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
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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....
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Trish