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Brain issues, lol
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
for brief summary for those who cba to read, go straight to bottom
Lets start from the beginning:
Around 3 years ago I started losing vision in my left eye sometimes, normally it would be when I was 'worked up', i.e. it happened twice after orgasms
. I didn't understand it, so after ignoring it for about 18 months I went to see a doctor, and he said it's an eye problem so see the optician. Went to see the optician who said they can't tell so referred me to the opthamologist at Leicester Royal Infirmary. Over last summer I had my appointment delayed twice until eventually it was in December when I was still at uni so I missed it.
In January / Febuary I asked the University doctor to re-refer me to the hospital in York, he asked why I explained, he said it sounds like a migraine, and said if I really want I can take it further i.e. with a neurologist or a headache specialist (although, it was quite peculiar, there is no pain at all associated and it is only in one eye), but he was saying pretty much it's fairly standard and checking it over would be a bit of a waste of time. That's fair enough.
Fast forward to now, I still lose my vision in my left eye on occasion, roughly about once a month for 5 minutes so by no means dramatic, but today I got the same 'dizzy, floaty' feeling I would describe that comes immediately before the vision loss, except I started fainting. I guess anyone who has fainted knows what this feels like. Fortunately though something in my brain switched when I stood up / panicked (I didn't wanna pass out and die
lol) and it started going away.
So what do I do now? My theory would be there is some blood vessel on my optic nerve that when I get stressed and/or high blood pressure it expands and puts pressure on the left eye. But what happened today where I was starting to lose conciousness and my eyes started rolling into the back of my head I don't understand. It also happened whilst I was staring at the computer screen so some part of me is scared it could be something else (the natural guess would be some form of epilepsy, I guess).
I've already been to the doctors, already been diagnosed as having migraines although 'unusual' ones because I only exhibit one symptom in one specific way without any others... casting some doubt (i.e. my blood pressure theory
) on his judgement. Thing is, starting to lose my confidence in doctors, because my one back home referred me to an optician when it seems it's something to do with the optic nerve / brain side of things, and the university one has attributed it to migraines which would cause the symptoms but I have no other symptoms (I guess like diagnosing someone with food poisoning because they have abdominal pains but no other symptoms... rare case? or a lazy diagnosis?)
To be fair he did offer to let me escalate it but when I asked him he said it would probably be a waste of time, that they were just going to say the same thing.
Do I try with a third doctor or just hope it doesn't get worse?
Of course, using the internets I can happily diagnose myself with a brain tumor too, but obviously that's jumping to the extreme
. Occam's razor and all. I just want to know what's wrong so I don't have to worry about finding out I actually have brain cancer, but I've already been told I have migraines... but I'm just not convinced and now I'm nearly passing out? Mum said on the phone it's probably anaemia, lol
tl;dr - basically I lose vision, and from same thing nearly passed out today, been told by doctor in past when it was just vision loss it's probably migraines but I don't know for sure, but already seen two doctors who said two different things, wondering if seeing more is a waste of time
Lets start from the beginning:
Around 3 years ago I started losing vision in my left eye sometimes, normally it would be when I was 'worked up', i.e. it happened twice after orgasms
. I didn't understand it, so after ignoring it for about 18 months I went to see a doctor, and he said it's an eye problem so see the optician. Went to see the optician who said they can't tell so referred me to the opthamologist at Leicester Royal Infirmary. Over last summer I had my appointment delayed twice until eventually it was in December when I was still at uni so I missed it.In January / Febuary I asked the University doctor to re-refer me to the hospital in York, he asked why I explained, he said it sounds like a migraine, and said if I really want I can take it further i.e. with a neurologist or a headache specialist (although, it was quite peculiar, there is no pain at all associated and it is only in one eye), but he was saying pretty much it's fairly standard and checking it over would be a bit of a waste of time. That's fair enough.
Fast forward to now, I still lose my vision in my left eye on occasion, roughly about once a month for 5 minutes so by no means dramatic, but today I got the same 'dizzy, floaty' feeling I would describe that comes immediately before the vision loss, except I started fainting. I guess anyone who has fainted knows what this feels like. Fortunately though something in my brain switched when I stood up / panicked (I didn't wanna pass out and die
lol) and it started going away.So what do I do now? My theory would be there is some blood vessel on my optic nerve that when I get stressed and/or high blood pressure it expands and puts pressure on the left eye. But what happened today where I was starting to lose conciousness and my eyes started rolling into the back of my head I don't understand. It also happened whilst I was staring at the computer screen so some part of me is scared it could be something else (the natural guess would be some form of epilepsy, I guess).
