Double vision, comes and goes

About a month ago the vision in my left eye suddenly became blurry and doubled. I thought I might just have something in my eye, so I ignored it and it went away. Two weeks ago it happened again, and it has not gone away. The vision in my left eye is awful. It does improve at times, and it is gone when I wake up, but after being up for a little bit it comes back. My eye is also tearing some. I went to the opthalmologist regarding this, and she said my eye basically looked ok. It was very dry and had a tiny bit of inflammation, so she gave me predforte and I've been using eye drops religiously. No improvement since October 19th, it seems to be getting worse. I have some sort of connective tissue disease (they think lupus) and autoimmune thyroid disease, which is treated. I don't know what is going on and the doctor won't see me. Any advice?

[Forum-OD-MP]

not much.  if an eye doc has already seen you and cant find anything thats causing the blur/double, then its going to be really hard for me or anyone to give you any advice.

i guess the best advice i can give you is to get a second opinion.  maybe go to an optometrist this time...IMO OD's are better with refractive/binocular conditions...since the MD has already ruled out disease conditions.

[NURSELPN]

watersulli,

I have thyroid eye disease. When reading yoour post I was amazed by how much your symptoms sounds like mine did at the onset of my disease.

Can I ask the other symptoms that made then suspect some sort of connective tissue disease (they think lupus) and autoimmune thyroid disease. May I ask, has the doctor you are seeing done thyroid antibodies when you were tested?  Not just a TSH but a free T-3, free T-4, TSI (for graves disease) & a (TPO for Hashimotos).  These are both auto-immune diseases that affect the thyroid. It's a possibility you could have the beginnings of thyroid eye disease which is also an auto-immune disease. You can have thyroid eye disease without having thyroid disease.  It's called Eurothyroid Thyroid eye disease. Sometimes the thyroid disease comes after the eye disease presents.

I'm not saying that's what you have, if you do it's probably only in it's beginning stages.  If you are having double vision a cat dcan of the orbits can verify it. Mine was ordered by my ophthalmologist but I also had already been diagnosed & treated for hyperthyroidism due to  auto-immune Graves disease. So it was a no brainer what I had.  He just wanted to see how much involvement there was. My symptoms had been present 4-5 months before I was referred to the ophthalmologist, so they were pretty pronounced by then,
  

ABOUT THYROID EYE DISEASE (TED)

Most people who are unfortunate enough to get TED have mild eye problems but in a few the condition can be severe and cause serious damage to vision. Common symptoms include irritable eyes, excessive watering, smarting and aching behind the eyes. In more advanced cases, there is double vision and persistent blurred vision. Because TED is relatively rare, the diagnosis can be missed. Frequently it is misdiagnosed as conjunctivitis or an allergy. In most patients the eyes settle down with time, although this can take years and usually the appearance of the eyes does not return entirely to normal. A few patients get worse and require treatment.

You can find out more by goggling Thyroid Eye Disease
& be sure to check out these web sites: Good Info
http://www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/19330/2904/2
http://www.thyroid-fed.org/publications/ted.html

Please keep me posted...
Blessings, TJ

[NURSELPN]

watersulli,

When I reread your post I noticed you said you have some sort of auto-immune thyroid  disease, which is treated but they also suspect some sort of connective disease.  May I ask what sort of auto-immune thyroid disease are you being treated for?
Also did you mention this auto-immune thyroid disease to the eye doctor you seen? That should have make all the difference.

TJ