May be able to help with this one
 

Hey everyone,

I may be able to help with this one.

I’m 52 and have had an ache in my left eye for 8 years, noticeable but not enough to really worry, hasn’t really got worse. I had a bad root canal with some infection in the jaw in the past that I subsequently had curetted out so had put it down to that.

A few weeks ago I too went through a PVD which I also had never heard about before, my experience was similar to others, flashing lights, floaters, visit to an eye hospital to be informed about PVD and retinal check, came up OK.

I had previously had a brain MRI for orgasmic headache, to rule out aneurism (all clear) and the MRI had said to have a subsequent MRI and MRV on the orbit to check for Intercranial Hypertension. I subsequently had the MRV and MRI and results came back as evidence of Intercranial Hypertension (IH). This presented as fluid in the optic nerve sheath and slightly flattened pineal gland. The IH had not seemed to have got worse in the time I have experienced eye pain (IH creates pressure on the back of the eye) so I am not overly worried, as MRI and MRV ruled out tumours, aneurisms and most nasty causes,

if no cause found will likely be diagnosed as IIH (Idiopathic Intercranial Hypertension), this is what the GP told me is most likely. I’m booked in to see a Neuro Surgeon in a couple of weeks to check not other causes and get advice.

From my reading IIH is often treated with Lumbar Puncture and sometimes self resolves afterwards.

Now the reason I say all of this is I too have the pulsing in my left eye in time with my heartbeat and I am thinking because of the increased pressure on the back of the eye from the IIH this is the cause, whereas it wouldn’t normally be a part of PVD.

IIH is pretty rare and the combination with PVD, which is not well informed, may be the reason why there is not much information on the possible combined outcome of the two together, which may be this pulsing some are experiencing.

I will let you know what the Neuro Surgeon say and if I end up getting a Lumbar Puncture whether that cures the symptom.

Hope this all helps!

Aching of the whole eye, perhaps both, that builds up during the day and slightly offsets one's focus might be a recurring spasm of the extraocular muscles. If it's very consistent you might try to relax these powerful muscles with Diazepam. Ask the doctor for say, half a dozen for diagnostic purposes. 5mg and 30 minutes could be the difference between a very tedious burden and restored focus and comfort.

In my case it was the tendency to fine-tune my eyesight making use of these muscles. That will start major arguments with the professionals, but there's a lot about it on Wiki. It came back to bite me 40 years later while on a visit back to the UK. Two things took me to the answer. One was that I'd always had a tendency to tighten muscles up if they weren't happy. The other was a critter running out and the Rivetess standing on the brakes. When the latter happened my eyes relaxed totally and I knew the answer. I'd been prescribed Valium (Diazepam) years before for a judo injury that was a misery by the end of each day. One tablet relaxed it, but Valium was new, and nice, and I wasn't flying then. Valium with wine makes one the life and soul of any party. It is preciously the kind of drug that will creep up behind you and @$@$$^ up your life.

PVD. Years after my first one my right eye was getting a bit tricky. Some floaters but also now some horizontal fingers across my vision when I blinked. My brain was filtering out the effect most of the time. I opted for a PVD and SCRAPE. Sounds horrible, doesn't it?

Different world now. Conveyor belt. Strange chair to be wheeled in on which collapses into one's operating chair/table. The option of Local Anaesthetic. No no no no no . . . I'd never brave up to that. Straight home after a cup of tea. Oh, okay. A sheet thrown over my face with a hole for the surgeon to look in. I'm told I can amuse myself by looking around under it since my right eye, and all its strings, will be disconnected from my brain. The sheet was flapped down and an extraordinarily cheerful chappy poked a needle in my eye. I kept still instinctively. The conversation went - "My eye doesn't work". "I know, I've just de-worked it. It's the same stuff that Dentists use". The surgeon peeked around a load of tools and set about me.

Puggle, puggle . . . "It is coming off, but in little pieces." This was the scar tissue I'd been promised would not grow back if I braved the operation. Pick, pick, puggle, puggle. "Three." psssssssssst. 'Three point eight'. pssssssssssst. My eye was up to pressure and the flap flapped for the last time. I was off.

I was taken home for a long weekend. WHAT THEY HADN'T TOLD ME was that I would not be able to see out of the eye due to the air bubble in the eye. They didn't do that last time. However, by the grace of God I'd overheard a Yacht Cub member talking about his surgery, and just being able to see over the bubble. The next morning I peeked gingerly at this ball in my eye and could just see my bedside light in perfect focus over the top edge. At one stage the eye seemed all wet and I phoned the emergency number. I told the lady that I thought all the water that they'd put in, was coming out of one of the holes the surgeon had made. She was laughing so much that she couldn't answer. I took that to be a good sign.

