Coping with BFS Flickers

[LindsayCohen7]

I've had this lovely BFS thing for almost three years, and for the most part am fine. Get annonying relapses after I'm sick and sometimes a symptom or two will really throw me, but overall I'm trying to cope. Then I got freaked out last week - one or two times a day something I'm looking at will flutter or shake slightly. Happened when I was reading a newspaper and there were a few black lines and they looked like they shifted for a second. Happened again days later when I was at the gym watching Regis and Kelly and their gold curtains seemed to shimmer or shake for a split second against the maroon wall. Of course my overactive mind immediately jumps to MS, which has been my huge fear since this stuff started 3 years ago and i had to have the mris and emg (all neg). I think once they test you for that it scars you for life! Is this new vision thing a BFS thing? Maybe astigmatism? I made an eye appt. - was due anyway - but of course they can't see me for a week and this is going to drive me NUTS! Also can't talk to anyone about it except here b/c I don't want people to think I'm crazy. Advice please?

 

[hCapitalize]

I doubt if MS would do that, but psychedelic drugs might MS affects the muscles of the eyes which are responsible for accommodation so you might expect not to be able to focus properly or to see double, however with age your ability to accommodate diminishes anyway, which is why folk like me have bifocals.There are other things that can affect vision, such as migraine and of course simple fatigue.I would suggest you see an optometrist.

 

[suegirl]

I have the movements and shimmers alot in my eyes. Sometimes I feel like the words that I am reading are moving, too. Mine started years ago. I also have very bad floaters. I had a full eye exam last week and Dr. did not find any problems. I think some of us are just unique and we tend to notice things much more. You are OK!!! )

 

[DonJose]

Hi there, I have an astigmatism and I have always had visual sensations like you describe. Don't panic...I think you are fine.Linda

 

[LindsayCohen7]

I love this board. It stinks to have a condition that most people have never heard of, and for which the range of symptoms are enormous and at times frightening. Usually I can just reassure myself that it's another twitchy thing, but every once in awhile the doubt takes over and scares me. Thanks for the replies! It's good to know that there are people out there experiencing the same thing.

 

[DJH621]

Hi,Shimmering vision, floaters, etc. have been a major part of my BFS. I really noticed it during my 1st time with it. Outlines of people seemed to shimmer and were uneven, hard to explain. When I tried to explain it to my neuro, he'd just say, "florescent lights bother some people, etc." since I worked in an office. Then he'd turn out the fluorescent light in the exam room and say "better?" Of course, it was just the same. Neuros and Opthamologists have never seen anything in my eyes to indicate MS. My neuro told me that when I looked at a car or something a huge chunck would be missing, etc. if it were ms. Shortly thereafter I started having ocular migraines where a "shimmering light" would surround a blind spot in my central vision that would grow larger. These lasted about an hour. My 1st one was during my 1st pregnancy, so I think these are hormone related, (although my husband gets them now and then.) But yes, shimmering vision, constantly sometimes for months, uneven outlines of objects, floaters, etc. have been a major part of BFS for me. I've had several MRI's - all okay---30 plus years later my vision is still 20/20 although "shimmering", etc. at times. I've pretty much learned to ignore it though. Now I have to concentrate and look at a straight object like a door jam and see if it's "wavy" to see if I'm currently having this symptom--guess I've adapted...Strange strange disorder....Best Wishes, Denise p.s. I've read a lot of these symptoms, especially visual can be related to fibromyalgia---I'm not sure my take on that disorder....but you may want to read about it.

 

[Serena]

I had grainy floater-y vision since I was about 13. When I was diagnosed epileptic years later, I asked my neuro about it, saying that I'd had bad vision on/off for years, even though I'd had clean optician eye exams.He said it was typical of people with epilepsy. I am in no way saying you have it, just that it doesn't necessarily mean anything terrible or serious! When I'm anxious, my vision goes whack too. You'll be ok.xxx

 

[hCapitalize]

I have actually had visual "snow" for my entire life, I simply discovered at a certain age that it was not something that everyone had, but until very recently never had any explanation for it.In fact I had not mentioned my visual symptoms to either of the the two neurologists I saw before the most recent one, as I did not think it was relevant. The latest neurologist however did seem curious about them, not that he really had much idea or understanding of the variations that my visual symptoms can take and he certainly could not understand that how I could only percieve them in one eye whilst they would technically (because they are not in the retina) be present in both eyes.I thought, neurologist you may be, but have you ever read up on the way in which the visual cortex maps the various inputs from the optic nerves, and isn't it obvious that although the symptoms arise as "noise" in certain substrates, even though they can exist in both eyes I can still only be conscious of what is happening in one of them if it is not being mapped or integrated at higher level. The neurones in the visual cortices are a complex set of analog systems each set up to distinguish particular features be that edge detection, movement in certain directions, colour, contrast, foreground vs background, any one of which can be damaged and the others still operate giving rise to bizarre effects. It is like a TV reciever, it might be picking up the signal fine, decoding it and all, but despite of that, the picture might only show up on one side of the screen because of damage to the mechanism of the tube.