Podcast 99: Community Q&A

Question 1: “I’ve been dealing with dizziness and a loss of a sense of balance for over two years. I feel like the eye doctors don’t look beyond eyes and the other doctors I’ve seen don’t look at eyes at all. I have hyperopia and amblyopia which resulted in esotropia as a child. I haven’t had any surgeries. I’ve been experiencing double vision more often lately so I’ve assumed this is related to the dizziness. I’m 31 now and noticed an increase in double vision about 3 years ago. I’ve seen 2 ophthalmologists and 3 optometrists in the last 2 years. I did 32 weeks of vision therapy to try to correct the strabismus. After vision therapy was unsuccessful I was prescribed 1.00 base out prism glasses. I didn’t like the 1.00 prism glasses since they were combined with a pretty strong progressive prescription that made me feel like I’m looking through a fishbowl and I found them disorienting. I have resumed wearing non-prism lenses just because they feel more comfortable. My first physical therapist’s diagnosis was pressure on my occipital nerves. Since I’ve had the eye alignment issues all my life it’s hard for me to not keep thinking that’s where the problem is. I’m hesitant to have my neck operated on for obvious reasons but definitely because I don’t know if it will fix my dizziness and balance issues. My uneducated theory on this is that I’ve had eye strain for so long from my strabismus and perhaps even from straining through my hyperopia that it’s crept down to my neck. This theory is due to the fact that the neck issues are on my left side which is my good eye that does most of my seeing. I also think the weakness in my eye muscles from strabismus may be why I’ve failed the VNG tests. Does this sound plausible?” Question 2: “Hi Dr. Berne, I was dx with age-related macular degeneration (dry) 3 years ago. I go to my eye doctor every 6 months and he says things are getting worse. I have complained that I see better out of my naked eye than his glasses. I wear progressive lenses. My only complaint is I don’t see well at night when I drive. Otherwise I can see clearly when I read. What do you suggest?”