Sophia3

Good question, I wonder where many names I used to recognize went as well.

reading that glaucoma drops can cause side effects in many healthy humans. So no wonder I was sick as a dog last night and my pupils are STILL small today..but THANKFULLY I can see better. Yesterday the world looked dark, even with the brightest lights on...visual dimming to an extreme. Woulda been nice if the specialists might have warned me of the side effects and how long they lasted.

We all complain of meds that dilate eyes. Well today I had to see a neuro-opthamologist. A repeat Visual field test ruled out worrisome potentials. I was born with very narrow angles of the eyes (suspect for narrow angle glaucoma, more rare than open angle and time is critical to fix) My reg eye doctor is an astute Optometrist, ok. Has excellent reputation for picking up eye health and full body health on eye exams. He's treated me 13 years and in last week, had me repeat Visual field test of left eye. On my first visit to see the NEURO SPECIALIST, after a HISTORY of narrow angles and borderline high ocular pressure (a few times) he puts the dilation drops in my eyes (which can raise the pressure w/o checking my eyes normally!?) my eye pressure last week before dilation eye drops was 17 in one eye, and 18 in other. My eyes have NEVER been checked after dilating them as that is known to raise pressure in certain glaucoma pts. 30 minutes after dilation drops in, I complained of eye pain. (My eye doc checks my pressure BEFORE the drops but even then, I do not get eye pain after his drops) The neuro specialist checks my eyes. Rt eye is 30 and left eye 27 ( concerned but they don't panic until it his 70) The neuro got on phone to glaucoma specialist upstairs in building(This eye institute building is like a hospital sized place, I kid you not) Now bad thing about my reg eye doc, he does not answer phone during the day as he can no longer afford to hire help. Economy and all. So when today's specialist office called, not only did they not get the doctor but his answering machine had error saying "Voice mail is full". sigh.so they could not find out if indeed my eyes were checked before or after dilation in my history ( I went by my docs office on the way HOME to learn he ALWAYSchecks pressure in NORMAL state, not a 'med induced pressure state') EIGHT hrs after doses of eye drops to LOWER MY PRESSURE & CONSTRICT, my pupils are STILL tiny, the lights in the house all look dim and I am nauseated. It took repeated drops to get the pressure lowered. Had it stayed high I was to see the glaucoma guy TODAY. Instead I go back Thursday for him and possible laser to lower the pressure. This is NOTHING like the LASIK surgery and is done in lower part of eye so the build up of fluid does not threaten vision. A tiny microscopic hole is put in & no follow up is needed except to see surgeon a few days later. NORMAL OPEN glaucoma, is slow to progress. Narrow angle can come on suddenly and you lose your vision if not treated in matter of couple hours. Much like drugs to DILATE pupils make me sick--though the last exam I took a xanax before and it prevented weirdness & the drops had no epinephrin...., this CONSTRICTING of pupils is freaky cause things are SO DARK. And my eyes still hurt. The Neuro is IGNORANT (imo) of Dysautonomia! Pupil dilation and constriction is a reaction of parasympathetic /sympathetic systems! If a MEDICATION makes something bigger or smaller it's AFFECTING the Autonomic system by forcing it to react..or medically inducing the changes. too much headache to be on laptop long but am DESPERATE to find out why I feel this way hours after the fact. Anybody else here been given glaucoma medicine to LOWER OCULAR pressure/constrict pupils. I would think with us POTS pts, to take drugs to DILATE then meds to constrict, might throw us into a frenzy. I've been exhausted & too ill to take BP (it's across the room!) So today was a shock and the eye drop drug reactions pretty much has me stunned. I feel like I just LEFT the doctors office and it's midnight. Also chest pressure & adrenalin surges. Like an amusement park ride without leaving my bed. Some of you know how that goes. Appreciate feedback if' you've had the eye drops to constrict but this is rare, I know.

