double vision

[steverino]

Hello Everyone,

I am about 8 days post op from a middle fascia (sp?) 1.3cm AN surgery.  I am recovering exceptionally well with no facial or other serious issues.  I am extremely grateful for my outcome thus far and although I think my hearing in the left ear was lost, my 5 years of watching and waiting and reasearching made me expect a much worse experience than I had.  Kudos to the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles and especially Dr.s Rick Friedman and Marc Schwartz (http://www.hei.org/about/clinic/clinic.htm) .  These guys are true heroes!

My main problem is doubled vision.  I see "double-stacked-up-on-top-of-each other" everything.  If I look out one eye it's no problem. I am varying my tasks from looking at this computer screen to doing dishes, to resting with eyes shut to walking outside to excersizing a bit in doors and the double vision sort of varies depending on how long I do each thing.  I understand this may be partly due to the fact they cut my vestibular nerve in the process of removal the AN and is to be expected as the brtain redecides how to balance my body.

My question is: has anyone any idea how long I should expect this to last?  Are there any excersizes anyone has tried to help the brain sort of rewire the balance circuits to even out the double vision?

Thanks!

Steve Ellerbrake
 

[leapyrtwins]

Steve -

many of us experience double vision post op.  I had it for 2 or 3 days and then it went away.

For some it's short lived; for some it lasts longer. 

I know that Trish (calimama) had double vision for quite a while.  Maybe a PM to her would help - or perhaps she'll respond to this post.

Jan

[steverino]

Thanks, Jan.  That is reassuring.  Hey how do you like the BAHA system?

[Pooter]

Don't get her started.. 

Brian

[calimama]

Hi Steve,

Got your PM.

Sorrry to hear of your DV... what a total pain. For me, the worst part was not knowing if it would recover and how long it would take. I was scheduled to discuss surgery to fix it next year if it did not fix on its own. Luckily it did... completely by 5 months. PHEW!

Mine was also vertical...like i would see things kind of top of each other, with a bit of tilt 9to the right) on the top image. I found that if i laid in bed, and looked to the line where the wall met the ceiling, one of the lines was tilted down to right. Also the DV only occured when both eyes open (no problem either eye covered). When blinked, or moved my head, images moved. The world was very messy. It was quite rotten.

I did a fair bit of research on this and decided that i had 4th nerve palsy... which was causing my DV. I worked out if that i tilted my head to the right (i had a left AN) and down a bit, i could get the images to come together.

I saw a couple of opthamologists in the weeks and months after surgery, and 4th nerve issue was confirmed. You might be able to get prism glasses til it fixes ... I was hoping for this as a temporary solution, but whenever i would blink, things would shift. I was told to wait it out and come back at  3 months. Still no sign of improvement at that point, but around 3.5 months i noticed that when i looked down to the left, it was fixing. In my arms my daughter had only 2 eyes! HALLELUJAH!

I didn't drive with DV (lucky i didnt HAVE to). But apparently it is legal to drive with an eye patch. I wore an eye patch for 4 months. It was tough (particularly the first month, adjusting) especially wtih SSD. But i managed. I even ran and came back to work, patch and all.

I think the first thing is to at least figure out/confirm it is 4th or 6th nerve issue. I THINK (but not sure that 4th nerve might have better chances of spontaneous (without help) and complete recovery - as i had. Not totally sure about this, but i know some people dont totally recover from the DV and still get it a bit when they are tired etc. Maybe those are 6th related?? Not sure.

MK  on this site passed on a reserach note on 4th nerve DV. It is in word... not sure if i can attach in a PM? Happy to send it. It made me feel a little better, that 4th palsies usually correct on their own. Although most people seemed to recover in 2 months or less. There was one case where it took 4 months, as mine pretty much did.

i think this is the abstract related to that ariticle...
Abstract:
THE OCULAR TILT reaction (OTR) is a triad of head-eye synkinesis composed of head tilt, conjugate ocular torsion in the direction of head tilt, and skew deviation. The OTR represents a normal compensatory response to lateral head tilts and is produced by activation of the utricle of the lowermost ear. A pathological OTR results when otolith activity is unopposed as the result of injury to the opposite utricle or its nerve. Vertical diplopia may be the only symptom of OTR in patients who have undergone surgery involving the vestibuloacoustic nerve. We report a series of patients with OTR after surgery for acoustic neuroma or Meniere's disease. In each patient, the manifesting symptom was vertical diplopia. Bedside neuro-ophthalmological testing readily excluded a brain stem cause for the double vision. We conclude that OTR after vestibuloacoustic surgery is a benign condition with spontaneous resolution of symptoms within several months.

So i hope this helps. Hopefully it is weeks for you, and not months, but the main thing is that it fixes completely. I feel lucky that mine did. Now if i could just get my face to work....

Trish

[calimama]

Oh... i just noticed that you said your DV varied a bit with what you were doing? mine did not. it was totally messed up all the time.

Search for DV on this site. there are others here who had DV which recovered faster than mine. I hope yours does.

Trish

[steverino]

Hey Trish,

Thanks very much for the concise information.  This amount of detail is extremely helpful for me as I quite understand it.  I took along walk on our farm road this afternoon heading West.  I actually felt pretty good walking along although I caught myself squinting my left eye every so often.  I'll keep you posted as to my progress.  If you want to attach that word doc in an email I'd really appreciate it.  Is it okay on this forum to tell you my email address?

Thanks,

Steve

[sgerrard]

Trish,

Thanks for that post from me too. It is good to know that the issue of double vision after acoustic neuroma surgery has been well studied. Plus there are some fine medical terms in there to banter around, like vertical diplopia or conjugate ocular torsion.

Steve,

A note on forum use. Your email address is currently showing to logged in users, on a little icon below your login name. You can also put your email address in a PM to Trish, and you two can then email back and forth directly if you wish. I  don't think there is a way to include an attachment with a PM. The main thing we ask is that you don't put email addresses, phone numbers, or other such information in posts to the forum, where it is visible to the public at large, and subject to spam abuse.

Steve

[leapyrtwins]

Hey how do you like the BAHA system?

As you might have guessed from Pooter's post, I absolutely LOVE my BAHA    One of THE best things I ever did.

The forum is full of my posts about it - everything from pictures of my head to my surgical experience - but if you don't feel like searching and want to know anything BAHA related, just ask.

Trish -

thanks for your comments on the double vision; I knew you'd be happy to help Steve out.

Jan

[cherrypiper]

well in short yes.........

i have a slight off set to my vision on the AN side.........it gets worse as i get more tired daily. My eye Dr. explains some of this way.

Your brain sees both images and converts them correctly. then as you get more into the use of the eye all day. It tires brain and eyes out. so at nite i have more problems and my mental ability also suffers.

Now knowing that helps some but it still takes some getting used to............see you eye Dr. have them do the bi lateral tests which are aimed at each side.........

see what shows up there............