Good morning to everyone on here & thankyou for this great place to come to for advice and support. I am sorry this is a long post & apologies in advance. I would just like to ask if there is anyone out there who has similar problems so that I can make sense of what is happening to me. About two & a half weeks ago my eyes became more blurry with floaters & achy eyes then I had a strange episode where I had a black shape down one side of my eye for a few seconds & like I was going to faint. I didn't & went home but felt unwell & unbalanced for a few days oh & so exhausted I couldn't hardly talk. My balance improved slowly ( I had menieres 10 years ago & have never had anything for a long time.) went to the docs he sent me to the stroke clinic for all the tests & I was fine. My eye blurriness persisted so went for my eyes tested all they found was increased pressure in my eyes & I have to go back next week for a recheck. In the meantime my eyes ache have loads of floaters & yesterday the sun was too bright for my eyes. Has anyone ever had this? Apologies again for such a long post I just can't make head nor tail of it.
Castlepoint
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Castlepoint
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Hi. Whilst I don't have pressure in my eyes, I have had the same as you describe. Before diagnosis I woke to find myself blind in one eye but as I stood up I had black dots floating in front of my eye and my vision returned.
I was very weak for 48 hours. I saw the doctor who also thought of a mini stroke. I went for an eye test and my eyes were fine and the option could not explain it.
To me it seemed like I had awoken and I had slept with a pillow crushing the eye and it was a nerve type thing. I was told that couldn't happen.
I had another handful of episodes before and after initial diagnosis, but nothing since. I have been left with floaters and a fear of falling asleep though.
It may not be the same, but this is the closest I have come to anyone else having similar.
I suffer with something similar, nearly always at night though either when I'm drifting off or if i wake up. My vision in one eye just goes completely black and takes a good five minutes to come back.
I've had lots of tests done at bristol eye hospital, so far, they are all normal and they can't explain what it is. I've got a follow up in a few weeks time with the electrophysiology dept where I think they hook wires up to me and measure the reflexes when they how uou images.
I've told the optometrist about hashimotos and also that the problem was worse when I had incredibly high blood pressure but they don't think its related. I'm less convinced since it happens much less frequently now my BP has fallen (it does still happen).
If anything interesting comes out of my follow up I'll be sure to let you know.
I had the tests done two weeks ago but I haven't had the results yet... As soon as I do I will let you know if they found anything!
All the docs seem to think its unusual that its happening less now I have a normal BP, esp since googling high BP and vision you get lots of interesting articles!
No complete blocked vision, but have lots of floaters which started around the same time as Hashimotos. Plus blurred vision and gritty eyes, some days I need glasses all day and some days hardly at all. From all advice I've had it seems expected - "normal for me" is a phrase I'm getting familiar with. Recently have felt like I am bruised behind my eyes, which is new.
Broadly similar - though my intra-ocular pressure was not raised. Nevertheless, I often felt as if there was pressure in and/or around my eyes.
Basically, getting onto what seems the right dose of levothyroxine sorted it all out for me. I was lucky.
My floaters have largely resolved. It is not clear to me whether the floaters issue is actually due to an increase in floaters (and reduction when properly treated), or a reduced ability of the brain to cope with them and process around having them. Certainly brain processing of vision deteriorates in hypothyroidism.
Please go to your nearest eye hospital - not just your High Street optician - and get the experts there to thoroughly check the back of your eyes. I had sudden floaters and ended up with a black blob descending rapidly: full retinal detachment. If the detachment passes the macula, the central area of vision, you are looking at several operations so speed is of the essence. Floaters can be a sign of small rips in the retina.
Had fewer floaters in the other "good" (ha!) eye recently, hopped it to Moorfields in London, and they laser-repaired the retinal tears that day.
In this part of England, the local opticians can directly refer you to the opthalmology consultants. Whereas if you go to a GP,they will tell you to see a Hugh Street optician first... So it takes longer.