NB If they work on the retina, there's a good chance they will put gas in the eye. They intend the bubble to float and hold the retina up which means being face down on a ring for several days. I got the impression that nookie was banned during this period.

My ball was black chrome. Perfectly spherical and quite beautiful. It got a tad smaller every day. Half way, about day five, it was okay to do some cooking. I got a huge knife and the carrots, however every time I looked down, the ball would float up and obscure the cutting board. I erred on the side of fingers.

Any shaking of the eye might cause the ball to divide up like mercury, but still in spheres. Kool! I could make little men with big bodies and tiny heads. Try really hard and I could give it little round arms. I resisted all temptation to create the other three things.

Day eight. I sat in my car and realised that I could see out of the wind-shield and the tops of the dials. Hooray! Hmmmm . . . Physics 101. What's that about the direction balloons go when you brake? Backwards? I'll leave it another couple of days. Day ten. The tiny ball that was there yesterday had gone. Nothing. Perfect. A good job because it was the check-up day and a 60 mile round trip.

A few weeks later my eyesight was astonishingly good. ~ 20/15. I was on a high. I'd got me BMW 6 Twin turbo and swung by the Ipswich agents on my way to hospital. 5M. Seems sensible. Twin clutch. Just what I need. I can also thank my maker for restraining me from that fascinating toy.

The cataract came on schedule. It was a bit tricky - being a perfectionist is a burden sometimes. I think the edge of the lens was folded, but I'm not sure. I was offered laser treatment.

After a few minutes with this lovely lady I felt totally confident. She had many years experience and could see some targets. Zap, zap, zap-zap. I lost count. I went outside and immediately realised the vision had improved enormously. It was never quite what it was with the natural lens, but pretty darn good. I felt 30, and clearly in need of a younger wife. Then my hearing exploded. Also, I don't make enough tears. Perhaps just little holes in my eyes might leak enough to lubricate them.

Thanks for adding to this one. I can see a similar train of thinking here, in that I also suspected other things as possibly being involved, such as dental or sinus issues, and I had a sinus revision procedure only a couple of years or so ago. In my case the MRI did not reveal anything sinister but equally I still had no real answers, so this MRV procedure in reference to IH is interesting.

Until I had my MRI I was of the thinking that some blood supply issue could be the underlying reason, perhaps a problem putting pressure on the optic nerve for example, and IH sounds like it could do something like that, just not in a way I'd considered before. You mention eye pain, and I believe I've had the same, it can be quite piercing, almost a stabbing like pain, but usually doesn't last long.

Your mention of case rarity may well be correct too, especially when PVD is also involved. It'll be interesting to see how things pan out in your case, although I can't help but wonder if the lumbar puncture may offer a one off fix, or if I'm correct, and the procedure is to remove some cerebrospinal fluid to reduce pressure, if it may become needed more often in some cases. Thanks for the info and good luck with your situation.

Me too
 

Hi All

New to this forum but thought I’d share my experience as it involves the pulsing issue.

A few weeks ago I noticed a pulsing in my left eye when heart rate was up and I was recovering. (I’m a 59 year old male distance athlete - swimmer/cyclist kind of thing). Saw my optician who said I had a very mild cataract but nothing serious.

Over the next couple of weeks the pulsing persisted and I experienced a shadow top left of my eye plus a floating black spot and light flashes.

I felt something was wrong and didn’t want to wait for a Covid delayed GP referral which would have taken weeks. So, last Friday, I took myself into Moorfields Eye Hospital in London (they have an emergency walk in department) and told them my symptoms. I got there at 0930 and by 1330 I was having emergency surgery for a ‘macular on detached retina’ (four words I never previously realised could be strung together in a sentence!).

It’s now Tuesday and I’m three days into recovery with an eye full of gas and a (hopefully) fixed retina. I’m ‘posturing’ on the left side which essentially means lying down for 5 days.

The gas bubble continues to pulse so we’ll see if it settles.

But a note to anyone experiencing these symptoms to go straight to eye emergency. Everyone was telling me how fortunate I have been to catch it early before the macular was detached.

Thanks to Moorfields - unbelievable service. I still can’t believe I was able to walk into one of the world’s finest eye hospitals and be operated on in hours… all, of course, on the NHS.

Stay eye healthy folks and anyone who’s had a similar op to me… please feel free to reassure me that my sight in the affected eye WILL return 😆.

Best

Hubblebubble

Anyone else wondered about the OP, Brockenspectre? I’ve not seen the name on the forum for a long time.

She's on FB a little bit. Sadly she's battling cancer but seems to be winning. Typing etc cause her great pain so she's loath to do that at the moment.

Odd flashing lights and changing geometric shapes in one eye can also commonly be caused by a migraine. i.e. a brain problem, not an eye problem. Mild migraines can cause visual disturbances without a headache.

But obviously one should not assume this; get the eye itself checked ASAP.