Fuzzy Fate?
April 17, 2009 10:12 PM   Subscribe

My left eye is dead. I just discovered that my left eye doesn't work well. Everything looks blurry at every distance. I can't easily read a book with it, or read a digital clock on the wall. I didn't realize it because my right eye is still OK, and was compensating in focusing things.

I spend massive amounts of time in front of a computer screen and reading in low light. I've been operating under the assumption that you can't "damage" your eyesight, unless you physically damage the eye (like stab it with a fork, or stare at the sun). I also thought that people became more far-sighted as they aged, but that their vision didn't get "worse" in an absolute sense.

But perhaps I was wrong on both accounts. Any informed knowledge of this?

Maybe I've blinded myself by my 30s. Is there any way to salvage my eye?
posted by fucker to Health & Fitness (34 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
You probably have a migraine, but I would get thee to an emergency room and get it checked out just in case. Again, though, it's probably a migraine.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:15 PM on April 17, 2009


Well, have you been to an eye doctor? It could be astigmatism, that's where your eyes (or in this case, eye) can focus in the horizontal plane at one distance, or vertical lines at a specific distance, but not both at the same time. This makes everything except horizontal or vertical lines look blurry at any distance.

It's easy to fix with regular glasses or slightly more expensive contacts.

Another possibility could be weak muscles in your eye that are used to focus (that is, if you can't focus on anything at any distance). These things can sometimes be fixed with vision therapy, I think.

But yeah you should definitely see an eye doctor. I doubt this is the end of your vision, unless you just mean 'end of being able to see without glasses or contacts' But even in that case, you might be able to get laser vision correction (in the case of astigmatism)
posted by delmoi at 10:28 PM on April 17, 2009


I developed astigmatism fairly late in life. Only one eye. It's mild, but it's enough to put a blur on almost everything I look at. I also didn't notice it because my good eye was compensating. I was shocked when I finally got my eye exam and my good eye was covered. Also, a touch of far-sightedness as would befit my age. So now I wear glasses, which kind of sucks but is not that big of a deal to me - both my brothers needed glasses at around age 6, so late 30's doesn't seem so bad.

Oh, and reading in low light isn't bad for you, despite what mom says.
posted by O9scar at 10:31 PM on April 17, 2009


Go to an optometrist or ophthamologist ASAP (the emergency room is sort of a judgment call, unless you are noticing rapid ongoing worsening I think it's not worth it, but of course I'm just some dipshit who's answering questions people should be asking their eye doctors at half past midnight).

A sudden degradation in eyesight could be a potentially serious condition and you don't want to mess with those possibilities (cataract, macular degeneration etc.). These conditions tend to affect older people but not always.

Eye straining activities can worsen vision and this can be temporary. I significantly reduced the amount of time I spent in front of a computer screen and my vision improved to the extent of requiring a new corrective prescription (not a substantial one but nonetheless). Not much reason this would disproportionally affect one eye though. If you haven't had regular checkups your vision could have been going downhill for a long time so incrementally you didn't notice because it was asymmetric, which is not all that unusual, in which case a simple corrective prescription could fix it. You'll be stuck with a contact in one eye, although I would hope you would stand proud and go for the monocle.

I'm not sure what you mean by vision getting "worse in the absolute sense." Everyday poor vision has to do with the eye not focusing correctly and there are a variety of causes, I guess in the sense that the eye is fundamentally healthy - it is capable, that is to say, of resolving a clear image - it just focuses incorrectly and must be corrected with an additional lens. Spending a lot of time in an extremely restricted limited viewing range, or conditions that strain the eye, negatively impacts vision but is reversible as I said. Finally there are true diseases of the eye - conditions that could affect the eye's absolute ability to resolve an image. Impossible to answer your question further, you must have a professional examine the problem.
posted by nanojath at 10:39 PM on April 17, 2009


Does your eye hurt at all? Are you light-sensitive? Does your pupil dilate evenly in a change of light? One possibility is an iritis. Talk to an ophthalmologist and if you think it might be an iritis, get an appointment ASAP.

