Vision problems and multiple sclerosis
My eyesight has been giving me more and more trouble lately. When I wake up in the morning it takes me more time than usual to properly focus. I will prop myself up in bed and have to rub my eyes countless times just to see straight.
At that time of the day don’t expect me to be able to read a text message, email or anything else for that matter, without difficulties. If a text message is not responded to for more time than what was expected, don’t hold it against me. I will eventually get to it… by next year.
At the age of 12 I started wearing glasses and hated all the difficulties just trying to keep them clean or to not fog up in humid weather. Twenty years ago I got Lasik surgery to correct my vision. According to the Ophthalmologist, now my eyesight is 20/20. There’s a lesion in my brain that is causing me to have some blurred vision in my left eye but other than that, all is well there.
The problem for me is that the muscles in my eyes are weak and causing me to see a shadow beside each letter. It’s called double vision. It’s like a copy of the word is overlapping itself but slightly offset making a confusing mess. Even making the text display a larger scale helps to read clearer but doesn’t remedy the issue.
Just writing this post is cumbersome and takes more time than usual to complete. Of course I have become a hunt-and-peck typist unlike in my glory days where I could type over 75 words a minute. Between eyesight and numb fingers, I feel helpless with the internet.
And don’t even talk about telling me to use a speech to text app. The apps always misunderstand what I’m saying and interpreting it with a bunch of nonsense. Then once I correct the word errors, the punctuation takes extra steps to properly add. It’s a no win situation.
I have noticed when I’m watching TV I tend to close my left eye in order to view things clearer and to help keep me from getting dizzy. Yes, my eyesight makes me dizzy at times. Who wants to be on a rollercoaster ride while watching a movie? Not me! Thus the one eye method works. It’s like my eyes aren’t tracking exactly one with the other as they should.
My advice… relax and be grateful for whatever sight you have. Recognize the challenges that show up and look for the bright side through it all. Appreciate the adventures you may encounter along the way for there will be many.
1. Simplify your life.
I’m the same, had to start wearing varifocals which aren’t cheap, and I constantly find myself closing my right eye a lot as that’s the eye that I had ON. Now the nerve endings in that eye are so damaged I couldn’t have corrective surgery, so now my right eye just disappears to look at whatever it wants to, which I find embarrassing when talking to someone face to face.
I hate to hear that. The face to face is always a bit weird for me too.
I’m so glad you persist in writing your blog despite the challenges. It makes me smile every time and reminds me to look for the bright side. It seems there always is one!! Some days we just need to work a little harder to seek it out – and you help remind me to find it 🌤️ Thanks for that!
Thank you Kelly. This made me smile! 🙂
See if you can go to an Orthoptician. It’s a physical therapist for your eyes. After a bad bout with optic neuritis I saw one and it made all the difference in the world.
Thanks for the tip Carolyn.
My husband can’t figure out why I constantly put my reading glasses on and take them off when reading something like a magazine. Different fonts may require my “interpretation” with or without glasses.
It’s the same with my glasses for distance. I might wear these for TV and I may not. 🤷🏼♀️ It depends on what I’m watching. I can’t adjust to bifocals trust me I have tried numerous different times but they always seem to make vertigo worse for me.
Just like the world of MS, my vision changes with the unpredictable changing weather …often and guaranteed to keep me guessing every time!
That sounds like me too. xoxo
Love your posts! When I can decide what to wear if anything to read them…(referring to eyeglasses btw lol)
haha xoxo