Update on visual disturbances

Valve Replacement Forums

Help Support Valve Replacement Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Sherry

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 27, 2002
Messages
1,449
Location
Southern Indiana
Hello, All,
I started a thread several weeks ago about the grey curtain episodes that I have periodically in my eyes. A few times I had the INR checked right after, and it was low. However, something different happened today. I was teaching this morning, and had an altercation with a student. He promptly got up and flung his desk across the room and stormed out. About five minutes later, my right eye vision flashed and then grayed out like the previous episodes. As soon as it came back (2 minutes later), I had a sub cover my class, and a friend took me to the cardio's office where I have my INR checked. INR was normal, but my blood pressure was 160/100. They made me lie down for awhile and continued monitoring it for 40 minutes or so. It eventually came down, and I went back to school. Now I'm totally confounded about the episodes. :mad:
 
This is more proof to myself, that my personal theory of the brownouts being a direct result of stress, is a little more valid now. :(

Don't you wish for the old 'woodshed' Sherry.... I honestly don't know how all you teachers do it these days. In the old days if we 'got it' at school, we got it twice as hard at home. Now, if a kid 'gets it' at school, the parents call their attorney!

Bless you -- all you teachers out there!
 
vision disturbances

vision disturbances

Hi.
Sorry about the school ordeal.
My, how times have changed with child behavior.
The vision thing almost makes one think it is stress related. Glad you went to cardio promptly, and got it checked out. What else could it be ???
Did he mention, or have any ideas, or answers ? I really don't feel this is a harmless symptom, for any of us....yet, common as it appears to be, there seem to be no answers. Maybe they are tiny-weenie blood clots that travel to the brain and cause symptoms...but no lasting effects....just reminders enough to scare the bejeevers out of you. I have not had the vision disturbances this week...but have had several episodes of the facial numbness, involving the lower lip, bottom front teeth, & part of tongue that lasts about 3 minutes. I have a cardio appmnt later this month, and I'm going to ask about it. He will probably avoid an answer too.
Lulabelle1
 
Sherry - This is just a hypothosis, but I'm guessing that stress that caused your BP to soar. The higher BP, in turn, caused a microembolysm to break loose and lodge in the very small artery that feeds one of your vision centers of the brain. You need to be in a lower stress related occupation - maybe a firefighter or a Marine ? :D
 
Vision issues are fairly common following valve surgery. These are the smallest blood vessels in the body. Any small flakes can lodge in the capillaries. Usually they will float away, but in a few rare cases, the retina will loose vision in a portion of the eye permanently. I doubt if you have a major problem. BP increase can cause these flakes to flow. This will not happen after your body has healed totally.

GET RID OF THE STRESS! It is called "non illigitium i carborundum est." (Don't let the bastards grind you down).
 
Sherry,
I haven't had my valve replaced yet, but I have had several of those episodes, and they all occured at school, while I was teaching.
One time, I was upset at something that had happened. The other two times, I had just started class and was lecturing. I don't know about you, but I find that teaching is much more physically demanding than what one would think. I'm moving alot of air around (hot air the kids would tell you) when I'm trying to talk loud enough for a classroom full of students to hear me.
The last time it happened, I waited two hours to go to the school nurse, and my blood pressure was still running about 144/95. No telling what it was when the episode initially occured.
Mary
 
I had only seen the short version, Illegitimi non carborundum. Probably an imperfect version. However, I agree.

It certainly does sound stress-related, doesn't it? I was just thinking how I had been having those atypical migraine (visual manifestations) issues almost daily after surgery, but haven't had any in the last two weeks. It's probably because I don't have anyone to entertain me with their desk-throwing expertise, or with other vivid displays of their inadequate temper control.

I hope your cardiologist can grok the connection between the unacceptable class behavior and your blood pressure episode. Mine would likely want to double my meds immediately. I'm wearing an ambulatory BP monitor right now, to prove to him that my blood pressure really does go up when I walk into his office.

Six weeks. You can do it. Six more weeks...
 
