Trigeminal Neuralgia and Blurry Vision
I am that person that Google searches my illness, convincing myself I’m pregnant or 5 minutes away from death, no matter how many times I remind myself how ridiculous I’m being. This last few weeks, I’ve been convincing myself I’m going blind!
In May, I got my first pair of prescription glasses. I’d been struggling to read in the evenings, so I was given a small prescription in a lovely pink and brown pair of reading glasses for using after work.. and I can tell the difference when I wear them, but not completely.
Some evenings I just cannot read anything – I feel like I can’t focus my eyes and I know I’m really straining my eyes trying to read my book or phone. Sometimes during the day at work, I’m noticing cloudy ‘blobs’ in my vision, or I can feel my eye going blurry from the corner and it is driving me mad!
As, most of the time, I’m noticing it on my left side, I do tend to shrug it off with a quick ‘oh, it’s on my bad side, it’s on my TN’s side, I’ll be fine’, because everything that happens on my left side just tends to be down to my TN!
Sore ear? Ear infection? Probably just my neuralgia. Pain in my mouth? Toothache? Probably just my neuralgia. Stabbing pain in my temple? Headache? Definitely just my neuralgia!
I finally plucked up the courage to call my optician on Tuesday. The receptionist seemed super nice & said he’d get the optician to call me back regarding whether I needed an appointment or should see my GP for a neuro-ophthalmology referral or whatever they thought would be best. I waited. I waited some more. I gave it until this morning, Sunday morning, before I made my way into Boots Opticians and asked when exactly I should be expecting a phonecall back. The lady on the desk could not have been more apologetic and, surprisingly, had actually heard of Trigeminal Neuralgia, which was such a relief because it saved me explaining myself!
The optician has advised I come in for a repeat eye test, before deciding next steps, so I feel positive that at least that’s first steps in hopefully finding out if there’s anything that can be done for me. There was mention of my medication potentially causing problems with the focusing of my eyes, there was mention of possibly a stronger prescription and, of course, there’s the general worry that my brain is causing problems again – is another nerve being pressed on by a swollen blood vessel?
Update: I lost my vision in my right eye.
The Pain Corner 
What ended up happening with this?
I’ve had mild trigeminal neuralgia for 3-4 years, and over the last two weeks have had terrible blurred vision on the same side of my face. I thought initially it was the gabpentin but even after getting off it didn’t seem to help, and then of course the aching came back. Checked with ophthalmologist and they said there was nothing going on they could see besides the usual nonsense I’ve already had (myopia and starting to get some presbyopia), so I’m a bit at a loss now. Trying to get referral to a neuro-ophthalmologist. Only other thing I can think of is the 50 mg amitriptyline I’m on for an unlrelated issue, but I’ve been on it forever and never had anything like this. So frustrating…it makes it very difficult to function at work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m still the same unfortunately Brian 😦 some glasses made no improvement & I’m experiencing some slight nystagmus at times! I’m also at a loss 😦 I could do with a neuro-opthalmic referral but it’s a lot more fuss than I have energy for!
LikeLike
I was diagnosed of trigeminal neuralgia on my right side, did surgery and gammaknife radiology.Though still in pain,I noticed a sudden blurred vision this Monday morning after school run.My dear I can’t describe how my vision has been.so what can be done to this to feel my normal self.It is keeping me uncomfortable.Am I going blind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m so sorry, have you contacted your doctor urgently?
LikeLike
I started noticing blurry vision in my right eye shortly after receiving my second Pfizer vaccine shot. Optometrist said nothing wrong with eye and gave me
LikeLiked by 1 person
I started noticing blurry vision shortly after receiving second Pfizer vaccine shot. Optometrist said nothing wrong with eye. Ask if I had herpes zoster [shingles]. Had the shingles vax. Cold sores? no. Gave me an Rx for antiviral. Did nothing. Got progressively worse with pain in right temple and right eye socket. Primary care doc said TN. Has gotten much worse. Had ophthalmologist examine, same report. I use .5mg clonazepam at night to sleep.
cookies made with canabutter are effective in combatting pain. ie butter laced with marijuana. Loss of vision is significant concern.
LikeLiked by 1 person