It's probably not one based on your description, but on the off chance it is, early treatment is key to a quick recovery.
posted by immlass at 10:39 PM on April 17, 2009


Get professional help, for heaven's sake.
posted by different at 10:46 PM on April 17, 2009 [3 favorites]


I'm surprised by the advice to hie thee to the ER, as I just basically found out the same thing about myself at my regular doctor's office. They did a quick eye check, and had me cover each eye individually while reading a row of letters. It was clear really quickly that my right eye had significantly more blur and less focusing ability than my left. I was pretty surprised and bummed, but the nurse just shrugged and the doctor said I should visit an eye doctor regularly. Nothing about immediate danger.

So yeah, see an eye doctor, but it doesn't sound like this is a sudden and life-threatening change, just something that happened so gradually you didn't notice.
posted by JenMarie at 10:58 PM on April 17, 2009


If it makes you feel any better, it really isn't all that uncommon to have one eye that's significantly weaker than the other, or to fail to notice this for a long time - an eye doctor first identified the same sort of problem with me when I was in high school, and like you, I'd not realized it at all before that - my right eye compensated so well that I'd been unaware that there was a problem. And while I'm now nearsighted in both eyes, the right one is still far less so (yeesh, actually if I look at my computer screen without my glasses as I type this, I can see it fine with my right eye but can hardly tell there's even TEXT there with my left).

Just wanted to chime in to you don't necessarily need to fear that you're suddenly going blind (unless you're telling us that as of a week ago you were sure both eyes were fine and now today one is severely diminished, which I'm not getting from what you'd written). Your "good" eye may have been compensating for quite some time without you realizing it. Sounds like an eye doctor appointment would be an excellent idea, but until you can get in I hope you won't panic too much about having "blinded yourself."
posted by DingoMutt at 11:00 PM on April 17, 2009 [1 favorite]


Do you see a spot of light when you look at a blank wall or close your eye? If so, it could be stress induced CSR which might eventually go away.
posted by bonobothegreat at 11:06 PM on April 17, 2009


Don't be such a drama queen and just make an appointment at an optometrist. This is neither rare, nor life-threatening, and certainly nothing that could possibly ever be solved by anyone on Ask MeFi.
posted by ryanbryan at 11:16 PM on April 17, 2009 [5 favorites]


If you've never had an eye exam, I guess it's totally possible that it's been that way since you were a kid. I have had a bad left eye for as long as I can remember, and my right eye compensated for a long time. I decided to get glasses in my 20s because it seemed like the sensible thing to do when you have a bad eye, even though I could see "just fine." It could just be that your left eye has worsened over time and now you can really notice it.

Or it could be any of the other things mentioned above. So yea, go to an eye doctor and find out what's going on.
posted by cabingirl at 11:33 PM on April 17, 2009


Nthing that it's very common to have one eye (significantly) worse. Also, spending a lot of time focusing your eyes only in a short range (computers especially) can tire out your eye muscles and make it harder for you to focus, but this is temporary. I actually had my distance vision improve at one point when my day-to-day life changed to involve much less computer time, because apparently part of the problem previously had just been eye strain.
posted by Lady Li at 11:47 PM on April 17, 2009


Go to the ER. A friend of mine had a mini-stroke and she made a full recovery because she got there quickly enough.

After you get back, if you don't have a migraine or something worse, make an appointment with an opthalmologist. I started getting headaches at the computer about 2 years ago, and didn't know until the doctor told me that my left eye was weaker than my right (my right being 20/20) and struggling. In my case nothing looked blurry to me, until the first time I put on my new glasses and I realized how much clearer things looked. Headaches solved, vision cleared.
posted by IndigoRain at 1:08 AM on April 18, 2009


I'm in the middle of reading a book called "How Do You Kiss a Blind Girl?". It's about a woman who went blind in her twenties because of complications resulting from diabetes. The left eye went bad then failed then the right eye went bad and eventually failed.

Of course, I'm with the other people here. It could be a stroke. Please update this thread after you get to the doctor. I want to know what happened.
posted by HappyEngineer at 1:27 AM on April 18, 2009


Response by poster: I appreciate the concern, but it isn't a stroke, because it just isn't. Strokes have more symptoms.

