Vision Problems

[Rainey]

Hey all, this is weird. I was sitting at my daughter's soccer game this morning and all of a sudden I got blurry areas in both of my eyes. What's with that? Anyone ever heard of that before? Since I haven't been feeling well since I had my medicine tripled I freaked out and went to urgent care. I've also been fighting eye infections in both eyes since allergy season began. First it was thought that it was pinkeye but after antibiotic drops and steroid drops for three weeks, it still comes back every other day. So, the doc at the UC thought that it was probably just my eyes and called it "allergic conjunctivitis." He gave me Pataday (or whatever) drops to use and told me to follow-up with my eye doctor and general practitioner. I just have a feeling that there's more to do it than that but maybe not. Just wanted to get some feedback. After I was in the UC for a while the blurry patches did subside and now they're gone all together. Now, I am allergic to grass and i was in the grass all morning all soccer so I don't know .... maybe. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't a "warning" with Atenolol or anything.

[Pam Alexson]

Does not seem as it would be med related as you were already on the med just increasing the dose. Visual disturbances more often occur when it is an entirely new med and will usually settle down in a few weeks of treatment adjustment. BUT it could be .. Always report any unusual findings or symptoms to the doctor who prescribes the med.

Pam

[Bucky]

Hi Rainey:

Yes, I had some vision problems starting out on Verapamil....couldn't focus sometimes......it seems to be letting up now and I haven't noticed it lately. I imagine whenever you start fooling with blood pressure with the heart medicine it affects other areas such as vision. If it has cleared up you are probably past the getting used to it phase. If it comes back, though I'd have it checked out.

bucky

[Rainey]

Yep. No signs of it now. Thanks for your replies!

[mbcube]

Did you have any other symptoms like bright lights or colors along with the blurriness? Might have been an ocular/visual migraine. Which are due to blood pressure issues in the brain. They last 15-20 minutes & are gone.
I never had them till I went on Atenolol.

[gfox42]

These things are scary -- I had a similar experience once -- but may or may not be related to your circulatory system. Blood pressure is related to migraine, but only locally (that is, only for the particular blood vessels involved) -- it's not as though people with hypertension necessarily have more (or fewer) migraines.

If you're very concerned, see an ophthalmologist. I'd certainly consider seeing one if you have another episode like this.

Gordon

[Rainey]

So, like, does this lead to a STROKE or something??? I have typically good blood pressure (enviable, I believe it was called). I've heard of these "occular migranes" before. Are they painful? I had no pain but yeah, it lasted about EXACTLY 20 minutes. Odd. Nothing since then.

[gfox42]

Hi Rainey,
I don't think you need to worry about a stroke. Optical migraine (I think there's another term for it . . . but can't recall it at the moment) is "just" a migraine without the pain of a headache.

When I had this event, the ophthalmologist told me they don't like to make this diagnosis in people who don't have migraines otherwise (I don't) because -- well, they don't have much evidence that that's what's going on. After all, there's no test for migraine, and no medical sign -- they diagnose migraine because the patient describes migraines. If you have a visual disturbance like this but no pain, yes, it could be an optical migraine, but there are other things it can be too.

Really, if you're at all concerned, I'd recommend seeing an ophthalmologist. In my case, they were never able to say what caused it, and it hasn't recurred, but it certainly feels better than worrying about something like a problem with my retina.

But I don't think there's much reason to worry about strokes.

Gordon

[Bruce42]

I've had ocular migraines for a few years. Never had a reason to think they were related to HCM or to any medicine; they just showed up. (Though come to think of it, they did show up around the same time as my first HCM symptoms, at about age 38. That's probably neither here nor there.) I get glare, bright colors, and sort of a reverse tunnel vision--inability to focus on the center of my field of vision, though the periphery is OK. No pain.

My family physician prescribed a drug called Frova, which is terrific. I take one at onset, and it goes away in about 20 or 30 min. Without the medication, mine tend to last 3-4 hours. Since they preclude reading (and therefore work), that was an issue, but it's now under control.

[Rainey]

Thanks for all the replies. I'll probably just call my eye doctor and see if he wants to peer in to my deep brown eyes for an afternoon! Thank you!

[mbcube]

And of course the only time they'll have available will be in the am, on a sunny day, and of course they'll need to dialate your eyes, and then your forced to function whereing those vitual reality sunglasses for most of the day!

No pain with ocular miagraines, Its important to notice if its one eye or two, but as others have said, see your eye care professional.

[Rainey]

It was in both eyes. Both eyes' vision was completely clear except for a line of blurriness going through both of them. No pain and lasted about 30 minutes or so. I will probably call my eye guy.