Sudden Ghosting Images+Other Visual Distortions

Hello, I have been suffering greatly from a wide range of visual symptoms and hope that someone out there can shed some light... First off, I have suffered from neurological migraines since age 9 (i get an 'aura', my left arm, leg, and face are paralyzed, I am unable to speak or understand speech, etc during my migraine episodes of which I get about 5 per year. They are almost identicle to a stroke.) I had one of these 'attacks' on April 15, 2012 and after wards something just seemed to be 'wrong' with my vision. It wasn't the same as my usual migraine aura and is SUPER hard to explain. It's like there is just too much light coming into my eyes and my vision isn't a clear cut 'panel', as though something is in the middle of my field of vision distorting it. I have great difficulty focusing on individual objects because it feels like something is 'in the way'.  I went through 3 months of testing immediately after with 3 opthamologists, a neuro-opthamologist, an eye surgeon and a corneal specialist. All of my tests came out perfectly fine. I have never worn glasses and my vision is better than 20/20 in my left eye and ever so slightly near-sighted in my right eye. I have never had problems with blurry vision and even now my issue is NOT blurry vision, just distorted. I tried 2 pairs of glasses and had a cycloplegic (sp?) refraction as well as tried soft contact lenses because the neuro-opthamologist believed it COULD be caused by the slight difference in clarity of my eyes. I was prescribed ONE contact for my right eye only (my left is better than 20/20 so it didn't need it). I wore the soft contact about 3 weeks and then developed in a matter of about 2 minutes driving down the highway very severe ghosting. It came on from one second to the next and all the signs suddenly had a copy floating above them with a sort of 'streak' below. (sort of like a starburst, but with only one streak) I was told to stop use of the soft contact since it had not  helped and even though a corneal topography showed nothing wrong with my cornea I was told to try hard contact lenses to try to get rid of the ghosting. The corneal specialist said that ghosting shouldn't happen suddenly if it is cause by irregular astigmatism/keratoconus and that he didn't see any corneal irregularities to begin with. I tried the hard contact lenses and they did not seem to help the ghost image, they simply moved the position of the ghosts from above the original image to below it. I have had blood tests for everything under the sun (lyme, thyroid, etc.) and have had 2 MRI with contrast that showed a shrinking cyst in the genu of the corpus callosum of the brain (neurologist says it's about the size of a grainof salt). I have been on Restasis for dry eyes for about 4 months and it has not helped the ghosting (another last-ditch suggestion by the corneal specialist because everyone at the clinic was stumped).  I am confused as to how this could still be eye-related with so many healthy eye exams and that it came on so suddenly. These symptoms have been constant 24/7 without change for almost 10 months and I am currently taking Depakote because the neurologist believes they are related to chronic migraine, in that my brain now cannot fully 'turn off' the visual issues of a migraine. Any advice....? I have been to so, so, so many doctors and keep getting the run-around from both neuros and opthamology... I've lost my job and basically my whole life...I can't even go outside because everything ghosts into every thing else (backgrounds like the sky will 'ghost over' the trees) I have also tried Topamax but had to go off it because I weigh very little and it caused me to lose more weight, it did not help any of the visual symptoms.  The ghosting somewhat goes away with the pinhole test. By somewhat I mean that if I hold the hole i'm looking through VERY still and don't move so much as a mm, the ghosting goes away, but if I move that same hole even ever so slightly upwards, the ghosting comes back. I'm told that if it goes away with pinhole it must be refractive, but the cornea specialist disagrees, so now I have to eye doctors who disagree on this topic, and my neuro seems to think it is related to my migraines, since the original symptoms began right after one of my "stroke" migraines, and the ghosting followed a month later, he believes they are connected. If I've left anything out I'm very sorry!!! sorry as well for so much info being posted.... I really really need help :(


This discussion is related to Sudden Ghosting vision! any advice?.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

I do not have any insights into your problem.

JCH MD