Chronic Eye "Snow" and Slight Mental Confusion

[JLunaNYC]

I am suffering from chronic eye static that does not resolve in both eyes.  When I close my eyes I see "snow" akin to a tv channel without a signal.  And approximately once a week, I will get oppressive headaches around my temples and eyes, accompanied by chills.  I am experiencing odd swelling in my hands and random mild joint pain.  I feel subtly more tired than usual.

These symptoms begain a little over 1.5 months ago after a trip to South America. From Dec. 18, 2007 - Jan. 3, 2008 I was in Valparaiso, Chile.  I ate pork early on in the vacation.  I ate raw clams Dec. 29, 07. 18hrs later on Dec. 30, 07 I awoke with severe diarrhea.  I had loose stool and diarrhea off and on. On Jan 10, 2008 in the afternoon at work I had my first confusion spell and "snowy" vision.  On Jan 11, 2008 when I saw my first PCP.  Without stool testing, he diagnosed girardiasis.  And prescribed FLAGYL.  Diarrhea stop.  On Monday Jan 13, 08 I saw my second PCP and he stopped my FLAGYL because I complained of mental confusuion and "snowy" vision.  He placed me on CIPRO for 7 days.  I completed the treament and my visual "snow" did not subside.

It is now Februray and the symptoms continue.  The visual "snow" subsided for 4 day two weeks ago.  I had perfect vision, but then the symptoms returned.  I have seen a couple of specialist and they do not find anything wrong.  Here are results conducted at Columbia University Medical Center:

Mercury poisoning - Neg
Ameobas (3 stool samples) - Neg
Blood culture - Neg
Lyme Disease - Neg
CT - Normal
MRI - No abnormalities
Blood work-  lipids normal, blood count normal
Opthamalogist - Eye and optic nerve look perfect.
Neurologist - No abnormality.  Diagnosed as "neuropathy with unknown etiology, triggering migrane like symptoms"  No spinal tap was performed.

My symptoms dont go away and I am running out of ideas.  I have an apt with a infectious disease person in March.  I feel like I am always on the verge of having a migrane visual blackout but it never happens.  I have had two migranes in my life.

Please I need some ideas.

[rlp89]

A related discussion, Same story was started.

[crambone]

or maby you got the bug that bit you in south america,,where it implanted a larva in your system,where it migrated to your eyes,,where they live and you will experience floaters and such from them!,,,it started after you got back,so you know as well as i do i bet you got something while you were down there!

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Thanks for writing to the forum!
Chronic eye static may be due to the electrical activity inside our eye. This produces an image of the vitreous and retina, sometimes white spots against black or vice versa and sometimes red hues too. This is normal. Rarely this is due to inflammation. However your eye examination is normal.
Most floaters never completely disappear. There is no medicine or eye drop that can really cure this.

In your case I feel it could be a case of ‘ocular migraines’ or ‘ophthalmic migraines’. These produce headaches along with visual symptoms ranging from static vision to temporary loss of vision. Please discuss this possibility with your doctor. Normally, ophthalmic migraines do not require treatment. But if these symptoms recur regularly then you may need medication to reduce the frequency and/or severity of attacks. Retinal detachment is another cause.

Hope this helps. It is difficult to comment beyond this at this stage. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!