Pain and Visual Problems in Left Eye

 

 

Country
United States
Age
21
Gender
Female
Did you perform any surgery for the eyes?

When I was around three years old, I believe I had an operation on my tear ducts.

Do you suffer from pre-existing illnesses in the eye?
No
Do you suffer from any diseases in the body?
No
Do you use any eye drops?
No
Do you wear Contact lenses or Eyeglasses?

I have been using glasses/contact lenses for nearsightedness since I was nine years old. I wear contacts for the entirety of my waking day. My current contacts are weaker than my current prescription because I can't afford to buy new ones.

Question

 

 

Hi,

I’ve been experiencing unusual situations in my left eye that sometime build up into a feeling of intense pressure, like a headache behind and around my eyeball or like the area around my eye is swollen, though it’s not.

(I have been able to use a cold pack to ease the pain with some success.) My vision is being affected as well; in my left eye only, screens and other lights look off and leave afterimages, I get occasional floaters, at night my vision is noticeably dimmer (versus my right eye), and I think something might be up with my peripheral vision.

When looking at something with both eyes, it feels like my right eye is more dominant than usual. I visited an ophthalmologist who said that my left eye is more near sighted than my right (it used to be the opposite) and that my nerves were “suspicious for glaucoma” (I’m 21 years old, not 60), but the test for glaucoma is too expensive even with insurance so I can’t confirm it.

(My insurance does not cover regular vision past age 19 so I can't afford regular visits to an eye doctor, either.) I am in the at risk group for it—extremely near sighted and family history of high blood pressure—but the sensations of intense pressure I’m experiencing don’t seem to line up with the purported symptoms.

As an artist, I’m very scared of going blind if this goes untreated, but I need to know what’s wrong as soon as possible so I don’t have to waste money I can’t afford on anything that isn’t directly helpful to my situation.

Thanks

 

 

 

Answer

 

Thanks for your Question

Blurry vision and after images that you experienced are most likely to be due to weaker prescription of your contact lens and you need new one with the correct prescription.

Intense pressure, like a headache behind and around your eyeball are most likely due to problems with your nose or nasal sinuses (You had history of problems and surgical procedures of your tear ducts). Nasal sinuses surround the eye and any inflammation or infection of these sinuses can be manifested as headache, pressure and pain behind the eye and also sometimes eyelid swelling or puffy eyes especially in the morning.

Regarding suspicion of glaucoma, it is uncommon for people in your age to develop glaucoma but still it can occur and the only way to be sure about that is to run those tests for glaucoma.

Please let me know if you have ant further questions.

 

 

 

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Comments

Profile picture for user Socks Whitmore

 

 

To clarify: the aching is 24/7 regardless of night/day, contacts being in or out.

Sleeping sometimes provides a few minutes of relief upon waking, but at this point the sensations exist all the time anywhere between mildly off to keeping-me-awake-at-night painful.

Last night, I was looking at my phone in the dark before bed (contacts out) and when I turned it off, I experienced a bout of temporary partial blindness in the rightmost part of my left eye. My field of vision restored itself shortly after but it very frightening and seemed almost like the equivalent of briefly dislocating a bone.

I feel like the ophthalmologist I saw in person a few weeks ago would have seen something more if this problem was solely based in my eye, so are there other places (like the sinuses as you mentioned) that could be causing this issue, and if so, what kind of doctor/specialist should I see to take care of it?

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Profile picture for user Webeyeclinic.com

 

 

When was the last time you check your visual acuity. You might need prescription eyeglass to wear. Headache and ocular pain might be caused by eye strain. One of the cause of eye strain is uncorrected visual acuity.

Working on phone in dark room especially with high screen brightness can cause temporary visual disturbances due to over saturation of retinal light photoreceptors.

You might also think about a neurologist because you might have ocular migraine which can cause both headache and also temporary visual disturbances.

 


But before that you have to visit an E.N.T doctor to be sure you don't have any problem in your nasal system.

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