The White Lily (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thewhitelily) wrote2008-12-08 08:50 am
thewhitelily) wrote2008-12-08 08:50 am
Entry tags:
The eyes have it
So, the optometrist thinks she might have found the cause of the migraines, which have recently worsened to constant pain and spikes every second day.
I’ve been having trouble focussing and weird patches in my vision in addition to the classic aura symptoms, along with tired and sore eyes. I’d developed a habit of habitually cranking the font in my browser up to about 30 point. In about fifty percent of the cases, the migraine pain seems to be centred behind the eyes. It felt related.
So, despite having had my eyes checked out again six months ago when I had the last string of migraines and finding nothing in particular wrong, I decided to go again. This time, I managed to do it while the weirdnesses I was experiencing were in progress.
Bingo.
Apparently the ciliary muscle (which controls the lens) in my right eye was in spasm. Enough to cause three steps of difference to my prescription in that eye. The resulting difference in clarity also meant that my eyes weren’t working together properly to resolve what they see into one consistent binocular image.
Any one of these three problems can cause severe eyestrain and headaches, even alone.
Ciliary muscle spasm is caused by spending too much time doing close work, since the muscle tenses to focus close and relaxes to look far away. The cure is to, at least for the next while, cut out close work, reading, and computer work, as much as possible, and do various eye exercises to get my eyes working together again.
Since the eight hours a day I spend at a computer screen at work are kind of non-negotiable if I want to pay my mortgage (although I’ll be taking regular short breaks to look at far away things), the cuts are going to have to come from leisure activities, which means no writing, no reading of fanfiction, and probably not much leisure reading at all. Which is a complete fishing nuisance, just generally, and also means I’m going to have to go online!dead for the next while. (As opposed to, you know, just disappearing without the advance intention of such, as I have been doing to date.)
If staying away from leisure reading doesn’t work to relax the spasm, I may have to get a second pair of glasses. Even if it does relax the spasm, I may get a second pair of glasses, to help prevent it happening again, since my googling suggests that’ll help to keep my eyes in a more relaxed position more of the time.
In the meantime, I’ll be tracking down some audio books, some outdoor pursuits (waaaah!), and basic audio courses for German and French, so that I won’t be completely at sea while backpacking next year. I’m also hoping the digital voice recorder/mp3 player I got for my birthday will provide me with some creative outlet, or else the bunnies are likely to drive me insaaaaaane trying to beat their way out of my brain.
I’ve also gone onto a daily migraine preventative drug (Sandomigrin), which seems to be doing the trick, but has a main side effect of making me drowsy. So drowsy that I seem to be losing about three hours out of my day and getting twelve hours sleep every night and still feeling tired. And give me a glass of wine and I go TIMBER! I’m currently trialling the idea that I don’t actually need any more sleep, I just feel more drowsy, and so I’m staying up past the time my body tells me it’s way past bedtime—not sure how that’s working out yet. But hopefully when my eyes have sorted out I can come off this stuff and still be pain free. And hopefully, if my eye muscles have an extra three hours every day to relax, they’ll sort themselves out a bit quicker.
So, kiddies, take heed of the cautionary tale of Lily. Enjoy your computer time in moderation and as part of a healthy and balanced lifestyle, and maybe you won’t end up banned from the internet and with two pairs of glasses at the age of twenty-six. :/
I’ve been having trouble focussing and weird patches in my vision in addition to the classic aura symptoms, along with tired and sore eyes. I’d developed a habit of habitually cranking the font in my browser up to about 30 point. In about fifty percent of the cases, the migraine pain seems to be centred behind the eyes. It felt related.
So, despite having had my eyes checked out again six months ago when I had the last string of migraines and finding nothing in particular wrong, I decided to go again. This time, I managed to do it while the weirdnesses I was experiencing were in progress.
Bingo.
Apparently the ciliary muscle (which controls the lens) in my right eye was in spasm. Enough to cause three steps of difference to my prescription in that eye. The resulting difference in clarity also meant that my eyes weren’t working together properly to resolve what they see into one consistent binocular image.
Any one of these three problems can cause severe eyestrain and headaches, even alone.
Ciliary muscle spasm is caused by spending too much time doing close work, since the muscle tenses to focus close and relaxes to look far away. The cure is to, at least for the next while, cut out close work, reading, and computer work, as much as possible, and do various eye exercises to get my eyes working together again.
Since the eight hours a day I spend at a computer screen at work are kind of non-negotiable if I want to pay my mortgage (although I’ll be taking regular short breaks to look at far away things), the cuts are going to have to come from leisure activities, which means no writing, no reading of fanfiction, and probably not much leisure reading at all. Which is a complete fishing nuisance, just generally, and also means I’m going to have to go online!dead for the next while. (As opposed to, you know, just disappearing without the advance intention of such, as I have been doing to date.)
If staying away from leisure reading doesn’t work to relax the spasm, I may have to get a second pair of glasses. Even if it does relax the spasm, I may get a second pair of glasses, to help prevent it happening again, since my googling suggests that’ll help to keep my eyes in a more relaxed position more of the time.
In the meantime, I’ll be tracking down some audio books, some outdoor pursuits (waaaah!), and basic audio courses for German and French, so that I won’t be completely at sea while backpacking next year. I’m also hoping the digital voice recorder/mp3 player I got for my birthday will provide me with some creative outlet, or else the bunnies are likely to drive me insaaaaaane trying to beat their way out of my brain.
I’ve also gone onto a daily migraine preventative drug (Sandomigrin), which seems to be doing the trick, but has a main side effect of making me drowsy. So drowsy that I seem to be losing about three hours out of my day and getting twelve hours sleep every night and still feeling tired. And give me a glass of wine and I go TIMBER! I’m currently trialling the idea that I don’t actually need any more sleep, I just feel more drowsy, and so I’m staying up past the time my body tells me it’s way past bedtime—not sure how that’s working out yet. But hopefully when my eyes have sorted out I can come off this stuff and still be pain free. And hopefully, if my eye muscles have an extra three hours every day to relax, they’ll sort themselves out a bit quicker.
So, kiddies, take heed of the cautionary tale of Lily. Enjoy your computer time in moderation and as part of a healthy and balanced lifestyle, and maybe you won’t end up banned from the internet and with two pairs of glasses at the age of twenty-six. :/