Instant loss of vision after cocaine use

[turbojoe]

Ok, so most of you might judge me wrong from the title but i am just a regular person like anyone else.  I dont do drugs at all but a few years ago i did some experimental drug use with cocaine which is the only one i have ever used.  Im a very good person so please dont get me wrong and i am on here to possibly find some help or answers for what i have to deal with everyday.

I snorted cocaine one night and felt a sharp pain in my left eye immediately and lasted a few hours.  The next day i noticed my vision was not the same at all.  So i scheduled an appointment with an eye doctor.  I was checked out and they said everything looked normal if not better than normal.  I told them what had happened and they said it should clear out and that there might be some debris still in there.   Waited a month and nothing changed.  Went back and they said everything looked fine.  Next i went to a specialty doctor that delt with vision and brain.  Ran test after test and i did good on every single one including peripheral vision, cat scan of my brain, and the test where they hook all the wires up to my head.  At this point I was very hopeless and i gave up.  So a few years, now, i feel that i would be my own doctor and figure this out myself.  Listed bellow are  the symptoms i have.

Symptoms:
-I feel like i am always starring of into space when i am actually looking at something
-Blurred vision
-eyes come unfocused and i have to force them to refocus
-worse when i first wake up

-dark(night) is extremely dark
-I cant follow/focus on something that moves quickly
-I cant focus on a specific dot such as the period at the end of this sentence.
-When i read i don't see individual letters i just see words
-My eyes get really irritated as if they are dry throughout the day(never did this before)

Any help or suggestions or anything would be great.  I have never heard of this happening before and would like to just know what is wrong with me even if it is not curable.
Thanks in advance!
Joe

[arachni42]

Cocaine causes blood vessels to constrict, sometimes suddenly and severely. This is true even in healthy people. Could ischemic damage to the nerves have caused these symptoms?

[JohnHaganMD]

Certainly along with heart attack, strokes, blockage of the main eye artery (central retinal artery occlusion) and of course sudden death

[qwertyuo]

Did you ever solve this problem? If so, how??

[JohnHaganMD]

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[JohnHaganMD]

If you ever become seriously interested in your health and saving your vision especially in your "good eye".  Begin seeing an ophthalmologist regularly and get in a detox program.

[JohnHaganMD]

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[Boskins]

hi brad,

i am having the same vision problems you experienced. how long did it take for your vision to return to normal? what brain function vitamins did you take?

any advice would be REALLY appreciated! this is scary!! I feel so stupid!

thanks again

[Boskins]

hi joe,

I have the exact same thing - did your vision ever recover?

Best regards,

[Z95]

Is there anyone who have this problem only in the one eye? My left eye is fine, but I totally can't see out of my right eye.

[bummer66]

Left eye here.

[iLy2010]

This is my story. Please do not judge. I'm 27, female and I have Glaucoma.  It's only in my right eye. I've Had it since I was born. Unfortunately, I will be completely blind one day. I've been on 5-7 different eye drops at the same time. I hated this certain one. Xalatan, we had to keep it in the fridge. It gave me migraines so bad, I'd be throwing up. Blurred vision, darkened up my beautiful blue eye's, but, it did give me longer eyelashes. Had multiple surgeries when my eye pressure would go up. The eye Dr. took me off of all my eye drops when I was 13. I Went to the eye Dr's once a month, more often when I was younger. I was about 3-4 years old when all this started, at least that's the earliest I can remember going. I had to see a specialist almost 3 hours away. When I was 21, I had 20/20 vision. Then I just Then stopped going. About 6 years ago, I did a whole bunch of Adderall, or Ritalin. Whatever you want to call it. I loved the way it made me feel. I had did it about two or three times and I started to get a pain in my right eye. I know what it feels like when my eye pressure goes up. It hurts behind my eye, all around my eye, and especially my eyebrow in the upper left corner of my right eye. And it was definitely my eye pressure going up. It felt like someone was taking an ice pick and Jabbing it into my eye. My blood pressure and eye pressure would fluctuate like crazy. I'd go to stand up, get lightheaded and almost pass out. The more I kept doing it, the more I'd notice a change in my vision, blurry, having to recenter my eyes all the time. And I saw a green circle that would not go away. It was right in the sight of everything. It was light green and I could see through it, but not by much. Anyway, so I did that for years. Still do sometimes. But, when I started cocaine, I was fine, my eye didn't hurt/no pressure, the first 10-12 times. But then, it really started to hurt. I get the same stuff from the same person every time. But, it obviously isn't as strong as when I do eight 30's of Adderall, Ritalin. I don't do it that often, maybe 1 weekend here and there. To be honest, I'm actually an addict. My drug of choice was Perc 30's, Oxycontin, Opana's. It started when I was 16. Never did Heroin. But I haven't touched that stuff in over 4 years. I'm on Suboxone now and Xanax for my anxiety. Anyway, so now after doing Adderall, Ritalin, cocaine, my eye pressure has gone up/down/up/down quite drastically. I went back to the eye Dr. about 3-4 years ago, he gave me an ultrasound on my eye, I know, weird, lol. But, it turned out that there was a tumor. A mass of something that needed to be further examined. I was supposed to go back the following week, but I was scared that it might be cancer. Anyway, about two months had gone by and that green circle I saw was gone. But, about a year later, my vision went downhill, fast. Then I saw a black rectangle in the place of the green circle. Then my whole vision went quirky. Everything in my right eye was "scrambled". When I closed my left eye, Instead of seeing someone's face, I'd see one half of their face on their head. Anyway, I heard that doing illegal drugs, prescription's, steroid's, antidepressants, antianxiety's, smoking cigarette's, taking ibuprofen pretty much anything could cause Glaucoma and/or mess it up. Yes, it is an oldler person's disease. Above age 50. But, you can get it. from drugs from illegal to prescription to over the counter. Or being born with it. I'm now 27 years old and when I close my left eye, it's very dark, I see a black odd shaped rectangle, I cannot see any words whatsoever, I get constant migraines, and, people do not look like people. I don't think, and I hope you don't have this, but hopefully, this will be helpful to you or anyone else for that matter.