Yikes!!!!!!!!!!! what a story. Glad you are home & recovering. Take care of yourself & keep us updated. Healing thoughts and prayers to you and your insides.

old link regarding mito situations. hope this helps. http://dinet.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtop...ondrial+disease

ok LOADING & UNLOADING the dishwasher? I gotta see that..but um, no offense, how would a dog unload the dishwasher w/o getting them dirty again. wow for my really potsy days a dog would be most helpful...but my cats would never go for a dog. I live in a friend's house and he has two cats & I have two..plus no fenced in yard, be tough to talk a dog when it's so cold out (10 degrees!!) But it's great they have these dogs to help people but only if TRULY trained to be service dogs. Big dogs could help with a wheelchair but would have to be huge (St. Bernard, Newfoundland, Rottweiler, etc) Thanks for the info Flop. and let me know if you have pic of unloading the dishwasher. I found this of dog washing dishes.

bumping this up as I am seeing a neuro opthamologist exam in two weeks due to deficits in a visual field tests & unusually narrow angles (rare glaucoma potential as opposed to OPEN angle glaucoma, much more common) I've had weirdness with pituitary stuff for years with recent blood work normal. I first had MRI about 1998 for the pituitary issue and all was well. I have had an intermittently enlarged thyroid we keep an eye on for years (My autonomic doc is endocrinologist, too)it goes up and down, larger and smaller. blood work & ultrasound were all normal last year. but I know the pituitary has much communication with the thyroid....and with us it's complicated. autobodies for Hashimoto's were normal. The eye appt might last 90 minutes and the neuro doc I am seeing does not dilate the eyes? ***? The girl on phone just said lots of testing. WOW. So I've an email back to my autonomic doc to see if he needs to send anything to me to take with me to this doc to sum up ANS issues in a short note. HA. My optometrist immediately picked up the phone & made an appt when I went to his office with my ANS docs email. Not that he is panicking but wanted to get me in. My appt is on the 21st. There are not alot of posts on this when I searched but any more details about tests are appreciated. visual field tests wear me out so much by itself...sigh thanks for any enlightenment

Was a vegetarian years ago..can't do it now due to food intolerances..can't eat gluten protein patties, or too many legumes...no soy (NOT healthy to eat much of that anyway) I had many nutrient deficiencys and Carnitine was in normal range (not something usually tested for) but I don't want to eat LESS red meat and often crave steak. (Carnitine supplements are expensive, come from animals & have gross side effects...so I still eat red meat) That's where Carnitine is, hardly in chicken..so I gave up chicken recently (long story). I am a flexitarian and try to go one day vegan or vegetarian but too many carbs are not good for me and I have hypoglycemia (worse as a kid it caused grand mal seizures which we NOW know was ANS related) I don't want to lose weight and many of us have bad reactions to carbs no matter "how good, natural" the carbs are. Being a vasodilator, carbs can cause low BP or even fainting in many. I'm happy for those of you who do well as vegetarians..but it's not for all of us. I often DO FEEL better after a protein meal..hamburger patty/red meat and a green and small piece of starch in potato form or sometimes bread. If I don't watch the glycemic index, I often feel ILL after a carb based meal..and it worsens splanchnic shunting issues. Some with periodic paralysis will get a seizure from carbs so it's whatever works for individuals. I can eat a small portion of vegetarian red beans and rice from a great New Orleans style restaurant near us..Creole based foods. :-)

Hope you feel better Nina. I could go for an ice cold draft lite beer..and salty snacks.

I had this dye before and no problem. I did have the flushing sensation to the groin as Nina mention..but I loved that part.

Post exertional malaise is very common if you have CFS or POTS/CFS combo (Chronic fatigue syndrome) i have days I can't push (can't be upright) other days I have fatigue I can push through but pay for it hours/day later. Can be quite normal for many.

Sue So sorry for all you have going on. Yes the holidays are VERY depressing for many of us..especially the older we are, the less friends and family we have...thus each loss is a larger impact than those with large family members. Each loss is a huge void to one's life times of memories. And if you can't get out to initiate new relationships, it's more difficult. Of course more friends & new ones NEVER REPLACE loved ones...but helps to fill the gaps as we learn to deal with stages of grief & move on. I am glad you had a nice Thanksgiving..never feel bad for venting here. I mute & channel surf commercials (keep remote next to you!!) as all the commercial emotionalism is too much. Fake happieness wears us out.

I use Firefox with Adblocker plus Add on to keep vertigo inducing flashing adds away. http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/upgrade.html On pages where Firefox doesn't work (few but they are out there, I use Opera but it does not block adds) http://www.opera.com/ Also on Firefox I hate it with the "tab" feature, I turn it off so it acts like normal browsers. Also with Opera, I sometimes get confused with the back button that sometimes disappears...so rarely use Opera except as back up.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! glad he is doing better.

Sorry to hear about your son,...so tough to see this illness at any age, but especially in young people. Tough on parents too.

