David H. said on 2013/01/03 at 6:10 pm
I am interested in how Monocular Vision Impairment (MVI) can cause fatigue, for example if it can cause headaches and tiredness and whether it can effect the quality of sleep.
I am also interested in what remedies people with MVI use to prevent such symptoms from occurring or to limit their effect.
I lost most of the vision in my right eye four years ago. I have suffered from headaches and fatigue ever since.
Has anyone else experienced similar effects of monocular vision?
I welcome any advice or information.
Best regards
David
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
UK
MissFruitBat said on 03/01/2013 at 6:10 pm
Hello David,
I have not come across your message until now and noticed that it has been some time since you posted this.
May I ask in your experience, are you finding as time goes on that these symptoms are beginning to lessen as your brain adjusts to the changes in your sight? Or are the symptoms at least becoming easier to deal with as you become more familiar with the side effects?
Do you have any sight loss in your other eye, or is it isolated to your right eye?
I've been told that it is very common to experience fatigue, headaches andvarious other symptoms when adjusting to sudden or degenerative sight loss as our brain is receiving different signals to what it has previously been used to. In a similar situation myself, but with both eyes affected, I frequently experience tiredness (and sometimes all over physical exhaustion like I'm coming down with a type of flu) and need to rest or sleep it off. I also experience dizziness and motion sickness when attemtping to work with fractured and fragmented sight. This is often because the distortions are so confusing, it can really send your balance off. Not being able to lay your eye on a steady image or line of landscape and where often the whole room seems to flip over and the wals bend can generally make one feel quite dizzy and detached from the real state of surroundings.
Closing my eyes and laying down is the only thing I've found to help with this. Limiting the amount of tasks you do in one go also seems to stop the worst of it coming on despite still experiencing some afffect.
If you're still having problems sleeping, I find that exercise, even something so simple as walking in the fresh air with a friend helps as it gets the circulation moving and can help with the cognitive strain, especially if you've got a good sighted friend who you can rely on to take the strain of navigating away while you relax and have a good old chin wag. If a reliable guide is not to hand when you would like to take your walk, try a treadmill which also has the advantage of giving you a break from navigation issues and is ideal if it's raining!
Has anyone else found similar symptoms even if not with monocular vision? Does anyone else have any suggestions?
Hope this helps.
MissFB