I took out a Snellen chart and it had me at 20/100 in the left eye, and 20/50 in the right eye.

I swear I was double 20/20 at a DMV test in February 2008. I went through a painful break-up and it aged me 15 years in 8 months.
posted by fucker at 3:40 AM on April 18, 2009


I am not your eye doctor.

However what you are describing is my normal situation from my earliest childhood. I have amblyopia, as do 1-5% of the population.
Many people with amblyopia, especially those who are only mildly so, are not even aware they have the condition until tested at older ages, since the vision in their stronger eye is normal.
That's one thing that you might like to then take into consideration. But of course, see a professional.
posted by Sitegeist at 4:32 AM on April 18, 2009


Are you a doctor? Even if you are, why are you self-diagnosing?

Make an appointment with an eye doctor, or see if they will take you as a walk-in. You may have a degenerative disorder that can be treated - if you catch it in time!

Go to an eye doctor - do it today.
posted by lootie777 at 5:27 AM on April 18, 2009


On the one hand, I agree with those saying stop self-diagnosing and go to a doctor. On the other hand 20/100 is not that bad and is a long way from saying your eye is "dead". Most of us who wear glasses or contacts daily have significantly worse vision than that.

But if your vision out of both eyes was perfect not very long ago, that is serious and should be checked.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:59 AM on April 18, 2009


It's just age. Eyes work less with use.
Hair grays with use.
Teeth erode with use.
posted by Mblue at 6:18 AM on April 18, 2009


It's not just age - sudden deterioration in sight could be caused my all sorts of things. You don't know what the cause might be, or whether a symptom of something more serious.

If you are avoiding the ER because you are American and don't have health care, then go to a free clinic or give a false name, or something.
posted by jb at 6:45 AM on April 18, 2009


Sometimes painful breakups cause you to go blind.

... Oh wait, no they don't. You should probably go to a doctor.
posted by billybunny at 6:55 AM on April 18, 2009 [2 favorites]


My mom had a CRVO (Central Retinal Vein Occlusion) with the same symptoms. It is like having a stroke inside your eyeball. She has permanently lost vision in that eye - I would go to the emergency room immediately just in case.
posted by Ostara at 7:16 AM on April 18, 2009


Why aren't you at the eye doctor RIGHT NOW? I would be so seriously freaked out if my previously fine vision suddenly wasn't fine. I'd be at the doctor before I even made an appointment.

Get thee to the doctor. Now.
posted by cooker girl at 8:28 AM on April 18, 2009


Could be a stroke, could be MS, could be migraine, could be just sudden effects of age, but no one at AskMe is going to be able to diagnose this for you.
posted by dilettante at 8:40 AM on April 18, 2009


I went through a painful break-up and it aged me 15 years in 8 months.

I'm sorry about your breakup, but I don't see how it could be connected to your eye issue. Sudden changes in vision are caused by things ranging from the benign, like eyestrain, to the serious, like temporal arteritis or retinal artery occlusion.

SEE A DOCTOR. Even if it's just eyestrain, a doctor can help.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:55 AM on April 18, 2009


The symptom of poor vision across all distance ranges is also consistent with keratoconus. If you are a male in your thirties you are in one of the higher risk groups (I developed this disease bilaterally in my late twenties). In effect keratoconus is similar to a severe, asymmetrical astigmatism, and it can develop in one eye or both

I wouldn't go to the ER, myself, for your symptom. Phone around to see if you can get in to an optometrist (not optician) as soon as you can. They are trained to observe early signs of eye disease, they see dozens of eyes every day, they have excellent equipment, and whether it is something serious or not you might well be needing a prescription anyhow. If it is something serious they will send you to an MD or specialist.
posted by Rumple at 12:00 PM on April 18, 2009


Response by poster: Thank again, everyone. I will probably go to an eye doctor when convenient. My eyes were both a little better this morning. My left eye could finally focus, and it was even a little better than my right on the Snellen.

