12 days & counting & double vision

Hi everyone :relaxed: I’m Angie, 49.

So pleased to have found you. I think I’m still in shock but woke 12 days ago to headache, neckache, nausea & double vision. Of course, I’m supermum & took the dog for a walk before work assuming it was a migraine coming and my visual disturbance would disappear as normal, very quickly. Wrong!
Long story short, after asking for medical help several times, including a trip to A&E, I was advised it wasn’t a stroke and sounded like a migraine, sent away with not 1 set of observations.
After 5 days of symptoms, MRI confirmed…and this is the confusing bit- minor cerebral event/minor TIA/minor stroke…my letter says all 3.
Here I am, 12 days later with double vision & neckache left. I’m able to see if I cover one eye, so grateful for this. Just getting to grips with everything & hope that recovery/improvements come as I can’t contemplate not being able to drive or work long term.
Thanks for reading. I have had no other support as yet via my Trust, Stroke Association have been a lifeline.

Hi Angie. Welcome to our forum. This must all have been a great shock to you. Hopefully, your physical symptoms will improve. It might help if you assessed whether any change in diet or lifestyle is needed. Hopefully, you are now on appropriate medication.

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Hi @John_Jeff_Maynard …I had a few risk factors lurking in the background, a couple unknown & 2 weeks after news of high cholesterol & BP, it happened. I’ve changed my diet for the better & I’m a runner/gym person so that’s had to stop. Got my meds which I didn’t know are now lifelong but accept we tackle the risks from now on. Such alot to take in & find new normal. Thanks for your reply.

@AngieY Welcome to the forum that no one really wants to join but it is a very friendly place. Sorry to hear about your stroke/tia. Hopefully they’ll confirm what has happened at some.point for you. I had visual disturbances with my stroke but thankfully they improved a lot quote quickly. Other symptoms are taking longer. You’ll find lots of good advice and support on this forum. Here’s to a quick recovery xx

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Shwmae @AngieY, I am one year post cerebellar stroke plus six TIAs, welcome to the forum, hope you can find some comfort here. My double-vision eventually passed, I still have blurred vision and nystagmus, along with other oculomotor dysfunctions. Brock string exercises are helpful for double-vision, and they are inexpensive. I bought one for a few quid online.

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Thanks @Mrs5K that sounds encouraging. It’s early days, fingers crossed :crossed_fingers:. Thanks for your reply

Thanks for the tips @Rups ,I’ll have a look online. Much appreciated

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Thanks @Mahoney frustrating indeed but it won’t help my BP & realise I’ve been processing the event with anger/disappointment. This won’t help my recovery so got my positive pants on for a new week! Thanks for your reply

Hello @AngieY . I’m sorry to hear what happened. I hope you get some answers and focused support soon. I have what is called a third nerve palsy, affecting the occulomotor nerve caused by an ischaemic midbrain stroke due to trauma. Initially my eyelid wouldn’t function but it has improved but that has resulted in double vision as that nerve also supplies the muscles which move the eye. I manage this by patching my glasses, although it is albeit very slowly improving. (9 months post stroke). It has taken alot of adaption, attempts at acceptance, I can do what I need to on a day to day basis but work and driving are off limits. I have a review appointment tomorrow, in the long term surgery can help but it has to be stable before it can be considered. I hope you find the forum useful and that you get access to the care you need asap, Julia

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Dear Angie, I found interesting your comment about double vision. In childhood I effectively lost the sight of my right eye due to a traumatic injury to the lens. I seem to have suppressed the defocused image for most of my lifetime - I drove without incident to age seventy. Following my stroke. I was left with hemiplegia of my right side and blurred light intrudes in my visual field where it had been suppressed before. (I handed my licence back!) Strange the brain/mind!
Yours aye’
Geoffrey.

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Hi AngieY must get a pair of those positive pants! Never was a pill taker but like you now coming to terms with realisation that will be taking BP pills for life. Hope your visual problem improves or at least tests can let you know the possible long term effects. I lost some peripheral on left from both eyes and have worn glasses since I was knee high to a grasshopper and ,not likely to get my licence back but a few members of the stroke group I attend have. But very early on bizarrely could accept this part of being stroked it’s the other effects I need the positive pants for. Welcome on board Pds

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Thanks for your words of encouragement & Advice- I have seen an Orthoptist but apparently they can’t help me at present due to the type of double vision & also advised exercises wouldn’t work for me. I’m not buying that & so have been trying do some focusing /scanning. Brief exercises a few times a day. I’m going back in 3 weeks for follow up :crossed_fingers:

I was so tired yesterday and it seems to come in waves where I just need to lie down & drop to sleep. So not me but I’m giving in to it!

Shwmae @AngieY, through my research, orthoptists have little resource for post-stroke visual issues due to it being a neurological condition, and not a condition necessarily related to oculomotor health. I have had my eyes checked twice since stroke, they 100% healthy. The only thing the orthoptist could do was prescribe varifocal glasses to ease the strain of blurred vision. Many eye exercises do little for a neurological condition, because they all endeavour to strengthen oculomotor muscles which in our case should be working well, it’s just the brain’s communication with them. Focussing and scanning is good, as well as visual tracking exercises, I did these for about six months. You can search for them on YouTube, pencil push-ups and to some extent gaze stabilisation exercises work well. I found auditory feedback to help a lot, which requires auditory cues once you have an object in focus. This gets practiced until the brain uses the auditory cue to focus the object “by itself”. Near and far focus practice, and moving the body while focusing helps, because vision isn’t static, it’s constantly changing its focus and direction, and distance. There’s a lot to manage and a lot of visual noise in our everyday world. The brain gets overwhelmed and fatigued, and needs rest afterwards.

So, it’s all about calibrating the brain with the oculomotor function. With me, I have to toss into the mix my vestibular system, so my issue is vestibular-oculomotor, and how I can get my brain calibrated with that system again. It’s hard work but it won’t harm us, even if it feels disconcerting at the time when the symptoms become more acute because of other factors causing fatigue as well.

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Thank you so much @Rups for this, I’ve been exhausted the past few days & been off screens but…practicing these exercises with some success!! I think you explained it really well & the visual noise outside is particularly difficult. I can now focus more & more each day which is pretty miraculous compared to how I felt 3 weeks ago :partying_face:

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Hi Angie,

Sorry to hear about your stroke, i myself had one on 1st Dec, we were due to fly out on 2nd, same as you had bad Headache near temple, went A&E, wanted to do surgery but due to been on some medication couldnt operate.
Not driven sinse had Feild test last Saturday, due to have MRI next Thursday, fingers crossed all well, i lost vision in left eye,but has now returned, get pleny of rest and get well soon :smile: )