[brad15]

Hi turbojoe,

Having similar problems, I thought I would mention a few things that have helped me get better.  I visited the vitamin store and started taking fish oil, B vitamins & this brain function vitamins.  It took a while for things to get better and every time I took them, I felt better each day. I also ate very healthy-- such as salmon patties.  I was worried it was going to take a lifetime to recover. Until one night I was reading articles online, my blurred vision subsided and stopped.  I haven't had re-occurring problems since then.

[turbojoe]

It's been 4 years since I made this post.  After all this time my vision is exactly the same as I describe it here.  I never recovered from this.  My vision changed overnight from doing cocaine.  I've learned to just live with it.

[ShushiCheff]

I have the same issue, about seven of those symptoms match mine, but it's only when I'm really geeked up. It's good to know I'm not the only one. I know a good bit about cocaine and i've never heard of blurry vision being  common symptom. the first time it happened (right now is the second time it's happened) I was terrified, because I'd never experienced something like that before. I was afraid it wouldn't go away, but it does. Give it time. I know yours has lasted a lot longer than my symptoms did (about two days, worse in the morning) but maybe it has something to do with body weight? Maybe it hasn't completely left your system. I'm very small,  I weigh 88 pounds (Not due to drug use, cocaine is also the only drug I use, and i use it occasionally. I stopped growing in grade 6 or 7) and supposedly it stays in my system longer than it does my boyfriend's, he's about 190 lbs. It takes a lot less for me since I'm so small.

Sorry to only talk about myself, i hope you can compare your situation to mine and maybe find out why this is lasting so long.

[brad15]

I have the same dilemma. And I have been trying to detox and work it out of my system at the gym. Still there is no results.  Is there a hind sight of how long it will last? Im thinking about purchasing a full cleanse detox to further the process .  I need help

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

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[turbojoe]

thanks so much for the response.. i will be looking into this..  I appreciate it.  More help and concern than any doctors i have been to.

Joe

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

A few comments:

1. It's not likely anything that is serious or that will lead to loss of sight.
2. The relationship to cocaine use is suspect especially if you're talking about mild use and only a few times.
3. You have had an excellent work-up. It's much better to have a problem that's minor but hard to diagnose than a horrible medical problem that's easy to diagnose.
4. You may have dry eyes. Use the search feature on this page to review the many posts on the two eye forums about diagnosis and treatment of dry eyes.
5. See an ophthalmologist. Have a Schirmer tear test and a tear break up time done. The ophthalmologist EYe MD physician will need to see you BEFORE any drops are put in your eyes.
6. Have a post cycloplegic refraction done by the Eye MD to see if you have latent hyperopia (farsightedness). It could account for for 7 of your 8 listed symptoms. If present reading glasses or glasses to correct the most of the latent hyperopia would probably help a lot.

JCH III MD