hi,

i checked into the ER recently because i thought i had suffered a mini stroke. 3-4 weeks ago, i had the following symptoms: cataract-like effects on my left eye, hjard for me to keep my fingers straight opn my left hand, i couldn't even take one ste[ woth my legs. they ran an mri and found no changes from the last angiogram i did last december. so no idea what is causing this. anybody have an idea what  may be the cause of all these symptoms?

just as an aside, i doubt whether this has a direct effect but all these symptoms came about a couple of days after i had a neck mass biopsied.

dw1

dw1 wrote on Apr 1^st, 2004 at 9:24am:

cataract-like effects on my left eye

Hi dw1 - I'm sorry you are going through a difficult time right now.  I was wondering what you meant by "cataract-like effects?"  I had 2 surgeries at the beginning of the year and 2 days after I came back from the hospital I was treated for pink-eye.  But it came back - when I wake up in the morning my vision is very blurry - like there's a film over my eye.  Is this like what you were experiencing?  I e-mailed Dr. Scott to see if this has anything to do with the surgery - if this is an indication of anything wrong???? - Shari

hi,

forgot to mention: i asked my surgeon why i wasn;t on blood thinner and he said there could be the risk of bleeding in the brain.

i have a clot on my left side that's shrinking on its own. anybody heard of this reasoning?

doug

Doug,
        If theres a risk of bleeding in the brain I don't understand why your on blood thinners unless I'm understanding it or read it wrong. My daughter took lovenox injection until her surgery but like most just takes an ecotrin a day for life after.  [smiley=confused.gif]  :-/               Nancy

Hi Doug:

I also recently asked my doctor why I am not on blood thinners, and he sorta told me the same thing. He said, I don't have a problem with clotting, though. He said since I haven't had clotting, it would just make me bleed more if I got a cut...

So, I guess the blood thinners are only for some cases. Have you had surgery yet? What you are describing sound like a TIA. I had 2 surgeries 14 years ago, and still have slight tingling occasionally.

And my vision has had some issues lately. Actually, only once, I was driving home after a business dinner (and had 3 glasses of wine) and all the sudden the tail lights of the car in front of me where moving very fast up and down. I wasn't drunk, and tried shaking my head, and hitting myself in the head, opened one eye, then the other, and nothing helped. I had to just slow down and try to figure out how I was going to get off the road with out having a wreck. Then, it went away, and hasn't happened since....

Of coure I called my doctor the next day, and he upped my dosage of Keppra, which is an anticonvulsant. He thinks my eyes were having sort of a seizure. And then one more thing about vision that I have noticed... I get blurred vision like no periferal (sp?) vision before I get a migrane, or sometimes it just happens.

My advise to you is just be sure you are getting enough rest and eating well because when I don't, weird things start happening...

I hope this all healped a little...   :-/

Take Care  :D

Sara ;;D

Sorry Doug,
                      My mistake I read your post wrong your prabably saying she's a nut whats she talking about. Sorry my mistake!!
                         Nancy :-/ >:(

Sara wrote on Apr 4^th, 2004 at 7:39pm:

And then one more thing about vision that I have noticed... I get blurred vision like no periferal (sp?) vision before I get a migrane, or sometimes it just happens.

Hi Sara - This is exactly what happened to me.  It's like what I imagine a TIA looks like - through your eye.  Have you had this checked by your eye doctor?  My doc gave me the field of vision test.  It shows any nerve damage - I showed minor damage - nothing to be worried about.  But it's a good idea just to watch this.  Just my advise...

-Shari

Hi Shari,

My left eye seems like it has a film over it. When I close one eye, I definitely noticed the difference. Up until a month ago when this problem started, I had better than 20/20 vision. Now it's just difficult for my left eye to focus. UI can still see but everything just looks slightly unfocused.

I thought it might be a TIA as well but they ran an mri and found nothing different when compared to the angiogram I took last December.

Another problem: I just noticed I;m more weak and fatigue, maybe I'm one of the rare  ones to have BOTH MS and mm.

doug

dw1 wrote on Apr 5^th, 2004 at 9:31am:

I thought it might be a TIA as well but they ran an mri and found nothing different when compared to the angiogram I took last December.

Hi Doug,

I'm definately not a doctor so I'm not saying they can't compare your MRI results with your angiogram and get some good understanding out of it.  It just sounds a little bit like comparing apples to oranges bowling balls to me.  Maybe I don't get it?

I would at least check into that field of vision test Shari mentioned.  Simply to rule out any nerve damage.  Just my opinion.

