Blurry Vision - Worst in Evening, Night, Morning

[hooloovoo]

I have worn glasses for 25 years. One evening in early January I noticed the vision in my right eye was blurry / cloudy at night. When I woke up, I noticed my face on the right side felt partially numb around my eye and my vision still seemed blurry. I went to see my regular doctor and she thought I might need a new prescription. She didn't seem to think I had a stroke and my blood pressure was fine. My facial muscles seemed to be fine too. I went to the ophthalmologist and he said my prescription had not changed much, the pressure in both of my eyes was 20 (high normal), and I was color blind (have been all along). He said to come back in 6 months to have the pressure checked. Nothing else unusual was found.

Since then, my eyesight has been affected on a daily basis. If I look at a computer for more than 5 or 10 minutes, watch tv for more than 10-15 minutes, or am in sunlight, I feel eye strain and headache behind my eyes and have some blurry vision. The more I have strained during the day, the worse the blurriness at night is. Sometimes at night my right eye has the blurry vision and sometimes it is the left. It is more often the right side. The numbness in the face has almost completely gone away. Sometimes when my vision is blurry and I blink the vision improves. Sometimes it doesn't.

When I developed this problem, I had been taking Epsom Salt baths for a few weeks. Of course I stopped those. At the same time I developed these eye problems, I began to have gastrointestinal and nerve problems. For example, I will have a lot of gas about 10 minutes after I eat and then for hours afterward. It seems like when I have the gas pressure, it will make me light-headed and have blurry vision until the gas passes. This also happens when I need to have a bowel movement. My vision symptoms then will improve somewhat.  My eyes have not felt completely normal since this started.

Please let me know what you think and thank you for your time.

[Houman Vosoghi, MD]

First thing to do is rule out dry eyes.  For my patients, I consider warm compresses to both eyes for 5 to 10 minutes at bedtime followed by placing Sodium Chloride ointment in the eyes before going to sleep (brand name is Muro 128 but there are generics available too), then use over the counter artificial tear drops (nothing like visine or clear eyes; more like systane, optive or the generic equivalents of these) three to four times a day (especially before activities that bring on the blurry vision such as reading, computer work, or watching tv).  If this doesn't work, go back to the ophthalmologist for a full exam and let them know what your symptoms are and what time of day they are worse.

This is not meant to be a diagnosis or medical treatment recommendation but simple common sense way to see if you may have dry eyes ( I do it for myself).  You need to get a full eye exam by an ophthalmologist to get the correct diagnosis and treatment of your specific problem.  Please let us know what ends up happening.

HV

[hooloovoo]

Thank you for your response. The hot compress makes the eyes and muscles around the eyes feel slightly better. I feel a throbbing sensation in the right eye when the compress is on them. The right one is the eye that is most affected. I have been using the Optive eye drops. Those make the eyes feel slightly better for maybe an hour. Neither of these makes the eyes feel completely better, even temporarily. I haven't tried the Muro 128 because it says I should be under the supervision of a doctor. Is this important?

Is it possible that I dehydrated myself so much that my eyes have been damaged? This all started after taking Epsom salt baths (and I was drinking dandelion tea at the time also, which is a diuretic). I went to the emergency room and was given fluids for dehydration after a bath. Three days later with no Epsom salt baths, I had to receive fluids again. My vision was significantly affected when this happened and got somewhat better when I received the fluids. If dehydration was the initial problem, do you know how I can restore adequate hydration to my eyes? I have been drinking lots of water, but, it doesn't seem like it gets to my eyes or keeps my eyes and surrounding tissues hydrated.