Have any of you ever heard of something to do with your eyes called some sort of "hsyterical" eye syndrome. It's supposed to be at least in part brought on by stress. Three weeks ago I was seeing large brown translucent leaves with the upper part of my right eye. I had all kinds of test which were non-conclusive.

Today I woke up seeing big purple leaves with the upper part of my LEFT eye. I had a very stressful day yesterday.

It is hard to avoid stress when I am having trouble SEEING!!! I have NO health insurance since husband started his own business (we simply have no money for it right now) and I'm not offered health insurance through either of my two jobs...

Anybody ever heard of this??? Macular degeneration runs in my family but my eye doc says at 48 I have no sign of that.

-- Suzy in 'Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), October 15, 2000

Answers

Haven't heard of your ailment, but can understand the stress factor. 17 years ago I suffered freon burns to both eyes and now under fatique and stress, I have a burning and "see" the translucent scarring floating across my field of vision. I use visine, a warm compress and a quiet dark room for about an hour.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), October 15, 2000.

Suzy, I have had occular migraines in the past. I'm not sure if this is the same thing. During them, I would get flashing prism-like shapes (kind of like looking into a kaleidoscope, exept no colors) moving in an arc across my vision. The duration was about 20 minutes each time. Fortunately for me, I didn't often get the accompanying headache. However, they were very disorienting episodes...couldn't drive, etc. I talked to my doc about them, and she said they happen to folks sometimes, and from what I remember about that conversation, not much to do for them. If the flashers stick around, though, and don't go away, it could be indications of a detached retina, something more serious.

The stress part. Oh yes. I had these the worst when we were building a house and I was working long hours at a job 1.5 hours commute time each way. What I did to manage these incidents, was to lie down in the dark for as long as it took (and I frequently would fall asleep) and do some kind of bio-feedback (untrained as I am, it mostly was just repeating soothing words to myself...kind of mantra or prayer- like).

I feel for you. I hope your stress eases up a bit. I know you have a stressful job and a lot going on.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), October 15, 2000.

Suzy, my husband had a twitch in his eye when he was working for the State. We knew it was stress from building the house and working full time an hour and a half away! Once the house was built and he quit work and we started Handyman Services, the twitch is gone. Get rid of whatever it is in your life that is making this problem happen, stress like this is also the reason for illness. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 16, 2000.

Suzy, when under extreme stress (my marriage almost broke up) a few years ago, I got iritis, an inflamation of the eye. It was very painful, and I was losing my sight. Took a week or so of medication to get it under control. I asked the nurse if it was something that could happen again, and she said I could expect to have a reoccurrence every year. But it's been three years and so far it hasn't come back -- by the grace of God, life is mostly pretty peaceful now, and I'm sure that's why it hasn't bothered me again. So the moral of the story is, figure out what is stressing you, and get rid of it. Money or whatever isn't worth losing your health over!!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), October 16, 2000.

By the way, stress also causes (for me) heart palpitations, joint pains that resemble arthritis but aren't, and may have triggered the onset of celiac disease symptoms. Other people can add to this list, I am sure.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), October 16, 2000.

I had a friend that went to the doctor just this last summer because she could see "fans", a lot of movement, the doctor told her that it was a precursor to migraines, hope that is not the case for you but just wanted to share her experience. That was 4 months ago, no fans & no headaches yet.

-- Lenore (archambo@winco.net), October 16, 2000.

Hi Suzy, I've been studying alternative medicine for 4 years now and have found Kava Kava to be very helpful for symptoms of stress, it does not overmedicate you like narcotic painkillers/stress reducers do. You can get it about anywhere, but the most reliable source of herbal medicines is Frontier Natural Products Co-op, 1-800-669-3275, or, www.frontiercoop.com . It costs $10.00 to join the co-op, but you buy everything wholesale and they have from soup to nuts, and all kinds of bulk products to name brand suppliers, such as Schiff and American Health, etc. Make up a name or a group of interested people to name, they don't sell to individuals, such as, I'm listed as Annies Country Creations, but I buy more than just soapmaking supplies. Their catolog is 432 pages long, updated twice a year, and their prices beat Wally World have half usually! Orders over $200.00 (get some friends together to order) are shipped free! And they ship to Ohio (from Iowa) in 3 days, shouldn't take that long to AL. If the Kava Kava doesn't work, there are a ton more things to try, are you using natural progesterone creme? Women our age should, wards off ALL kinds of problems. See www.emerita.com for additional information. Good luck, Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), October 16, 2000.

Suzy, Please check your blood pressure when this happening, can be a symptom of spiking BP. I forgot to mention this in my post. Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), October 16, 2000.

Hi Suzy, I every once in a great while get something that sounds a lot like yours, dont worry too much since it goes away after a while. What I get are brownish blobs about the size of my thumb when held at arms length.

What causes it is proteins in the retinal fluid clumping up and drifing around, ocassionally they drift over to and get stuck to the retina leaving odd shaped blobs in my vision. The body re-absorbes the blob after two or three weeks and everything is back to normal for a few years.

The doctors at he Madigan Medical Hobby Shop (I was stationed at McChord AFB, Wa at the time) took 4 weeks to tell me what was going on, I thought I was going blind and it scared the hell out of me. What happens is that the blood vessels in my eyes occasionally leak a bit from overpressure (my blood pressure is not the best), they think the original damage was done when I did a face plant from 10 feet up a tree and I squished my eyes when I hit the ground and I damaged the blood vessels in them (broke my nose and cracked a cheekbone too).

You might be able to move the blobs around into a less disruptive spot by rapidly moving your eyes back and forth to get them unstuck and drifting again. Whatever you do though, DONT RUB YOUR EYES HARD, the docs were real specific about this, your overpressuring your eyes again and will probably make the blood vessels leak more.

I dont know exactly whats happening to you, but get the blood pressure down one way or another and, if you have what happens to me, wait it out, its the only thing you can do.

I hope this helps a bit

Dave

-- Dave (AK) (daveh@ecosse.net), October 19, 2000.

Suzy: Sorry I couldn't post this before, but I just read it last night. This is taken verbatim from one of my husband's magazines, "The Clinical Advisor", Oct 2000 issue, "Age-Related Macular Degeneration", page 58.

"Patients with large scars in the macula often have what could be called 'visual hallucinations,' seeing things or faces they know are not present. The phenomenon may last several minutes. Some patients are afraid to mention such a symptom for fear that their mental abilities may be questioned. They are generally reassured to learn that other patients with AMD sometimes have the same symptoms."

According to the article, this type of macular degeneration can and SHOULD be treated. I know you don't have insurance, but if you haven't seen an opthalmologist, not your regular doc or the optomitrist (sp?), please try, just to make sure this isn't what's going on with you. If you don't have this, you'll lose some money, but if you do, getting it treated can preserve your eyesight. Your profession depends on your eyes working, right?

-- Teresa (otgonz@bellsouth.net), October 21, 2000.

Just an add on to Tersas post; please do not let the lack of insurance, keep you from seeking medical treatment! All 50 states have clinics. I have been without medical coverage most of my adult life, and have relied on clinics, and the generosity of my local doctors to treat my ails. I have never been to a doctor, who upon learning that I had no insurance, refused to treat me. Don't mess with your health, good luck.

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), October 22, 2000.