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        Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies >> Eye Exam
        
(Message started by: Q on Nov 27^th, 2006, 2:53pm)

Title: Eye Exam
Post by Q on Nov 27^th, 2006, 2:53pm

Hi Gang,

It's been a while since I posted here, but thought I'd drop in and share an interesting event.

OK, so my CH is eposodic with the last cycle running into it's thrid month. To make a long story short, I had Lasik about 10 years ago, and it gradually wore-off. About 6-weeks ago I decided to get a new prescription for glasses, and guess what? The cycle ended when I started wearing glasses again.

I mentioned this to my GP, and he slapped his head, and said "Of course, sometimes we overlook the obvious."

Maybe just a coincidence? But if you think you need glasses and are in a cycle, you might consider getting a simple eye-exam.<g>

Title: Re: Eye Exam
Post by CynthiaB on Nov 27^th, 2006, 2:57pm

Have an eye appt. this afternoon at 4. Hopefully he will remove the offending orb. If this treatment works, I am going to start a line of wacky fake eyes. Elaine can help me and we'll use the profits to help fund JD's homeschooling so wish me luck.

Title: Re: Eye Exam
Post by Q on Nov 27^th, 2006, 3:14pm

A little more detail, for the record, so to speak.

I had worn glasses most of my life before the Lasik, then none during the 10-year interim. I was (R/L) 20/200 20/400 before the surgery, corrected to 20/20 , 20/10, then showed up with 20/60, 20/80, which is a pretty mild correction, but given the amount of eye-strain I was encountering, I could have added-up on some cummulative strain gauge.

After I got the new glasses, it took a few days to get used to them. They're the tri-focal type with the progressive lenses, so you have to learn where to look and hold your head.

Title: Re: Eye Exam
Post by Guiseppi on Nov 27^th, 2006, 7:06pm

WARNING!!!!! Stairs are a bitch in tri-focals.........a definite challenge! My guess is the break was caused by the beast going to sleep and not the glasses. I've gone the gamut of glassses, up to my current progressive bifocals and haven't seen any relationship.

But as weird as the beast is, I suppose anything is possible. I remember one year I made the headaches stop by using q-tips every morning. (Oh shut up the rest of you I'll bet you've tried weirder things! ;;D) With the unpredictability of this thing cause and effect can be tricky at best. Congrats on the pain free time no matter what caused it, enjoy it and stay ready!!!

Guiseppi

Title: Re: Eye Exam
Post by CynthiaB on Nov 27^th, 2006, 8:16pm

Finally made it home from the opthalmologist. 6 ocock at frickiin night and he dilates my eyes, after promising not to do it. (Ihope Im not typing in chiniese or somethingbeca use I can't see).

Anyway...he says my eyes are pretty okay except the bad asygmat;ysm (however you spell that). TADA..I have cluster headaches!!! Thanks. Do you have glasses for that? How about tsome eye drops? A piece of candy even?

Title: Re: Eye Exam
Post by Q on Nov 27^th, 2006, 11:32pm

CynthiaB,

WOW, I have that astygna.... thingy too, but glad they didn't remove the eye to fix it!

The CH-Demon works in mysterious ways, and is very adaptable, so who knows.

Apart from the illegal indole-ring treatments, I don't know how to prevent nor abort a cycle. O2/1cc Imitrex aborts them, for me, usually.

So, did you get a prescription?

Title: Re: Eye Exam
Post by Q on Nov 27^th, 2006, 11:41pm

Guiseppi,

I'm with you on the looking down danger.

I'm with you on the cause/effect thing,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc

I was pretty hooked on West Wing, but glad to see most of the case move to Studio 60.

Title: Re: Eye Exam
Post by sandie99 on Nov 28^th, 2006, 5:42am

I'm glad that helped you. :)

I got glasses back in 1996 and my eye sight has been checked often since. My glasses have been renewed twice, last time in fall 2004. I actually had new glasses and new stage in my preventative medication on the same week. No wonder I had troubles in seeing correctly for a while... ;)

Best wishes,
Sanna

Title: Re: Eye Exam
Post by Bob_Johnson on Nov 28^th, 2006, 7:12am

Med Clin North Am. 1991 May;75(3):693-706. Related Articles, Links

Ophthalmologic aspects of headache.

Tomsak RL.

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio.

Pain around the eye can be caused by local ophthalmic disorders or by disease of other structures sharing trigeminal nerve sensory innervation. In general, most ocular causes for pain also cause the eye to be red, thus alerting the examiner to the focality of the problem. However, conditions like eyestrain, intermittent angleclosure glaucoma or neovascular glaucoma, and low-grade intraocular inflammation can be painful and not be associated with obvious redness. Ocular signs and symptoms also occur with numerous other causes of headache. Double vision in association with periocular pain can result from orbital lesions, isolated cranial neuropathies, and cavernous sinus lesions. Pupillary abnormalities like Horner's syndrome may result from a variety of painful conditions, including cluster headache, parasellar neoplasms or aneurysms, internal carotid dissection or occlusion, and Tolosa-Hunt syndrome. Pain with a dilated and unreactive pupil may reflect a benign condition like Adie's syndrome or ophthalmoplegic migraine, or it may herald the presence of a life-threatening posterior communicating artery aneurysm. Headache and transient visual loss can be manifestations of classic migraine, or be symptoms of ocular hypoperfusion from ipsilateral internal carotid occlusion or increased intracranial pressure from pseudotumor cerebri. In a young patient, head pain with a fixed visual deficit may result from optic neuritis, in an older adult, temporal arteritis may be the culprit. Ophthalmologic aspects of headache thus encompass problems that range from simple and benign to complex and formidable.

Publication Types:
Review

PMID: 2020223 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Title: Re: Eye Exam
Post by Charlotte on Nov 28^th, 2006, 9:11am

Thank you, Bob. I always wondered what they were looking for. When my doc referred me to the neurologist, I had an eye exam and the optometrist wrote a report for me to take to the neuro, as part of my history.

I have always had right side nystagmus, partially color blind, nearsighted and astigmatism, and have a slight corneal sutata (whatever that is), but the optic nerve and everything else looked good.

Charlotte