Abnormal symptoms

[sabie]

Worrisome symptoms:  Headaches that come and go, weird sensations in head, twitching of eyelid and arm and leg (only at night when going to sleep), decline in vision only in left eye (from 20/30 to 20/50) since February, neck pain/discomfort on left side, and seeing floaters lines/spots in eyes.  At times, ringing fullness in ears.  Went to eye doc. and retina specialist in July and that is when I found out I had a decline in vision but they did a thorough exam, took pictures of eye and back of eye and found nothing abnormal, no swelling or pressure build-up.  Had a negative CT scan 16 months ago.  I am 29 and worried especially about what could be causing the decline in vision in only one eye!  Please offer any help!

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-SH]

First of all, keep in mind that I am unable to diagnose you because I am unable to examine you, this forum is for educational purposes.
Loss of vision in one eye, generally means dysfunction of the visual system somewhere between the eyeball and the optic chiasm (the place where the optic nerves cross).  From that point on your optic nerves carry information from both eyes, and lesions then cause a visual field defect in both eyes.  Sometimes patients have a problem (for example the left side) in both eyes, but attribute it to one eye (the left in this case).  I would assume this is not your case, since you have been to 2 eye specialist.  Many things can affect the optic nerve, between the chiasm and the eye including ischemia (lack of blood flow), optic nerve glioma, sarcoid, multiple sclerosis, etc.  I would recommend an MRI of your Brain and C-spine with contrast, to evaluate for these possibilities.  I included the C-spine, because your symptoms of neck pain, ringing in the ears and headaches can all arise from neck problems.
I hope this has been helpful.

[vega1318]

You need an MRI of the brain with contrast to make sure you don't have anything pushing on your optic nerve or any demyelinating problems in your nerves or brain.  You should start there and see a neurologist or a neuroopthalmologist.

[sabie]

Thanks for the input!  I had an MRI and an MRA with and without contrast done of the brain in November of 2003 and everything was normal.  Also, I am 28 weeks pregnant at the moment so to have any tests are out of the question due to risk to the baby.  Any other suggestions?

[vega1318]

Congratulations on being pregnant!  Your MRI was done a while ago and your vision problems started only in February...  Perhaps, you should have it repeated.  I'd also think that an MRI of your neck should be done to see if you have a problem possibly causing a fluid leak accounting for the headache and ear problems as well as these transient arm / leg numbness episodes...  You can obviously do that after the baby is born just to be safe.  It is possible that your symptoms are not connected between each other...

[Sick-N-Tired]

I read all what has been written from you all regarding Lyme Disease and then I went to CDC web-site.  For my abnormal symptoms sound more close to what was describe as Lyme Disease.

I live in Florida and about 2yrs ago I went home for lunch to lay down for lunch and come back because I was sick with the flu and dizzy.  From that time I've been unable to go back.  

I am dizzy where the room spins around as though I've turned myself around (the way you did when you were a toddler.  My sight is fogged, I have severe pain in my lower spin that produces sharp wake you up pain when trying to sleep.  My head always feel as though there's water build up pressure.  My teeth feel as though all of the few remainders need pulling.  When I shampoo my hair, I end up with a headache.  Sometimes for no apparent reason my index finger gets a pain through it.  About 2 weeks ago I woke up with this terrible headache that lasted for 1 1/2 hours.  The pain from 1 to 10 was 100.  Then after the hour and a half it became a 10 for 6 hours, then lasted a 1 for the rest of the day.  

Oh by the way when the room stops spinning, which is about 2 to 3 times a week; with sometimes 2 to 3 times within a day - which leaves me nausea until I finally give in to loosing my daily meal.  Before the room spins my eyes seems to be trying to do this cross-eyed thing.

All and all right now I'm at my last.  Saturday of this week I go to the emergency room, which the doctor there told me I'm not sick enough and apparently it's not life threating because I haven't died from it yet.  Then the doc. labeled me depressed and vertigo.

My regular doctor have diagnoise me diabetic, high blood pressure, pancreas, and vertigo; but I know people with these diseases and they can still function.  As I'm typing my body is steady developing others.  Before all of this I was only diabetic.

I can live with everything, but not this dizziness.  Oh I forgot to mention sometimes my skin get this crazy itch.  I'm in the process of trying to have the lyme test done, because I think this is the reason for the majority of my health problem.  My question is this to you...My regular doctor have said that it seems as if it something minor that's causing my problem, but blood work shows nothing.  How do you make a sink about your health when the medical profession don't have a clue?