Eye socket pain, lost peripheral, foreign travel related?

[Bella Donna]

I think foreign travel wrecked my eyes 3 years ago. Here is what happened leading up to the eye problem I still have now.

I traveled to Mexico to build adobe houses for the Yaqui in Jan. 2005, we're digging on a site where an outhouse had been moved around the yard a lot, sucking in dust and dirt, not able to bathe much, and eating local food prepared for us by the outreach program. I got diarrhea two and a half weeks in, and then a coughing that turned into a bloody bronchitis. The local doctor prescribed something, and then I saw my regular doc once when I got back before my insurance cut off. I felt bad for months.

In April, I traveled to Taiwan, where my husband was teaching for the semester. We went everywhere, ate local foods, and it was advised because of my having not been well, to eat a lot of fish and to soak in natural springs. I got very, very ill and ended up one evening in the emergency room with respiratory distress and my left eardrum about to pop. They gave me some medicines and put me to bed for the rest of the trip. A week after I got back, we went to Sea World, and a week after that I erupted in a weird red rash all over, even in my mouth.

In September, I had a headache that came on and I couldn't shake for a month, and my eye sockets were burning. They continued to hurt after the headache finally went away.

I started having confusion, aphasia, headaches, mastoid ache, eye socket soreness, constant sinus drainage, and worsening vision. Which all continues in addition to some other unresolved health issue with my lungs, liver, and bladder.

I've been to the eye doctor seven times in two years, even once to a neuro-opthalmologist, and have no answers except I have tight crowded something in my eyes, and I am losing my peripheral vision. I can't reliably drive anymore, light hurts my eyes, and I can't see very well. I do have blepharitis and eye dryness, but never caused me problems like this.

I'm only 36, and if I lose my vision, I'm done for.

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

You may need an infectious disease specialist.  I wonder if you may not have some type of parasitic disease or other undiagnosed infectious disease.  I suspect that the pain around your eyes and loss of vision could be related to a systemic disease that has not yet been diagnosed and causing multi-system problems.  Suggest you find the biggest, best university teaching hospital in your area and see department of infectious diseases and ophthalmology for complete work-up.

MJK MD

[Fletch23]

Go straight to Moorfields eye hospital in London its the only hospital that will definatly find the problem, my friend had a rare disease and i told him to go and he was imediatly kept in for 3days they tried all sorts of things until he was diognosed and is now on the mend although it will take a long time its all positive good luck Ei

[Bella Donna]

Thanks! I actually went to one of those back in August, and I felt very hopeful. She said she'd review my files, and her initial thoughts were that I may have picked up a fungus (having grown up in Mississippi, and lived in Texas and done work in Mexico, and having long time ongoing respiratory problems), picked up a parasite, or that it could be a rheumatic problem (based on my other problems, and the fact I had seen several rheumatoid doctor on and off for about five years with success on naproxen and prednisone).

I waited and waited, left messages for her, and finally just made an appointment to see her again in November (the earliest I could get in), and she told me she had decided that she didn't think I had an infectious disease at all! She was so sure of this, that she said she didn't want to test for anything at all. I was in there all of ten minutes before I was dismissed. Since I had seen her in August, I found out I was losing my peripheral vision, and a number of other issues had gotten better, and some worse. (Interestingly, the neuro-opthalmologist said he didn't know what the problem was, but he was sure it wasn't going to get any worse. That was not very comforting.) I'm sucking down 10,000+ mcg of B-12 a day, plus a B-Complex, and  Folic Acid/B-Combo just so my muscles don't fall out from under me and I can think straight. It's ridiculous.

They did an MRI because of my muscle weakness back in the Spring, and it showed nothing unusual in my head or spine (according to the paper "report", which is apparently the only thing anyone ever looks at). I looked at the MRI myself and only noticed that an awful lot of blood vessels were attached to the optic nerve of my problem eye, but the eye docs said that wasn't really unusual.

My eye sockets were both hurting today and it took 500mg of Aleve and 1000 mg of aspirin to knock it down to a tolerable level. I guess I need to go back and bother the infectious disease Doc again, or else get a second opinion. My husband is ready to string someone up, and I don't blame him. I do graphic design, and if I can't see, I can't work!