader additionally.