Eye Tics? Any solutions?

Today was a bit of a rough day. It seemed everything was kicking in. We're getting lousy weather here and it seems sometimes I think I'm weather affective, is there any truth to that- any connection to atmospheric changes to our bodies reacting?

I don't know but it seems like my migraines step up when the weather does too... so today was just like that... I pushed thru a migraine most all day, nursed it with advil to keep the edge off til I could get home tonight to the Maxalt now... in the meantime, my right eye started it's uncontrollable tic'ing - like it's bouncing or some weird thing!  And then the numb tinglies thru the feet and hands, (I get up and walk alot around my office when that happens to try to ease the stiffness and prickly tingles). 

Any suggestions for the tics though? I look in the mirror and can't see it happening but I can feel it just as clear as can be.

Wow, it's good to know it's got a name and it really happens as part of this stuff... will talk it over with the neuro... not too sure about doing Valium or Klonopin for it. It would have to be alot worst, right now it only annoys me. My vision has always been horrible since I was 9 yrs old, been legally blind but correctable with glasses (-650) and then I was finally able to do contacts in the 80's thru the 90's until about 5 yrs ago when more of the other symptoms set in, I never connected the dots but my eyes wouldn't tolerate the contacts anymore. My vision quit being clear, kept getting too irritable and dry, kept blurring out... eye dr said it was being over 40 yrs old, ya know... thne bifocals so I gave up the contacts completely. Now even with glasses, my vision regularly blurs alot, dries out constantly, the twitchy tics, irritability, and most recently ON in the right eye, unequal pupils etc.

I've just finally been dx'd so this is all new to begin figuring out what's going on and realizing how many dots really interconnect here. So thank you for the info, will definitely discuss with him and check out the site info! Thanks!

Thanks Debi, (btw my name is Debbi, initials daw thus 'nickname' d'awesome) thanks for the welcome too.

My big adjustment is to the notion of drug regimens. I've managed alot of my stuff up to this point very minimally (though not without it's lousy days and lots of pain) because of family hx of addictions and my job hx in addiction counseling. So I'm taking all the advice I can get so I can weigh alot of options and make good decisions. That's one of the things I'm liking most about this board is the practical advice from folks experiencing it. The neuro has already experienced trying different levels of drugs with me (more than 50 mg of Topomax doesn't make me better and only throws me into a weepy depression) and Imitrex makes me sick even though it kills the migraine fast. So I like all the experience advice... it helps me know what might or might not work for me.

Thanks again!

Hi Deb   Weather does seem to affect the pain alot... I live in Florida on the Gulf Coast. It's most hot. We get  a little cold. I'm from Wisconsin though and I know the really cold too... but living in Florida its year round constant heat/humidity/atmospheric changes and I've discovered I seem to be weather affective.

Yes, I ache alot. The pain varies in lots of different way depending on what... it can be anything from stabbling knife like pains randomly thru my right eye, or up the back of my head to leg spasms that feel like massive charlie horses. My feet often hurt unmercifully but that is also a combination of Osteoarthritis particularly in the feet and knees... I've managed to alleviate a lot of the knee pain with Glucasomine Chonrdroitin w/MSM daily supps.  Pain can also be a sense of all over malaise, swelling, or extreme weightiness making me feel like I can't lift my arms or move another step. For so long it's been called Fibromyalgia by the drs so I just nursed it with daily Advil and nightly Flexeril + Tylenol 3 when it was too much to deal with.

But the worst part is trying to explain it to anyone else, friends and family and they'll immediately say, "Oh I get that too, it's just getting older, ya know?!"   I just smile and think, how I wish I could blame just that. 

I'm active person, only about 30lbs overweight but I carry it well. I'm very limber so it makes me look "not ill"... I am stronger than most from a history of work as an Auto Parts Mgr (you build a lot of arm strength over the years picking up parts that weigh 10-25# averages) and a former Boy Scout Scoutmaster (15 yrs). I used to hike, camp, backpack, canoe, horsebackriding etc... without weakness and debilitating wear me out fatigue. Then I had a car accident in '92 that left me with minor nerve damage and it's been a downward spiral ever since. Now I frustrate myself as much as my husband in my "weaknesses", my stumbling, staggering, misjudgments, painfulness, and numb achy feeling all the time. Not to mention alot of other areas of my life and body that have faied me miserably.

So I'm here learning and lapping up everything I can to adjust... and reading books like crazy to figure out the best gameplan.

 

Hey Deb :) Glucosamine Chondroitin with MSM is a natural health supplement available everywhere under private labels or known as Flexamin, Osteo BiFlex, etc in the name brands. I watch for it on sale every week at either Walgreens or CVS and get it buy one get one free. It's important to get the max strength (you take less pills that way) and make sure it's including all 3 ingredients... some will have one or the other or no MSM. The MSM is for muscle pain. It helps a little, hasn't eased alot of it, or maybe I'm just tolerant now, don't know but it def took care of the joint pains. I had it recommended by my ortho doc when I was practically crippled by my osteo arthritis of the knees and wearing double braces to walk... couldn't dream of stairs... he said we could schedule knee replacement or I could take the GCw/MSM... I laughed at him at first, said does it really work? He smiled and said he makes lot more money off the surgeries, but recommends the GCw/MSM cos it DOES work and it's kinder to his patients! :) Wow! I said, ok, ok... I'll try it... dang if it didn't do the trick... it took 6 months to show the full effects but the pain was gone, and a year later I could do stairs... now 3 yrs later I can't tell I had bad knees (except for the occasional bad twist). NO Knee surgery for me! My son (also 30) has osteo arthritis (hereditary for us) in knees and feet and he's now taking it too.

