Vertical Binocular Diplopia

[covetsthesun]

Quite a mouthful but it was a scary event. I had a sudden onset double vision attack Monday. Saw the ophthalmologist, got labs to rule out a few things and see my PCP tomorrow to get the medical machine up and rolling to find out what the heck happened to my brain. The double eye vision was "vertical"... I looked in the mirror and had four eyes... 2 stacked up on top of 2 more. No other symptoms. But wow! Lasted 5 or so minutes. I thought I'd had a TIA.

Eye doc examined eyes...they're good...but ordered labs "stat". Concerns are TIA, Silent Sinus Syndrome, MS, tumor, aneurysm and probably some other things I don't want. Could be a neurological migraine issue or stress related. I get "ocular migraines" occasionally but never a head ache.

Has anyone ever had anything like this? What caused it?

cts

[covetsthesun]

Went to my PCP yesterday. He doesn't know what is going on, but ordered 2 MRI's with and without contrast for Friday. I found something called Silent Sinus Syndrome... apparently it can cause VBD too. ENT's are aware of it but not most other doctors. Anyone ever hear of this?
cts

[covetsthesun]

Thanks for the info. Obviously...this scared the bejeebers out of me!

[folivier]

I had the same as OP a few years ago from wearing contacts and having severe dry eyes. My eye doc figured out that the muscles controlling the eyes were inflamed and prescribed an anti-inflammatory drop. Went away after a week or so of drops. Never had it again.

[Bumpyroad]

mine is diagonal
bumpy

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Mine was caused by a stroke. My brain eventually learned to deal with the spurious input, by ignoring it.

In my case, it was horizontal kinda sorta.

Instead of looking right with my eyeballs moving, I look straight ahead and turn my neck.

I could have gone with a prism in my glasses--but then I'd have double vision more or less all the time the glasses are off.

I did immediately start taking vitamin K-2 and magnesium to restore the levels that were lowered by the vitamin.

I try not to drive at night, but it is much better than it was in 2013.

Chiropractic adjustment seemed to provide some relief.

I asked about wearing a patch to make the right eye do all the work. That apparently is not the issue. It is that one set of muscles gets no signal from my brain--so the eye can't move in sync with the left eye.

I no longer notice the problem--except at the Optometrist, or if I am extremely tired.

I do some exercises for my neck to make sure I don't loose function.