I've already been to the doctors, already been diagnosed as having migraines although 'unusual' ones because I only exhibit one symptom in one specific way without any others... casting some doubt (i.e. my blood pressure theory
) on his judgement. Thing is, starting to lose my confidence in doctors, because my one back home referred me to an optician when it seems it's something to do with the optic nerve / brain side of things, and the university one has attributed it to migraines which would cause the symptoms but I have no other symptoms (I guess like diagnosing someone with food poisoning because they have abdominal pains but no other symptoms... rare case? or a lazy diagnosis?)To be fair he did offer to let me escalate it but when I asked him he said it would probably be a waste of time, that they were just going to say the same thing.
Do I try with a third doctor or just hope it doesn't get worse?
Of course, using the internets I can happily diagnose myself with a brain tumor too, but obviously that's jumping to the extreme
. Occam's razor and all. I just want to know what's wrong so I don't have to worry about finding out I actually have brain cancer, but I've already been told I have migraines... but I'm just not convinced and now I'm nearly passing out? Mum said on the phone it's probably anaemia, loltl;dr - basically I lose vision, and from same thing nearly passed out today, been told by doctor in past when it was just vision loss it's probably migraines but I don't know for sure, but already seen two doctors who said two different things, wondering if seeing more is a waste of time
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Comments
and, as one of the doctors did suggest its possible to take it further, you may as well do that.
Yea but thing is, it's so confusing. I was referred to the ophthalmologist (who does eye scans), but the second doctor said he would refer me either to a neurologist (i.e. for a brain scan) or a headache specialist, but said it was 'up to me', and when I asked what he would recommend as my doctor he said honestly, it's probably not worth the bother unless it gets serious. I didn't actually faint, just was about to, happened pretty suddenly was going along fine then I start to go 'fuzzy' (feeling like 'pins and needles' when you've sat on your hand, but all over) and then eyes started to roll back and I panicked and jumped up from my chair and then it went away pretty quickly too (i.e. was from start to finish in 30 seconds)
I may do this and explain I don't want to be fobbed off as I've been told several things and really from what I can see is that GPs use the Occam's razor rule too - see your symptom, then what is the simplest (or most common) illness it might be.
Thanks both for your advice. The thing that I'm sure many of you can empathise gets me, is that they don't seem to offer you a conclusive 'this is what it is', they say 'might be this... check this' or 'seems like this... probably nothing to worry about'. Whilst I know they don't have a crystal ball, two different doctors came up with two different ideas about what it could be...
You only have 1 pair of eyes
Don't someone fob you off until you have a confirmed diagnosis/explanation for whats going on.
I felt myself losing consciousness very rapidly though, hard to describe.
I will see the doctor again although I am a bit sceptical about what they might actually say since I've had two different diagnoses so far neither being very conclusive.
We'll see! Thanks for all the advice guys xxx
I had a vision problem once - went through the usual GP route and was finally seen 4 months later by a specialist when there was nothing to see.
Happened a few years later and went to the GP and he said go right to the local emergency ward where they have the equipment to check you out right away.
Turned out to be an allergic reaction which turned my eyes really painfully red.
It normally lasts about 5 or 10 minutes and the second doctor determined it's nothing to do with my eye, it's to do with the optic nerve. There's a few reasons, the most likely is blood vessels filling up and putting pressure on it (i.e. same cause of migraine). From my own research there are a few less likely causes but it's annoying not to have a definitive answer and not to know what to do. My vision went again last night so it seems in the past few weeks the frequency has increased from once a month to once a week, which would probably coincide with exams and a new job. Stress = high blood pressure = more migraines!
Of course, that doesn't explain why I don't feel any pain whatsoever
Of course, and he did say that if my symptoms changed or accelerated to go back. But in retrospect, he should have said what I could do about migraines rather than just telling me what it was
But I am not exceptionally photosensitive or any other symptom when I have an 'episode' if you like to call it that. It's one detached symptom on it's own that more than anything is just a source of anxiety in case it's something else. It would be like vomiting I guess for no apparent reason lol. (except less disturbing, it doesn't hurt, just feels weird not to be able to see!)