How many of you wear spectacles? And how many of you find your tolerance of them reduced since having CFS/ME.
It never used to bother me but now I find no matter how light they are I can feel them on my nose and behind my ears and I am uncomfortable with them. I keep having them adjusted but it never really completely sorts it.
Also, when I went on to varifocals I took over 6 months to learn to tolerate them.
My optometrist says it is because the ME brain gets more confused and takes much longer to adjust. And the discomfort and fidgeting is because anything near the head is difficult to tolerate.
Just wondered if I was the only one who is weird like this? :roll:
I can understand your eyes not adjusting to varifocles, Alicia due to brain disturbance caused by ME
Just before I had the throat infection that led to my illness I had a procedure performed on my eyes .... not laser, but something called CK.
Only one eye is used and basically the collagen in the eye (which goes floppy as you get older) is shrunk which means that I ended up with 20/20 vision once again and could throw away my reading glasses.
It was great ..... I could read the smallest of print and my brain soon got used to one eye being longsighted and the other shortsighted ... not a problem ...... until ME struck. It was an absolute nightmare - I felt wonky, dizzy and nauseated for months ...... my brain function had been totally disrupted.
So if you have a history of ME - don't EVER have any form of eye procedure. The surgeon has now made sure that this is included in the already extensive medical questionnaire.
When I'm feeling okayish these days, my eyes are still fine, but the minute I become tired I have problems - the only thing that helps is dark glasses.
I don't like the feel of anything on my face either, Alicia ..... I know exactly what you mean
I have always had perfect vision but since having ME i have found that my near vision is poor. I went to optician and had vision tested, she said it was normal ageing process. :? My eyes could get worse over the years but could stay the same. I got a prescription if my eyes get worse in the next 2 years. I told her i had ME but she never said that was the problem. She probably didn't know much about it.
I have the problem of not tolerating brightness either. I wear sunglasses when it's cloudy, especially when driving. 8)
I don't like rimmed glasses as they annoy me, i like just the plastic frames that rest on your nose. I don't like those wee plastic bits that are attached to the frame, if you know what i mean :roll:
Yes, I am really sensitive to light as well Teedie ...... and noise and smell and touch :roll:
I must be the only person to wear sunglasses in the pouring rain :roll:
Not only is it it wet here today, but it's absolutely freezing and I'm sitting here with my fleece on and a hot wheat pack on my knees :brr: I'm aways cold these days ..... about time I had the odd hot flush or two :roll:
Those 'wee plastic bits' are the nose pads and make it possible to adjust the fit to a fraction of a millimetre. I find the plastic frames that rest on your nose are one standard fit and noses aren't standard so they don't sit in the right place for me. I have an odd shaped nose and this adds to the difficulties I have in getting spect to fit.
I don't see other spec wearers endlessly fiddling like I do though. I'm a bit OCD about it really. :roll:
What about those glasses on a stick thingy which you just hold to your eyes when you need to ..... like Evadne Bracket of Hinge and Bracket used to use ...... can't remember what they are called????
Yes it does Trees, because of the neurological disturbances.
Also my optometrist explained that the 'clingfilm effect' (where it looks as though you are looking at everything through clingfilm) is nothing to do with focussing but fluid retention within the cornea which she sees in clients with ME.
I think I have the only optometrist that properly understands ME. She sent me to the eye hospital to rule out inflammation of the optic nerve which is also caused by ME. She's good. But she can't cure the fidgets I get from wearing specs.
Katie, they are called lorgnettes and that was not a helpful suggestion :roll:
What you said about the 'clingfilm' effect was interesting though ... never heard that before.
I find that as I am beginning to get tired and overdoing it my eyes start to blur and feel heavy ..... close friends say they can tell how I am by my eyes :roll:
Here I go again...... I am not just jumping on the bandwagon honest !!
