Weirdest thing. I was playing a game on my tablet, and suddenly couldn’t see it properly. Thinking it was my tablet, I looked up at the TV and nope, it was my eyes. I went in and looked in the mirror, but didn’t see anything. No other symptoms.
I went to my doc the next day, and she did a very thorough exam for a possible TIA. She said that TIA’s are not obvious on imaging. Correct?? She advised a visit to my ophthalmologist and told me if it happened again to get my ass to the ER ASAP.
When I’m overtired or looked at a screen too long my left eyes pulls in. It can culminate in double vision. Especially a darkened room and a screen. Follow Drs. Orders
Look into a ‘silent’ or ‘occular’ migraine.
A friend of mine ‘went blind’ for about 20 minutes. After the second time it happened she went to the doctor. They didn’t find anything wrong, but suggested that as a possibility. Up until then, I’d never heard of either of those, much less a migraine with no associate pain. It’s essentially a migraine without the headache part.
I’m a lifetime migraine sufferer, however, I’ve never had auras, but I suspect the temporary blindness she had was an aura.
Double checking my terminology (WRT ocular), I see at least one reference to silent migraines having similar symptoms to strokes and TIAs.
I assume that if you close one eye the problem disappears? (That is true in 99.9% of double-vision cases but “monocular diplopia” does exist, so let’s rule it out.)
I used to get this every few years although the double vision would “pulse” and I would be nauseous. I figured out it was probably a migraine. I would lay down immediately, take a couple of aspirin and close my eyes and a half hour later I was fine. I can’t even remember the last time it happened. Looking back I thought it might have been related to stress.
Dennis
I’ve had maybe 5-10 incidents of scintillating scotoma in the past five years. None was ever followed by a headache, but all were quite unsettling, and interfered with my visual acuity enough that I couldn’t read; if I had been driving during one, I’m sure I would have found it necessary to stop. Each incident lasted maybe 10 minutes or so before the scotoma migrated out of my visual field.
I’ve had exactly the same problem as the OP, a few times. It lasts about a minute or so each time. I’ve also had migraine “auras”, which aren’t at all the same thing.
At my second to last temp job once, I had a weird checkerboard pattern appear in an oblong spot across my southeast corner field of vision. Scared the crap out of me, and I considered going to the ER, but it cleared up in about twenty minutes.
Happened again a couple of times after that, the latest about three years ago.
I hesitated to go to the ER for financial reasons. I had a scary blood gushing hemorrhoidal attack that I did go to the ER for, and wound up paying a hundred a month for a year and a half for something that would’ve cleared up on its own. This shouldn’t happen in a developed country, but I won’t hijack this thread with that well-worn rant.
Sounds a lot like a scintillating scotoma. Did it shimmer and slowly drift across your visual field during that 20-minute period?
A year and a half ago I was getting double vision. I’d be at my computer or reading, and BAM! Double vision. Eye doctor said it was dry eye and told me to use eye drops, which didn’t really help. Had an MRI and CT scan and it all looked okay.
I’d get double vision several times a day and it would make me nauseous and light-headed.
Then six months later (January) I had a stroke (thankfully not severe). And guess what–my double vision went away! So something was going on.
A few months ago, I woke up and the sight in my right eye was all messed up. I thought I had scratched the cornea or something, so I shrugged it off. After a month or so it had not improved so I went to my eye doctor and she sent me to an retinal specialist. Seems I had an occular stroke in my right eye. Since I waited so long, my vision in that eye is around 20/80 and while it’s improving it won’t ever get back to 20/20.
Sorry for rambling.
Good info, will be doing some research, thanks
That sure sounds like a migraine to me. First one I had was in college, and I developed tunnel vision. As in “Huh, that guy only has one arm!! No, wait… he has two, I just can’t see them both at once”. I’ve the flickering in the middle of my field of vision - I describe it as if all the pixels in that bit of my visual field suddenly went low-res. And I’ve had times where I didn’t have either of those specific symptoms, but reading became difficult for about a half hour.
