question about eye stuff...I posted as response to T-lynn in previous post....but maybe you can help

[Rachelinpain]

question about the nystagmus....I have never had "nystagmus" i guess, no one has ever actually seen my eyes do it but Ii have a lot of times where i feel like that is what my eyes are doing, wha tis is that, it is one of my most troubling visual symptoms, my world just seems to osscilate sometimes, sometimes very finely and sometimes violently...usually things move horizontally very quickly but sometimes vertically like if I am looking at lines of words.  is there a definition for someting that feels like nystagmus without the actual eye movt...?  another ?...I have blurry vision, also a troubling visual symptom but my acuity is 20/30 (down from 20/20 in march)  my optho said she did not understand why I was complaining about blurry vision when my acuity was OK, but it is not my acuity, I mean i can see things they are just blurry...even the giant e at the top of the chart, i can read it but it just looks fuzzy...is that typical for "MS blurry vision", it is definately worse in my r eye where i have pain but sometimes my vioion seems fine...what would cause this...since you seem to be kinda of guru of eye stuff....thanks

[Quixotic1]

The eye symptom that you describe may be "oscillopsia".  One of it's causes can be failure of visual integration within the visual cortex.  Thus, it can be entirely subjective and could , I would think, be an effect of a brain lesion in MS.  Quix

[Rachelinpain]

I have an appointment on thursday, he said he will likely to an LP and VEP and I am hoping look at my MRIs, although I am pretty sure the radiologists here would have picked up on something...although still concerned about my decreased frontal brain size, the white matter also looks much darker in that area than everywhere else but anyway....I am supposed to go see my neuro here the day before, he is not really considering MS as a possiblity so i do not even know if i should go.  I have a feeling this guy at VCU will want the tests done at a very specific place and it will all be out of pocket so I do not know what to do.  No neurologist in the state of VA takes my insurance...isn't that great...if i needed neurosurgery they would cover that but not a neurologist....I guess it would just be better to have a brain tumor, at least I would know what was wrong and it could be treated.  I have had theis "nystagmus thing" for a while and when it happens i even ask my husband to look at my eyes and see if they are moving.  Its like when I look at something it vibrates very wuickly in my field of vision.  It only happens when i am actually focusing on an object, or word or whatever.  It feels like my eyes are moving quickly back and forth, i even sometimes have it when my eyes are closed.  Sometimes it will just happen one time and somedays I avaoid focusing on anythings cause it will happen almost everytime i look at something.  Sometimes the movement is a fine vibration and other times the amplitude is very wide, its like if you were looking at a projection screen and someone bumped into the projector...i try to see it everytime it happens but have never been able to see it in a mirror and do not even reaaly know how to explain it to people....the blurry thing I was trying to explain to my husband today...sometimes  my vision seeems fine...my acuity has apparently decreased in both eyes in the last few months but it seems like acuity and blurriness are not related, when i look at a wall chart i can read all the letters down to the 20/30 mark but sometimes even the big E at the top is blurry....but i know it is an e, they do not ask you to read the letters that appear sharp, they ask you to read the lowest line of letters you can read, and I can read them, they are just all still blurry, I just do not see sharp edges of the letters even though i can read them...i do not know if there is a name for that...should i only read the line that appears sharp ...then i would be considered blind....but like i said this too comes and goes throughout the day depending on my fatigue and the temperature, the r eye is definately worse.  

[Quixotic1]

You said that no examiner has seen the nystagmus.  Were you having what felt like nystagmus when they were looking?  If you were seeing the visual field jerking back and forth, then you were likely having nystagmus.  One thing you might do, is you have a video camera or video capability on your phone is have someone quickly get a little footage of your eyes at the time.

Now, you also asked if there was a kind of nystagmus without the eye movement.  Yes and NO.  Nystagmus IS, the slow/fast jerking of the eyes, by definition.  I have something that feels like nystagmus to me, but I can tell there is no eye movement and the visaul field does not move.  When I am tired and look laterally, I get an internal noise (the same sound I have when I do have nystagmus) and an internal whirling, roiling, wenching sensation that is nauseating and eventually incapacitating.  Finally during the last few months of intensive reading of MS boards and other neuro sites I have heard other people describe this very thing.  It was good to know that I am not completely crazy.

For years Dr. literally looked at BOTH my heads while rolling their eyes and looking for the exit.  Finally, after several attempts, my neuro referred to it as "sensitivity to eye movement."  He said it can occur in post-concussive syndromes (which is interesting, because it began in 1983 with a bad concussion and the very beginning of my problems with vertigo.  He also said it is seen in migraines, then after a pause he added (not too convincingly) in anxiety and depression.  I think he was making a point.  I will talk to him about this.

I, too, am confused about the "blurriness."  If things are blurry, it would seem to me like the very smallest letters that you can read (which is what determines your acuity) would not be readable if they were even slightly blurry.  So I'm not able to picture what you are describing. Can you try to describe it in another way?  

When is your visit with the new neuro at VCU?

Quix

[T-lynn]

Nystagmus can have several forms and be caused by several disorders.
It can be vertically ,osscilating and horizantal.

The best way to detect forms of nystagmus is through a ENG/VNG testing done by an ENT or neuroOtologist.This test consist of 3 parts.

Blurry vision,dimished color hues are visual disturbances of MS.I have constanstant blurred vision in left eye with absent peripheral vision.Once the relapse is over the vision comes back.I also get pain in the left eye.How ever I do not have ON(optical neuritis) I do have palor optical nerves.

I also get like a fuzzy spots in my vision.

With MS theres so many symptoms especially with the vision,that unless theres lesions on the optical nerves or that an opthamologist can see damage to that nerve these symptoms get dismissed.Theres no actual test to test for optical pain,blurred vision,there is a color hue test,not many eye Drs use it.

Double vision is also a common symptom.Thats my favorite ,hate lecturing one teen let alone having to look at 2 of them.With the double vision in can side by side or up and down.

Keep all you eye symptoms wrote down,When they occur,how they are induced and so forth.