But absolutely agree that presenting yourself at the nearest eye hospital which will accept you is a good step. Make sure you have the rest of the day spare and don't need to drive home!
Hi in rare cases it's possible to develope thyroid eye disease with Hashimoto's, normally this is common in Graves' disease, I suffered 15 months of hell with my eyes they were chronic. With no help from any doctor I recovered naturally purely by eating only raw organic food. Why don't you try a raw vegan diet, I'm never hungry any more or have any cravings, it's changed my life.
I'm having the same problems mentioned here: the blurred vision in one eye that feels like there's a film coating my eye and my vision has switched from near sighted (all of my life) to semi-far-sighted. I'm interested in hearing about your diet. Can you please tell me if there's a particular diet you follow, or did you just completely cut out everything that isn't vegan? My one concern about going vegan is that I have hypoglycemia and if I don't get a serving of heavy meat protein with every meal, I start to get hypoglycemic symptoms. I don't eat cow or pig, but I still eat chicken and fish. I was diagnosed with Hashi's last year but I haven't gotten on the meds yet - I'd like to try some natural remedies first.
Up to you Castlepoint but I can only related what I have learned from personal experience. Your floaters may be less extreme but if vitreous fluid is leaking from the back of the eye, you could have retinal tears or one your way to a detachment. My retina detached within a 20-hour period, breaching the macula and setting me up for 5 ops in all. If the floaters are numerous - like a swarm of black insects - only with specialised equipment can the retina, like wallpaper slipping at the back of the eye, be seen.
I ended up wasting precious time thanks to some bad telephone advice I got from an eye hospital nurse. She told me to wait out the night and present myself at the hospital in the morning. By then, macula crossed, I was guaranteed a measure o sight loss and put on the "Mac (macula) Off" list at Moorfield. The surgeons explained that Mac Off patients go the back of the queue as new patients whose sight could be saved fully got the first ops. And new patients were coming in at the rate of three an hour. Humbling.
I have written articles about this experience and cannot stress enough that, depending on the severity of your floaters, I would not bother with a generalist doctor. It may only be minor in your case but, having gone through it, I would err on the side of speed and go to the nearest eye hospital. They have all the specialist equipment to make a speedy assessment.
When I was about 35, I suddenly found myself with a large black spot on the periphery of my vision. I had some floaters by they didn't bother me. I could only see them if I looked at the ceiling, or some other pale surface. But the black spot was making driving difficult.
Went to the doctor... that is a whole story in itself, but I won't bore you with it now... upshot was, he gave me a prescription for iodine. Must have been Lugol's or something because I had to drink a glass of it every evening after dinner (don't remember the détails because that was 34 years ago!)
At the time, I hadn't been diagnosed with Hashi's but I know now that I must have been hypo since I was a small child. I knew nothing about thyroid then, and I couldn't work out why he'd given me the iodine... No internet then! But I took it, anyway.
The black spot gradually disappeared, but the floaters stayed. However, all the horrible symptoms I'd suffered with all my life - weight-gain; painful, long periods; hair-loss; etc - all got worse. It was the beginning of the end for me. However, I couldn't get any sense out of any of the doctors I saw, of course, and I wasn't diagnosed until twenty years later.
So, I guess he knew that it might have had something to do with thyroid problems and thought the solution to all thyroid problems was a good dose of iodine!!! But the reason I still hate him with all my being - and still dream of strangling him! - is that he didn't do any tests, didn't examine me in any way - accutally, I don't think he even looked at me! - and didn't ask any questions about any other possible symptoms... But I digress! lol
Anyway, even now, I still have the floaters, even though I'm optimally treated (for the time being, anyway!) but the black spot never came back, and I guess I shall never know what it was.
Hugs, Grey
PS My eye-sight has gradually diminished over the years but nothing drastic, just need reading glasses. However, loss of eye-sight is listed as a hypo symptom on most lists.
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