Best of luck. I doubt that explanation. If pupil size were the problem you would be assymptomatic in daylight and only symptomatic in the dark when pupil large.
Hi Dr Hagan,
I thought I'd update you again and ask for more advice. So since posting here last, I have tried a few contact lenses and a new glasses script via my optometrist - and it's been a bit frustrating because they seem to make the ghosting both worse and better. With contacts the vision seems pretty clear far away but then as time goes on the ghosting/blurring seems worse and I can't read text very well. I have to blink and squeeze my eyes a great deal to try and correct this (this is probably dry eye). I tried rigid contact lenses in my optometrists office, and they were very hard to tolerate and didn't seem to help my vision. It was very blurry and my eyes watered like crazy.
To expand a bit on the contacts lenses: they seem to give me less ghosting in general and sharp vision in normal lighting (like in my apartment or outside during the day - though I usually wear sunglasses), but in those situations where the ghosting is the most obvious - it's still pretty bad. Bright stores with white on black signs everywhere - text on subway signs - movie theatre screen - tv screens - computer screens. It's still pretty obvious in those circumstances, and I *need* to be able to be in this situations in order to enjoy my life. It's notable that while the ghosting is still bad, it seems "softer" than just with glasses - less clearly an sharp extra image around the main object - more hazy. The close up vision with the contacts is not wonderful, and seems to also get blurry pretty easily. I reported back to my optometrist and she didn't change the script, just thought a different type of lens might work. So I am waiting on that, I hope it will work a bit better.
So my optometrist thinks my eyes are "sensitive" and I have mild irregular astigmatism (according to the corneal topography), mild dry eye and perhaps a slight muscle imbalance between eyes . She thinks this explains my symptoms - but when I brought up the corneal specialist again, she didn't think it was a good idea because they wouldn't be able to do anything further for me. Who should I go and see? How will I move forward with some sort of successful treatment if my optometrist thinks I don't need further help? Do you have any tips on what specialist I should seek out and how to get a referral if not from my optometrist?
I really appreciate your answers, any more tips or guidance would be fantastic. :) Thanks so much!
-Miriam
I found an article about a case of dry eye that caused an irregular topography result (and ghosting was one of the symptoms). https://www.ophthalmologymanagement.com/issues/2017/may/when-dry-eye-deceives
Thank you Dr Hagan, I will try to see an opthalmologist that specializes in that area. That gives me a direction to go in if this problem doesn't go away, so I appreciate your answer.
Just an update: I got my newly corrected glasses, and it does get rid of most of the ghosting, but not all of it. The doctor I saw most recently, said that it might be because I have very large pupils and they can cause ghosting sometimes. I will try and be satisfied with this explanation for now, but if the ghosting never goes away or gets worse, I will seek out a ophthalmologist that specializes in corneal diseases. Thanks so much for your time!
Miriam