Maybe I just need time away from computers and books. Maybe I need glasses.
posted by fucker at 12:58 PM on April 18, 2009


Go. to. the. E.R. I'm stunned you're not considering seeing a doctor immediately.
posted by agregoli at 5:08 PM on April 18, 2009


Response by poster: It's fair to say that people have different thresholds for visiting the emergency room. It could be beneficial to treat every sudden health anomaly as an emergency, but it has costs as well. My time and money, as well as scarce medical resources that are valuable to other people.

I checked the Internet before asking this question and ruled out serious problems, such as a stroke, as a large possibility. I had no other symptoms.

I will visit an ophthalmologist next week. A final thanks to those who offered their advice.
posted by fucker at 9:55 PM on April 18, 2009


Response by poster: Occasionally, on Ask Metafilter, you see a pattern where someone asks a question wanting a particular answer, and, when they don't get that answer, they defend their preferred answer against the responses they are getting.

The answers here were fine, and they weren't homogeneous. "Go to the ER" is not an inappropriate response to "how do I save my vision," but it is not the only appropriate answer either. It's true that I was more interested in (and tried to orient my question towards) lifestyle factors, and how they may or may not contribute to permanent vision deterioration, and some answers did speak to that.

Thank you for your concern.
posted by fucker at 5:51 AM on April 19, 2009


It's fair to say that people have different thresholds for visiting the emergency room. It could be beneficial to treat every sudden health anomaly as an emergency, but it has costs as well. My time and money, as well as scarce medical resources that are valuable to other people.

This is a sensible approach - going to the emergency room or doctor for most viral illnesses, for example, is pointless, unless you have an extremely high fever.

But eyes are one of those exceptions - they are closely linked to the brain, and they are themselves very delicate.

You asked, "how do I save my vision?"

I have had an eye condition which did not seem very serious to me at the time - sure, I had a bit of annoying pain, but it was only one eye, and I could still see out of it. I thought I had pink-eye, and so did my doctor who sent me home with medication. It wasn't until the next day, when the pain got worse rather than better, that my GP realised that I had something he was not trained to deal with. He got me in to see an opthamologist that afternoon, but if he had not, I would have had permanent eye damage within 24 hours. I had iritis, which is only a minor inflamation of the iris, but it can nonetheless blind you by raising the fluid pressure within your eyeball, like glaucoma. Permanent damage can happen even at low levels of pressure.

Eyes are more than the windows to your souls - they are practically a bit of your brain sticking out on the outside of your head. You have to take threats to them more seriously than to legs or hands or noses. Inflamation in your knee gives you a twinge; the same condition in your eyes blinds you.

Saving your vision means taking threats to your eyes more seriously than other parts of your body. I have a scrape on my knee right now which hurts more than my eye did the first day, but it's my knee, not my eye, and I know why it hurts. Blurriness in your eyes which does not go away with the first cup of coffee or shower is scary. It might be nothing, but it might be really, really something. And you don't know how likely either is.
posted by jb at 7:48 AM on April 19, 2009 [3 favorites]


It sounds like you have "lazy eye". That's where one eye literally becomes lazy and the other eye compensates for it. I had it when I was 8 or 9. Essentially I had to wear a patch over my good eye for a couple of months to force my bad one to actually do some work. Luckily it was summer and I didn't have to go to school that way.

You can test it out yourself right now. Just cover up your good eye for an hour or so and see if the bad one gets better. Either way, you should still see an eye doctor.
posted by ValkoSipuliSuola at 10:56 AM on April 19, 2009


I had similar symptoms at one point in my life. Turned out to be Keratoconus. And there's nothing you can really adjust in your lifestyle to make that better.

But Keratoconus doesn't just suddenly go away, so nthing a doctor visit in the near future.
posted by Cyrano at 6:41 PM on April 19, 2009


Except for the "dead" part my left eye vision matches your description. I was avoiding glasses for years as I engage in a lot of activities that make them impractical. I did see the opthamologist about a year ago and resigned myself to glasses (I don't wear them for reading or computer use). He was alarmed that I'd been driving with such poor vision, but did not express any other concerns.
posted by Manjusri at 9:28 PM on April 19, 2009


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