DJ

Hi All,

Re blood thinners, I was taken off aspirin nearly a couple of years ago. Until then I was on it since I was diagnosed back in 1990. Again, just as it was suggested to you, Doug, it was because of the increased risk of bleeding into the brain as an adult. My doctors had told me that I would be coming off my aspirin at some point but had not been sure when was the right time. When I was 17, I developed stomach ulcers as a direct effect of 8 continuous years of aspirin (the other reasons for stomach ulcers had been ruled out) so I was put on medication for that and started taking enteric coated aspirin. It settled down but started flaring up again a couple of years ago - I had severe anaemia and the doctors suspected that it was because of the ulcers again so that was the time my aspirin-taking was reconsidered. After my next annual appointment, I was taken off aspirin.

As for the strange vision probs, I get the occaisonal problems with my vision too. There are two different probs I get - one rare and one that sometime occurs daily. The rare one has only ever happend about six times since being diagnosed whereby I get a bad headache (on one side) that is accompanied by these weird (what I can only describe as) psychadelic black and white patterns (that's how I described it to my doctors) going on in a bit of one eye. Sometimes my arm(s) and leg(s) are affected too. This can last upto an hour. My doctors told me that it was probably something going on with the blood supply to the brain - may be some form of TIA.

The other thing I get is what I call, 'grey outs.' Sometimes when I stand up from sitting or lying down, my vision goes all grey - if it's a bad one then my arm(s) and leg(s) are affected and/or my vision starts going black and my hearing starts fading out - like I'm just about to have a black out. Again, my doctors think that it is some form of TIA - they checked out my blood pressure which seems normal. Does anyone else experience this? They only last a few seconds but can be a bit scary esp if it's a bad one and I think I might black out - though (touch wood) I never have.

Oh yes, Sara, you know those patches of numbness you get in your fingers and face? I get them too. Before I read your post I thought it was just me! In my fingers, I get a patch that sort of spreads to the next finger. With my face it's usually a patch to one side above the top of my top lip. It only lasts a minute or so.

Oh yes, and one more thing, was wondering if anyone knows if Moya Moya is related to the higher probabilty of having short/long sightedness. My field of vision is fine and so is my optic nerve but just wondered about my short sightedness being linked to Moya Moya coz of the fact that my Parents didn't need glasses until they were well into their forties whereas I've needed glasses since I was 11.

By the time you get this reply, I hope you are feeling much better Doug.

Best Wishes to you all,

Roselyn

Hi, me again,

Just reread the conversation but was wondering if this feeling of having a film over one eye is the same feeling that I get - I describe it as like feeling as if I have a furry eyeball...don't laugh but that's how it feels to me and so that's the way I describe it. I think my doctors have been kept amused by my descriptions of my symptoms, since I was first diagnosed.  Forgot to mention that in my last essay!!!!

Roselyn

I was placed on plavix when I was diagnosed with MM because of the risk of rupturing the callateral vessels created by the body with MM.  My nuerologist felt we needed to balance the risk thinning my blood enough to get better flow and thinning so much that I himmerage.  It worked pretty good for 4 years until I started having problems and went to Stanford for a second opinion and surgery.  As far as the fuzzy vision I had that in both eyes for a little while.  I was actually my first symptom.  My eye doctor said it was a painless migrain causing it.  I asked my neurologist and he agreed that some migrains are painless and affect your vision.  I dont know if that is what you have.  That is just my experience.   Best of luck and God bless.

David Farthing

FYI - I went back to my doctor regarding the "film" over my eye and we realized that it was nothing related to MM, in my case.  I actually developed an allergy, to what, I don't know - but it's probably seasonal.  This accouted for my "film" and severly red, itchy eyes.  Never had an allergy in my life until now.  Go figure!

-Shari

Just been onto the NHS Direct website, looking at migraine and yes, it says something about chequerboard patterns (my psychadelic patterns do appear to be like that) with visual problems and speculation that it's something to do with blood supply of the skull. Now that I come to think of it, migraine has been mentioned to me before. Can't remember if the the furry eye feeling went with these episodes but I've had the furry eye feeling more recently - perhaps it's a milder version of what I used to get. I don't think it's an allergy thing coz I know what to have an allergy feels like (I have hayfever) plus my eye isn't red or itchy when it happens. Glad it turns out the film over your eye feeling wasn't anything serious or connected with Moya Moya, Shari and thanks for the migraine suggestion, David - I think that's what it is. Thanks for both your responses. Best wishes,

Roselyn

Forgot to mention, re what I call 'grey outs,' it was suggested to me on another website that this is called 'amaurosis fugax.' Was just wondering if any other Moya Moya patients have these symptoms post op too. My grey outs only started around three years after both surgeries.