I only had to start wearing glasses a couple of years ago and now I can't read without them even though they annoy the hell out of me and my nose :roll:
I get that funny cling film vision nearly every morning and it can take ages to clear and I also get very cold eyes (I know that sounds daft), when I told my optician about this he just laughed :roll: :roll:
I have come to the conclusion that I am falling apart.
I know what you all mean about glasses and your sight. I use to always wear a hairband but can't bear it around my head and it especially drove me round the mend catching my glasses. :roll:
My sight varies at times, I got my eyes tested and ordered new glasses when I got them I could hardly see with them, was tested again and my sight was different.
I spent ages back and forth to the optician to complain about my varifocals. I was convinced that he had tested me wrong, they had been made wrong. I even went back to 2 separate pairs and that wasn't right either.
It took 9 months in all (the length of a full term pregnancy!) but I eventually started to tolerate the VFs and now I would not be without them although sometimes it is tricky, if I am tired or ill.
My optometrist explained that because VFs have 3 different focussing strengths in one lens, the ME brain gets very confused and cannot change from one to the other quickly enough so when you read, the brain still thinks it is looking at distance and vice versa.
Now my problem is just that I find it hard to tolerate the things on my face but I don't have much choice if I want to be able to see. :roll:
my eyes definitely get hazy when im very tired and, like you said, 'cling filmy'. :shock: there's so much i didn't know about this.
being on here and talking to a couple of other people who have had CFS, it is really odd when you realise how many common symptoms and related ailments there are - IBS, history of viral infections, restless leg... when i think about it im just a prime candidate for CFS. :roll:
i also feel like im just falling apart some days kristal :roll: have you had any luck with your doctor yet, or changed doctor? and how are you doing with the pacing? i think im doing it but want to get a good book to make sure im doing it right.
is it the anne macintyre that everyone would suggest?
It's okay Kristal .... you are not 'jumping on the bandwagon' .... it's a free for all on these threads
The more the merrier :D
LouLou it's interesting what you say about your sight differing .... I keep meaning to get mine checked again as they are overdue ..... but I'm sort of reluctant to go ...... 'cos if it turns out to be a bad day then I will end up giving a false reading :?
Talking about things on faces ... I recently went to the dentist and hygienist and felt really unwell afterwards having had my face touched for so long ....
They are both really gentle but it was really unpleasant
I had a horrendous time at the dentist when i was first diagnosed (sorry for going off the vision problems). :cry:
I had an awful sensitive tooth and and went through horrendous root canal treatment. I had an enormous amount of local anaesthetic and it was still sensitive during treatment. Eventually after the fourth attempt my tooth cracked and it had to be removed. It was very traumatic. :twisted: I felt so ill afterwards. :cry:
I now have similar pain on the next tooth. :cry:
I was reading up on a website (can't remember which one) about the connection with fibromyalgia and tooth pain and i wonder if the pain wasn't due to dental pain. I have a young dentist so may ask him about it next time. :?
LOL well I went to work this m orning with a full set of teeth. Came home with half a tooth missing and now lost another quarter.
I too had root canal treatment on this tooth about 2 years ago and today it cracked in half. Now just need to lose the other quarter and I will have had a tooth out for free :shock: Wonder if I can get a refund lol
I have to wait now for the doctor to ring or write with an appointment.
Having said that my physiotherapist today said if I ring him when I get the appointment and go to see him he will write to the doctor suggesting they just remove the fragments of bone to see if that helps with the pain as he says the replacement of the radial head is quite an intrusive operation. He says I need to get a very clear picture as to why he wants to do the replacement and will that guarantee I will be pain free after recovery.
Why oh why did I fall down the stairs :cry: :cry: :cry:
He wants me to seriously consider if I can cope with the pain or not before agreeing to go ahead with the operation.
Now I'm thinking do I really want an operation to clear the fragments of bone and then risk the need for more surgery later to have the replacement or do I say okay go ahead do the replacement and have done with it! Decisions, decisions. :roll: :roll: :roll: