looking through vaseline

[ELT]

Hi, I am a 43 yr old female, w an undiagnosed cns disorder.  My vision has been affected a number of times, but, no optic neuritis spotted.  I am near sighted, have lots of floaters, and see phosphenes when I move my eyes around in the dark.  Also have episodes of double vision.  Three times, in the last couple of years, I have had episodes where, for a few weeks, my vision in my left eye is like looking through a layer of vaseline on my glasses lens.  Along with this I have pain behind my left eye.  It comes and goes throughout the day.  At times I can see almost fine, at others it is quite a challenge to read with that eye.  I went to the optometrist, and all she noticed was that my retina in my left eye was thinner and paler than my retina in my right eye.  She said it was just natural aging.  (Aren't both my eyes the same age????????)   By the way, in mid November of '07 my left upper eye lid began twitching non stop, this went on for a month, now it is intermittent.  The blurring happened after my eyelid had almost stopped twitching.  I have got issues likely with my trigeminal nerve.  Seems to be bilateral trigeminal neuralgia.  (teeth all feel like they need root canals, lips and anterior portion of tongue feel like they have herpes, stabbing wave like pain from mandibles, these sensations all flare up together, level off for a few weeks, then subside over a few weeks, to manageable levels)   My question is, what could cause my one eye, the one with the issues, to have a paler, thinner retina, and how much should I ignore it?
Thanks in advance for your response

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

Thanks to Nancy T for pointing out my typing error. My curse is to think much faster than I can type and I've never been good at spellen  (kidding spelling).

JCH III MD

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

Ignore the remark since it came from a non-physician, limited training, limited scopy ophthalmologist.

I would suggest seeing a neuro-ophthalmologist. Find one at www.aao.org or ask your neurologist for a referral.

You may be having migraine equivalents.

JCH IIIMD

[Nancy T]

Whoops, sorry, I see that you did see one already. If it's been a year and you're still having problems, maybe it's time again.

[Nancy T]

Just for the record, I'm sure Dr. Hagan meant "optometrist" in the first sentence of his post.

I have had a lot of bilateral facial shocks and paresthesias, too (along with dizziness, hearing loss, paresthesias elsewhere, a little coordination problem, Lhermitte's, etc.) although never any eye blurriness or pain and no actual double vision. The pattern of things flaring up, then settling down sounds verrrry familiar, though most of it involves little or no pain, at least nothing sustained. It seems I'm destined to remain one of the Great Undiagnosed, too. :)

I don't trust my eyes to optometrists anymore; I would get glasses from them, but otherwise they are limited in their knowledge and ability to solve problems, despite their claims that they can do EVERYTHING for your eyes except surgery. Not until I saw an ophthalmologist was my eye problem solved.

Best of luck getting things figured out, and I hope your eye problems go away. As Dr. Hagan suggested, see a neuro-ophthalmologist!

Nancy T.

[ELT]

Thank you for your prompt reply.  I did see a neuro-opthalmologist one year ago, I was having a better time with my eyes when he saw me, still issues, but mild.  It seems to be happening more, and to be more noticeable when it is occurring.  I will talk to my neurologist, then, and perhaps he will see fit to re-refer me to the same gentleman.  Thanks again.