visual disturbances

[sylvia11]

For 3 months I have been suffering from strange visual disturbances. I am 26 yrs old and otherwise ok. My eye problems started with an increased amount of floaters and I was told I had PVD. From then on, I started experiencing strong afterimages, after everything I barely looked at (positive and negative). Then I started seeing light phenomena and visual snow/static, worse at night and in the morning. I also see light rays projected from cars, lamps etc. when I blink. When I try to sleep and close my eyes, I start seeing starnge, not formed hallucinations (like looking at a lava lamp) and often when I wake up I see a big black circle which disappears with a few blinks of the eye. Light seems to be a big factor, the afterimages are strongest in the morning when I wake up and visual static is strongest in the dark. I also notice that my visual fields are pulsing with my heart beat. I have had MRI and eye exams by ophtalmologist and neuro-oftalmologists including ERG and VEP and nothing has been found. I have no head-aches and have never used any illegal/recreational drugs. What could be the cause of my problems? Am I going blind? I suffer from nearsightedness, my glasses are about -4. This is awful, I cannot drive or watch tv anymore. My doctors tell me to see a shrink, but I am not anxious, stressed or depressed, any more than anybody would be given the circumstances.

[patsy10]

I've had lyme testing(negative).  The testing is very unreliable though.

I have lots of other symptoms.  Numbness, tingling, abnormal reflexes, muscle twitching, rashes, cold, blue feet, sking burning, pain all over.  The list is endless.  I'm going to check out the site you suggested.

Patti

[patsy10]

Mine began in the early 90's after a strange rash(bullseye) and neurological, unexplained illness.  Nothing showed up on spinal tap or MRI.  It's  a long story.  The floaters never went away and have recently gotten much worse, along with worse neuro symptoms.  I have other symptoms too like numbness, tingling twitching.. I  have been unable to get an answer yet.  I have recently had 2 brain MRI's (normal) opthamology exam (normal).  I had thoracic and lumbar MRI's this week but don't know results yet.

Lyme is something to look into when someone has weird, unexplained symptoms and no one can find an answer.  It can cause central nervous system problems like issues with the eyes.

It's hard to test for because the results can be negative even if you have it.

I'm no doctor and not saying you have it but it's something to look into.

I am looking into it myself as I had the rash a long time ago.

Do a google search on it.

Good luck

[sylvia11]

No I have not. I guess that would be a possibility.Have you looked into it? How long have u had your problems and are they progressing?

[patsy10]

I have most of these eye disturbances too.  I have so many floaters it's like looking through a screen.  They haven't found anything wrong with me either.  Opthamology exam normal, brain MRI normal etc....

Have you looked into lyme?