Hi Sherry,

I have been a migraine sufferer for years. Do a search on 'ocular migraine'. You can have a migraine without the headache. Recently I have tied my breif blurred vision to caffine. Have had a complete neuro workup x 2. Full eye exam. They even took photos of the inner eye. No damage to my eyes or brain. So.......we can rule out clots and TIA's.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Hello, All,
Thanks for the replies. John and Joann, I had my surgery seven years ago, so let's hope my body is completely healed by now. I've suffered from these visual things from the moment that valve went into my body. The weird thing about today's episode, however, was that it directly followed a very high stress situation, plus my b.p. was sky high 20 minutes after the fact. I always thought it was an INR thing, and coincidentally, twice before, the INR was low but not today. Mary, you certainly understand the stress issues that go along with teaching. It's frustrating to think you have no control over these bodily reactions that, in all honesty, could be something serious. Kids are going to fight, throw chairs, mouth off, etc., and I'm just going to have to deal with it better, I guess. Wish I could get my body to understand that :confused:
 
visuals

visuals

wow, what a class room episode. I'm sorry to hear. I teach evening college and luckily don't have that behavior. That must have been scary to you and I can understand the sky high BP.
I pretty much see the migraine aura in varying degress all day long since surgery, rarely do I get the headaches, just the aura. Like most things the docs don't know why. Like my rib cage pain, I deal with it and am grateful my heart is healthy,
I do take Inderal 80mg LA that is supposed to prevent migraines. It is a beta blocker that helps keep BP down and precaution against A-fib
Jim
 
I have been keeping a log of the visual episodes I've been having trying to find some kind of common thread, but I haven't found anything. They can happen at any time- while I'm exercising, resting, eating,etc... In my case, they don't seem to have any connection to stress and my blood pressure is always low. The only thing that I have found is that they seem to come in waves. I have gone as long as a month without having any, but then they might happen every day for 3 or 4 days in a row. I see my cardiologist tomorrow and I will bring it up, but from what I've read in this forum, I'm not expecting any answers.
 
Old stuff

Old stuff

Had these "curtains" my entire life. When I was younger a pounding migraine would subsequently follow the ocular blurring. As I got older only experienced the blurring a few times a year, without the killer migraine. Since my VR, last July, I now have the "curtains" a few times a month. Ran some neuro tests, etc. Cardiologist and neurologist claim absolutely not clot related. They believe it is due to stress, blood vessels expand, causing minute ocular pressure. These episodes last about 20 minutes without headadche.
 
If I were to take an educated guess.......it all boils down to circulation. Something all of us are not 100% on. Fix or no fix!

Was once told that there is no comparison to a "native well functioning heart valve". These disturbances though pesky........are just a drop in the bucket compared to the alternative. ;) As Dick V has aften stated. "Every day above ground is a good day" :D Hey........ where is that guy? :confused:
 
Not necessarily, Gina. I had an echo today, and the tech said she was "definitely impressed." She showed me the recording of my heart beating on her monitor (which she wouldn't do before the surgery), and said, "If I didn't know that you had had the surgery, there is no physical way that I could tell that this is not a completely normal valve."

Damn, that felt good.

If it makes you feel any better, while I'm not having the visual disturbances, I am getting a headache. Why? It was good news...
 
Count me in the visual disturbances club. Since surgery, I have been seeing double, having wierd ocular pressure (like someone is pressing on the front of my eyes) and gray curtains on the periphery. These sessions give me advanced warning - the pressure builds on the front of my eyes and it becomes increasingly hard to focus, then the double vision comes for a few minutes before spontaneously resolving. This morning it happened in rush hour traffic, which was a bit unnerving. Then the gray curtain episode later in the day. Wish I could blame it on clots, but I am a good eight months out of surgery and had a repair. . . .and they don't throw clots, do they? No history of migraines, normal blood pressure, etc.

Any input would be appreciated. I hate to go back to the eye doc :rolleyes: as he did a complete workup in December to rule out Marfans. . .

Melissa
 
I started having the blurring episodes about four years ago and would have them 2-3 times a year, if that. I was worked up for MS and finally an ophthalmologist diagnosed me with ocular migraines - said she gets the VERY same thing and she does not have heart valve problems.