I’m fortunate that my migraines tend to be relatively mild - so those “warning shots” tell me it’s time to take some Advil and get unconscious for a couple hours.
“monocular diplopia” = band name. Also I’m not sure what all might cause that; I know catarats can, and I have a bit of it as a result of my multifocal implants. Are there other causes?
Re the OP: I don’t know how common double vision is with a migraine. Might be common, might be rare - I truly don’t know. Did you discuss with the doc whether it might be “just” a migraine?
And yeah, a TIA (transient ischemic attack) wouldn’t show up on scanning. It is, however, considered a “warning shot” that you’re at risk for a real stroke in the future. My MIL most likely had one a few months ago, and has to be on the watch for symptoms occurring again in the future.
Yes, it did. But like I said, the last one happened at least three years ago.
I looked it up on the internet after the first one, so I did recognize it as a sort of migraine. So, after the first experience, the other incidents were far less scary.
OP - if you keep having issues, I would suggest that you go and see a neurologist, as opposed to your primary care doc. Many internists/GPs don’t have the training to accurately spot specific neurology issues.
My sources (UpToDate) inform me that:
Binocular diplopia (double vision with both eyes open and absent when either eye is closed) often results from dysfunction of one or more of the extraocular muscles. By contrast, monocular diplopia, which persists when one eye is closed, suggests local eye disease or a refractive problem.
Dysfunction of the aforementioned extra-ocular muscles has many causes, including stroke and specific nerve palsies
Also, The presence or absence of pain is an important distinguishing feature in considering a differential diagnosis
Other causes include Myasthenia Gravis, thyroid ophthalmopathy, Wernicke syndrome, and dozens of less likely but still possible causes, such as Guillain-Barré, Ophthalmoplegic migraine (rare, generally occurs in children and young adults), botulism, tick paralysis, giant cell arteritis, and Tolosa-Hunt syndrome. Local tumors, inflammations, and infections can also cause it.
Ophthalmologist evaluation would be my recommendation.
Dear lord, that’s a lot to research, but I thank you for stopping by!! Migraine is really not on my list as there was no pain whatsoever, and I’ve never had a migraine. No patterns of any sort, like I said, 1 minute of double vision and an ophthalmologist appt. in early December ( same office where they did my RK and my cataracts, so I trust them completely.)
Thanks for all your help everyone, I am little calmer about it but will get my ass to the ER ASAP should it recur.
One time at my friend’s wedding I had an “accommodation failure”, at least that is what I think it was called. It was about 15 years ago (I am around 50), and all of a sudden I could not focus on anything. I don’t think I went cross eyed, but I can’t be sure. I do know that I could not focus on anything, either near or far away. I rubbed my eyes and freaked out and I just couldn’t see. It went away after 5 or 10 minutes and everything was normal though it definitely ruined the wedding for me. It has never happened again. I went to the doctor the next day and they referred me to an optician who gave me the diagnosis and told me to come back if it happened again.
Another time, more recently, I crashed on my mountain bike in an epic way. I remember flying though the air like superman for a good 15-20 feet before I came down hard on my chest on a bunch of rocks. I tore up my chest pretty good, still have scars to show, but I am pretty sure my head never contacted the ground. For about 2 minutes I could not see and I believed I was cross-eyed as I curled into a ball and wondered how the hell I was going to get off the mountain if I couldn’t see. It cleared up gradually and I rode my bike down the mountain slowly and walking a bunch of sections. It was a pretty easy trail to. Good times.
On edit: I have visual migraines pretty regularly, at least one per year. When I was in college, I used to get them every week or two. Very rarely they have been followed by migraines. The other two experiences were nothing like that.
I had a problem like this, would see double from time to time. Went to the eye doctor who told me nothing was wrong. Kept getting it for a couple of years on and off. Finally one day I saw two trucks driving at me on the highway. I knew something was way off and went to another eye doctor. I was also losing my peripheral vision.
Turns out I had a benign pituitary gland tumor that was pushing on the optic nerves causing the problems. Meds took care of it and I’ve been find ever sense.