Double Vision

Hello, I am a 26 year old male who was first diagnosed with Guillain Barre with a Miller Fisher variant (this is how the syndrome was so named at the hospital) in early January.  I am slowly recovering (gaining strength but not losing the most obvious symptoms) and am most concerned over my double vision.  I am seeing more movement in the eyes, yet the angle of divergence seems to be increasing.  I have also noticed that when seeing double I can focus on one or the other images as I want.  For example if I want to focus on the image being seen by my right eye, my left eye can turn towards the right and vice versa.  Does this pattern of behavior suggest anything in particular, or suggest anything that I should be concerned with?  I understand that patience is a virtue with this disorder, but this is the major symptom that on the surface seems to be worsening.

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

The double vision may not go away soon. It usually lasts longer than other symptoms. At the same time, you should also get a screening test done to rule out relapse of the illness.

When you are trying to focus on the object seen by the right eye, the left eye has a natural tendency to move towards the right eye. But since the ocular muscles are involved, there is an imbalance in the signal strengths to particular muscle, leading to an overshoot of the movement.

Regards