Wednesday, November 12, 2008

My Bad Eye

I have always had migraine. Known triggers of migraine are lack of sleep, food, strong scents and bright lights. For more literature on migraine you may want to check out www.migrainehelp.com.

For me, more often than not, very strong scent and glaring light are the usual culprits. And when I get unusual headache attacks, like one straight week of daily intake of Advil or Flanax (should not be taken on an empty stomach), I would usually see my ophthalmologist, Dr. Lionel Francisco, M.D. at Asian Hospital and Healthway ATC. Nice and funny fellow, that Dr. Francisco. In a check up more than 4 years ago, he noticed that my right eye iris does not constrict, the pupil is just a hole made by the iris, thus I easily get glared. I was advised to see a Neuro-Opthalmologist. I went to see one at Makati Medical Center, I forget the name as I only went to him once, and like any other neurologist, consultation fee’s higher than MDs in other field of specialization. The good doctor tried drops, reading, flashing light to my eye for hours, but it still won’t constrict. As it was not really something unmanageable, I was just given some drops. Pilocarpine Hydrochloride, I think. Not sure about the name, and DO NOT try medicine without checking with your physician first. And of course, dark glasses for daytime. I just used the drops for a while, as I try not to be too dependent on a medicine. Sunglasses and avoiding having to stay under the sun helps. It’s just kinda hard at night though. Especially when driving. Oncoming car headlights are equally glaring, high-beamers pay attention and take it easy on the beams please. ;-) Don’t look straight into the oncoming car and look sideway to the road instead, like what they advise in driving school, it’s actually in the Driver’s License test questionnaire you know.

Going back to my bad eye, until now we don’t know what is causing it to be like this. We even tried MRI (now that is another story, I had elevated prolactin level which suggests an abnormality in the pituitary gland function and osteoma) to check for tumor in the area, as the tumor can block the optic nerve thus resulting in malfunction of the iris or blindness…but initial reading showed no tumor growing in the area, thank God! I’m yet to go back to Dr. Francisco and a neurologist (for the prolactin and osteoma thingy) to show them the plates. I’ve been putting it off because they might suggest I get another MRI. I’m wearing braces and braces cause image artefacts (distortions), and they had to be taken off and put on again after the procedure. I’m almost done with these brackets. In the meantime… I just gotta wear shades!

*photos from vision.about.com and nymag.com

No comments: