Lyme and Vision

Hi Neurogurl,
I am so sorry you are not feeling well!! I hope you find the answers you are looking for, unfortunately for most of us dealing with Lyme disease there is very few definite s. What you consider a definite diagnosis, I assume you mean a positive blood test. Do you realize the CDC considers Lyme disease a clinical diagnosis? As do most of the doctors that treat chronic Lyme disease. Many of us have a clinical DX, and show several titers on an ELISA, or Western Blot, but not enough to have a positive or "definite" blood test.

I vividly remember my tick exposure, I removed an engorged tick from my backside. I had the classic bull's eye rash and nearly all the Lyme symptoms on the list, although joint pain was minimal. I had the floaters, sparkling, & blurry vision. Along with many cognitive issues..headaches, vertigo, floating sensation, ect. After all this my Lyme test still came back negative. Before my exposure I never had a need to see a doctor. Now I just hope one day the testing for vector borne disease will become accurate enough to help the many undiagnosed, and untreated.

To better understand this disease and those suffering with it, may I suggest you see Under Our Skin. If you have a Netflix account you can rent it there. I wish you the best and hope you find good health soon.

My vision is one of my most frustrating issues. It is just one eye and the same side I have what the doctor thinks is trigeminal neuralgia - one side of my face by that eye burns like sunburn. The eye gets very red and irritated suddenly with stress or rage. I have managed to keep that at a minimum these days but its still very kinda blurry or hazy around the edges. It's as if it has a drop of water in it and I cannot blink it clear. Its not that bad, just annoying, especially using the computer or reading. I just worry cause I don't want it to get worse. i failed all the visual field tests but neuro-opth couldn't find anything wrong other than small blood vessels in that eye. I never had a problem with it until all the other lyme symptoms reared their ugly head. Drops do seem to soothe it.

One early visual issue I had, even as a child, was that I often would fail to see something that is right in front of me. This is especially noticeable if the object or my own body (or both) is in motion. So I sometimes will walk into things, almost have been run over by cars when crossing streets, etc., all because my brain somehow does not see the object. This issue is so intermittant and there are no warning signs - it happens out of the blue and then I can go for weeks and months before the next occurrance. My eyesight was 20/20 or better as a child when this was first observed, and usually I pass all the eye tests with no difficulty. None of the eye doctors I've ever been to have been able to find anything abnormal other than dry eye, and more recently, astigmatism. I also have been slowly becoming more and more nearsighted, and starting in 2002, I began to have an extreme sensitivity to bright light (especially sunlight). Is this all due to Lyme? I don't know. I know the failing to see objects (most likely a visual processing issue), dry eye, light sensitivity, and the astigmatism can be caused by Lyme, but not sure about the nearsightedness.

I have just recently been diagnosed and can relate to the vision issues. I have not had the problem of light sensitivity that many seem to experience but do have the black floaters. My vision has been deteriorating quite a bit over the last couple of years, but I am waiting until I have been on the antibiotics for a while to see if it is an age thing or actually the Lyme.

 

Hi Neurogurl,

I have depth perception issues--I was having serious issues driving for a while as a result.  Burbur from NutraMedix helped with that a bit.  I still have some issues with it, but it's better than it was.  I also am sensitive to light.  I have some floaters, and I tend to occassionally see things that aren't there and miss things that are there.  I don't see halos around lights as much as I did before.  I also don't see things as clearly as I used to.

Neurotoxins put pressure on the optic nerve, causing deficits in visual contrast.  This is true of all neurotoxin mediated illnesses.

Have they tested you for bartonella?  I only ask because you have mentioned (in the past) a lot of neurological symptoms.