That would be scary, Melissa, to have the blurring during rush hour traffic in Denver! I have not yet had an episode in a compromising situation, yet - usually mine occur in the morning - sitting here at my work desk looking at the computer, although I have had them at other times when up and moving around, etc.

I don't know why these visual abnormalities occur, but when we go through a major assault on our bodies with such a thing as heart surgery, I believe it totally messes up our hormones - in BOTH men and women. People don't realize that there are all sorts of hormones in our bodies - not just sex hormones - that run things and stress to the body of any kind long-term or short-term can really get us out of whack. I don't know how that would affect our vision and blood vessels causing "migraines" which is what I believe they are - do NOT believe they are clots in 95% of the cases - but this is my theory and take on things. Also there are hormones in the heart and as Gina said, an abnormal heart valve - fixed or not fixed - will cause problems - there again, hormones are interrelated to the heart function.

I have thought about calling my cardiologist about the episodes, but I can almost bet they will have no clue as to what is going on either and I just am not ready for more tests and doctors!!

Christina L.
 
Hormones not for sex? What possible use could they be?! :D

I think I agree about the ocular/atypical migraines not being from clots. I have read that "regular" migraines are sometimes associated with vascular spasms in the vessels serving the scalp muscles. It would make some sense that these ocular incidents could be associated with spasms in vessels serving the optic nerve, or causing scalp muscles adjacent to the optic nerve to put pressure on it by causing cramping.

Such an occurrence can reasonably relate to stress, either physical or mental, or to sudden changes in hormone levels. It could also be triggered by events like barometric pressure, or responses to loud or continuous noises or lights. There are any number of other factors that could be valid triggers.

The result could be the same effect for many people, but the triggers could conceivably be different for each person. This would make it more difficult to assess cause, as it would be a moving target.

Food for thought...
 
I saw my cardio today and told him about the vision problems. He suggested a few things: first he wanted to rule out clots, so he suggested I go on plavix for 2 months and see if it got any better. He said if that didn't work he would try a medication to raise my low blood pressure, and third, he said if that didn't help he would send me to an eye doctor. First off, I told him I didn't want to go on plavix and asked if I could just try an aspirin a day instead- he agreed to try that. I mentioned that these visual episodes are a common occurance to us valvers and that nobody really seems to have an answer, and he agreed that he may not either, but he atleast wanted to rule a few things out. So we'll see what happens... Oh-- the good news.... got my echo results- over 55% ejection fraction, everything is functioning normally and back down to normal size, and new valve is well seated!! Yeah!!
I was worried I didn't get to it in time, but looks like I did. Whew!
 
Hello, All,
Wow talk of visual disturbances really strikes a chord with all of us. It's such a mystery why all of us valvers are prone to some degree of this. My only concern, and the reason why I revived the thread, is because of my extremely high blood pressure after that chair-throwing incident -- 160/100. That, maybe even more so than the gray curtain, concerned me. By the way, Elphie, congrats on your good checkup :) :)
 
Visual Disturbances

Visual Disturbances

Hi all, I also have visual disturbances, though only occasionally (like maybe 2 X's a month). What happens is this... for probably 20 minutes at a time this 'fuzzy TV screen' (all the little black and white dots along with the static electricity you can see on the screen) effect happens in my eye or eyes. It usually happens about 20 to 30 minutes at a time and eventually fades away. Once in a while, I also see white dots for like a split second and then disappear. A long time ago, I saw an eye doctor, and he said that it was probably eye migranes. Though I never had any head pain accompanied with the impared vision. It gets annoying because sometimes it will happen when I am trying to do work or when I am driving, and have to really really concentrate so that I don't make any mistakes or crash! So, I just live with it and trust that the doc is right, that it is eye migranes. It couldn't have anything to do with my valve replacement because it was about 9 years ago. I have been under a lot of stress lately, but I do not have high blood pressure. So, if it is eye migranes like most other people have said here, then I guess it is just something that we all have to 'deal' with.


Danielle
 

Latest posts

Back
Top