In the meantime, I'm gonna ask about the Vit D for sure, could help. I haven't been sunbathing much for a long time, used to alot... not much time anymore. Will get tested. It's good to have great neuro, I know I love mine... he's been very thorough with me, but the best part is his dx's are dead on, he's just not always happy with them when they are. :)

Hey Deb, glad to help... I played Basketball in High School (Girls team and pickup teams with the boys and severely abused my knees too) so the pain is a rebound thing like the egg and chicken, which came first, but then it doesn't really matter. GC w/MSM help rebuild and cushion cartilage in the joints... so it can only help.

Here's a link to some info about the products: http://www.webmd.com/osteoarthritis/guide/arthritis-supplements and here's the Flexamin site, showing the product, I use the Triple Strength.  http://http://www.flexamin.com/pages/productinfo.asp

Like I said there's lots of brands including private label and if he has trouble swallowing there's even liquid available. Glad to help.

Thanks Deb, I research a lot too before I add stuff to my system. It's always worked best for me. I was my mother's caregiver for the last year of her life and did full scale research of her meds and realized some conflicted with others, which her doctors (3 separate ones) agreed with later. I learned a lot of medical stuff during that time... still nothing prepared me for this.

I haven't worn the contacts for about 5 yrs now, but the tics didn't start showing up until a couple yrs ago. And now I can't tolerate contacts at all without being plagued by dry eyes, tears and itchyness beyond tolerance. I hope the contacts work well for your son.

 

Prayer is a nonstop conversation  between me and God... :) Good thing I know He knows what's ahead.

My mom always had a little saying she liked (she'd heard it somewhere and it stuck to her dying day, literally)... Want to know how to make God laugh? Go ahead and make plans! I always laughed when she'd say that and I smiled thru the tears that morning in the hospital before I had to inform her it was to soon be her last because she was busy talking new plans for when she got out... so I've learned to trust Him. Maybe that's why He let it take so long for me to learn the truth of the dx... most likely so I would have learned how to truly trust Him by now.  Curious how that works!

I hear ya, Deb and I believe, no doubt but most of all I accept. The weird part of all this "journey" is that I knew from the first moment the first numb spot showed up but I just didn't have enough evidence to take to the drs to prompt further study. My body and I have always been very iattuned and in turn the Lord has always granted me great insight into it and what's best. Only when I've gone against my "instincts" have I done harm or failed to get better. So to me now that the initial confirmation shock is wearing off, I accept. I cannot profess trust in Him, belief in His providence or full faith if I don't totally practice it.

Reminds me of the scene in the first Indiana Jones movie when he has to go out the bridge of faith across the canyon ... the bridge looks exactly like the canyon creating an optical illusion of disappearance, yet step by step in faith he puts one foot in front of the other and successfully crosses!  So it is with me with the Lord... and what an adventure it is along the way!

 ey Deb, same here... 52.  Been having symptoms like I said for a long time, about 12-15 yrs minor little miscellaneous stuff... noticed the first numb spot in '97, dr didn't take it seriously... so I'm very suspicious that I've gone thru the R & R stage and may be moving into the secondary progressive stage as the symptoms have stepped up lately... but we shall see.

Today has been particularly bad again.. but I have a connection now after three different days of eye tics, I have connected realizing a migraine has either followed or been present so it's like the chicken and the egg... I don't know who heralds who... if the tics precede the migraine or vice versa. But today the migraine wasn't touched much by the Maxalt and tonight I'm gonna crawl into bed with pain meds again... I've got MRI's tomorrow... maybe it's a good thing if it's all flared up when those get done... hard to know.

Anyhow, have a wonderful night Deb, I look forward to my visits here and learning as I go...

Thanks Deb, the MRI's went well... did the first three without contrast then the three again with contrast... only gave her a little bit of trouble when I got some spasms that kept me moving a bit til I tensed enough to keep from moving but then that made me spastic and painful... still overall better than expected... achy all over from having to be so still... you'd never think that would ya?

The tic just bugs me, it doesn't mess with my vision. It's something I can feel but noone can see, and just that eye gets blurry... I have to blink alot more or use Visine to help it tear up to clear up. So far that's how it works with me.

The tics have been gone today and the headache too... :) Hoping he got the views he needs to find what he's looking for and there's no surprises. 

Hey Deb, week's going ok... did the repeat MRI, the tech said the radiologist ordered the additional MRI of the lumbar plus and overlap of the thoracic...that he's very thorough... I suspect that's where my lesions must be by the way my legs are so incredibly weak and trembly and stiff... but then I fear I'll hear the dreaded "we couldn't find any lesions but you've got all the other symptoms!" 

The vision is blurring more but I don't want to get checked til I know more and then deal with maybe an opthamalogist directly instead of my usual optometrist...

it's all a waiting game. I expect the next move will be the spinal tap. I keep thinking as long as I'm moving and coping all's good right? :)

How's your week and your son?