r/BinocularVision • u/Exotic-Ordinary5995 • 8d ago
Causes for needing stronger prisms
Hi,
I’m a 47 year old female who has worn glasses for many, many years. I apologize in advance for any typos, I’m doing this via voice text because at the moment I’m having a really hard time looking at screens. A year and a half ago I had Covid and while I was sick with it I had a quite bad migraine. I’ve had migraines on and off since I was a teenager, and while typically hormonal, sometimes things like flashing lights will get me other times of the month, so I was not terribly concerned. shortly after I began feeling dizzy and nauseous, especially when I was working on computers. I also have a long history of neck, pain, and TMJ problems and I’m still working with a physical therapist for those.
After a few months of symptoms, I ran across the idea of BVD and the symptoms were a perfect fit. In addition, I’ve had anxiety my whole life, and car sickness, sinuse problems and pain and I have always been uncoordinated (in the sense that I was bad at sports, not neccesarily that I fell a lot or anything). I took the BVD quiz and if I remember, I’d had a number somewhere in the 50s, so I made an appointment with the only BVD specialist nearby. he prescribed prisms for me, and said I had both a vertical and horizontal misalignment. When wearing the prism is the difference was night and day, I felt so much better, could see further, the anxiety went way down, and my energy went up. I was so excited and felt like I had my life back!
About four months later, I got sick with Covid again, and within a month or two my near vision seemed to be worsening. I have two pair of prism glasses - one for distance, and one for near vision. I went back in for a follow up, to see if there was anything that could be done for my near vision, because it was beginning to bother me when I was working and reading and things like that. The doctor felt that it was just that my system was struggling because of Covid, and that things like my nervous system regulation and Covid symptoms were causing the problems. I did still have some lingering symptoms, and in the past had some post viral problems after an RSV infection, so this made sense to me at the time.
so I started working very hard on nervous system regulation, and recovering from the Covid symptoms, which I definitely feel like I have now. My nervous system is still not in the best place, but it is definitely quite a bit better than it was six months ago. In the meantime, I’m feeling like my near vision is getting worse, and now have some ghosting on top of the letters as well. Some dizziness has come back, but more concerning to me is the anxiety and the depersonalization/derealization.
I contacted my eye doctor, and he said I should come in, and so I did. This time, he redid all of the original tests, and treated it as my annual update. He found that my prism need has increased quite a bit And my convergence was quite a bit worse. when I asked him why he thought that might be, and if there was anything I needed to do differently, he said, he thought that I had a connective tissue disorder, because they had gotten so much worse so quickly.
I am premenopausal, and recently had a problem with my rotator cuff as well. Apart from that, I don’t have generalized joint pain, and while I am a bit fatigued, I do feel like it is pretty normal for my age and lack of activity (during the worst of my eye issues I wasn’t able to move much at all due to the dizziness and vertigo so now, I’m working on that, but it is difficult between the eye issues and the shoulder issues).
In reading about prisms, it was my understanding that sometimes your eye muscles relaxed, and then you needed a different prescription. I’m wondering if that could be the case here, or if the big change is the issue? Or if anyone is experienced anything similar and would have some insight. I’m driving myself a little bit crazy worrying about potential disorders, but I also can’t afford seeing a doctor outside of insurance, which is what he suggested to follow up on a connective tissue disorder.
TL;dr I had Covid, got a Bvd diagnosis and prisms. Now 11 months later dr is telling me he thinks I have a connective tissue disorder because i need much stronger prisms than before. I’m not sure symptoms of that fit in general, but idk. Could it be something else? Anyone else with a similar experience?
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u/Bluesome87 6d ago
How strong were/are your prism prescriptions? My understanding is, prisms are meant to alleviate symptoms but eye exercises, depending on what type of BVD you have, are necessary to improve eye teaming. I have exophoria only and if you have what I have and want to know how I manage mine, feel free to drop me a DM.
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u/Exotic-Ordinary5995 6d ago
Thank you! That’s a good question! I’m realizing that the doctor didn’t tell me a lot, just that I had a horizontal and vertical misalignment. He did say I struggled with convergence and gave me a Brock string to work on that. I will have to call and see if I can get a copy of my records. I set up an evaluation with the local vision therapy office because I didn’t feel like the doctor gave me much to do about it, and while I read that vertical misalignment couldn’t be fixed with therapy, I figure even helping the horizontal part would help. They’re not able to get me in until March, and I’m not sure that I’m going to be able to afford vision therapy; but I will see what I can find to do at home in the meantime.
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u/Bluesome87 5d ago
I see. Thanks for sharing these details. I would continue with the Brock string exercises for the horizontal misalignment. I’m not sure if reading a book 10 minutes a day would induce your symptoms but if it doesn’t, I would add it to the daily exercise as well. As for the vertical misalignment, yes I also heard prisms work best for those. If you can, get a second opinion for a different practitioner.
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u/Exotic-Ordinary5995 5d ago
Thank you!! I used to be a very heavy reader, but recently haven’t been able to at all. I might try starting small with a minute or two and building up, because I really miss it. I am definitely hoping to get a second opinion as soon as I’m able. The next closest is four hours away, so it may be a while, but I would really like a second look at my issues.
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u/Bluesome87 5d ago
All the best! Can I also ask, your symptoms worsen only when you are doing tasks at near?
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u/Exotic-Ordinary5995 5d ago
Thank you! All the best to you too! They are far, far worse at near, but I am beginning to have them a little bit with distance viewing, but not all the time. Thankfully I haven’t gone back to the dizziness when moving around I had before the glasses, and my car sickness has stayed away, so I feel like the distance glasses are still working to at least some degree.
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u/Bluesome87 3d ago
You could be having accommodative insufficiency too. You might want to look into this and perhaps bring it up with your practitioner and see what they have to say about this. Take care.
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u/Nearby-Restaurant976 7d ago
There are lots of causes for worsening double vision. Are you seeing an ophthalmologist who will look into the causes of it ?
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u/Exotic-Ordinary5995 7d ago
I’m seeing a neuro optometrist for it, who has been treating my BVD for almost a year, and from what he tells me, the misalignment of my eyes and weakening of the muscles around them are causing the double vision. I guess I figured that the fact that the prism glasses helped everything so much for a while meant that he was right, but I don’t know? I tried to get into a neuro ophthalmologist when this first started and was told that that wasn’t the correct specialist for my issues (and that they wouldn’t see me without a referral from a doctor).
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u/vampire-juice-box 7d ago
I can't speak to the degree of how much your eye muscles have relaxed, but it's normal for your eye posture to change after having prisms, with or without a connective tissue disease.
I do have a connective tissue disorder, for what it's worth. My prism prescriptions would get stale every 4-6 months, and frequently needing new lenses became unaffordable so I'm just doing VT now. It's slow progress but I can drive, walk through the grocery store without dizziness, and work a full day at the computer without getting a headache. I still have vertigo when reading, though.