. . . man, oh, man. . . I don't even know what to say..how FRUSTRATING for you...I hope the nerve block helps and the doctor gets some answers...poor kid.

glad things checked out ok.

My regular optometrist spends a lot of time with me (he takes time with all patients) I have to break my visits up but he is very close to me (3 minutes) I have to do visual field test in separate visit. It's a few minutes per eye. forget if it's like 4, 8 or 12 minutes they can do? I think I do the 8 minute one. That is tiring because you have to concentrate. I have narrow angles behind my eyes so he does this to check for vision loss. He is just an optometrist but a very THOROUGH one and has made many comments on my eyes over the years...I am one of his most unusual patients....sigh. Good luck.

nicotine..hmm, years ago it was said to be helpful but I can't remember if it was in my pre OI and only CFS stage (Dr. Goldstein's medical protocol? now retired CFS specialist from out west) or from ANS articles..or maybe both. I remember years ago discussing different things with my doctor and he said nicotine might help with that but didn't want me to go that route as it's VERY expensive (that patch was) and gum back then was nasty. And he said smoking, while controlling the nico would not be good. I could never inhale anyway..made me dizzy. so the long answer to rambling, I know nothing about Hookah but Nicotine can be good. There was even a mod on a yahoo site years ago who smoked like 5- 7 cigarettes a day to help her fainting...and I think only 1/2 cigs... Hey whatever works, ya know?

Bella WOW! great ideas. You've really thought about this. Fabulous ideas. Simply fabulous!!

Recliners!! TShirts & Coffee mug but I don't know what the logo looks like. I missed the memo and so many stickys at the top of the page...I just read message boards. I didn't vote. can't pick just one at this time.

Ok found a low dose of CoQ10 locally, wanted 15 mg but only had 30 mg. I did not have my reading glasses with me but have taken CoQ10 before, no problems except it WORSENED my insomnia. This can happen at doses above 50 and especially 100 EVEN if taken early in the AM. This QGel version has sorbitol in it which I am very sensitive to. I avoid all alcohol based sugars ending in ol or ose as they can cause diarrhea, gas or cramps. So after two HUGE pills of these things,in two days, got the gas & bloated issue. I licked the capsule on outside, tasted sweet. Squeezed out inside, bitter (which CoQ10 is) So I am endeavoring to squeeze it out of the capsule onto a spoon (I think most of the sorbitol is in the gelatin capsule but not sure why!?) to take. Nasty and sticks to roof of mouth, but I follow with Gatorade and small piece of bread with peanut butter & jelly on it to rid the taste. I am thinking of calling the company that made this to see if I can get a refund ($16) I can't afford the very pricy liquid versions of this on 4epic4 health but want to find another brand that has no sugars added (like source naturals) But the low dose CoQ hard to find. Most think higher dose is best..well, ONLY if you can HANDLE it and I've had insomnia as my main symptom along with fatigue since the late 80.s I'd like to try this again tomorrow with the CoQin spoonful of honey to help hide the bitterness that sticks to roof of my mouth for a few minutes but that's not that huge a deal. They claim this brand gets a therapeutic level in the body in a couple of weeks (blood work SHOWED I was low on this last year but insomnia side effects kept me from taking) and this version you allegedly absorb more. I don't see how that is if you have gut issues. I also got some almond milk last week with calcium added but it's the carbonate kind (HORRIBLE nasty calcium soucrce) I have no idea why Blue Diamond added this in recent years, I saw it on there but took the chance. So my sister is going to start making Almond milk this week so there is nothing added to it and it's only 79 cents a quart. :-) So I think my guts are still off by that horrible almond milk (that I shoulda just pitched but just stopped drinking it by the glass full and only use on cereal) So even though sensitive to sorbital, hope this improves as I stay off the almond milk/calcium carbonate junk. Other brands of Almond milk are calcium free but expensive & not as good. Sorry this is so long but just wanted to ask about emptying out the capsule. It's not like it's time released or something or needs to release in lower GI tract. It's hard to find low dose CoQ with shipping that does not cost almost as much as the product.

Sorry for the hassles...but glad procedure is over...nothing worse than a delay. Rest up now.

sounds strange...are you on one of those beta blockers known to cause asthma? Just woke up and too sleepy to think of which ones cause this....weird what the sleep place told you..mild sleep apnea...? but that's during sleeping.

dsmom You get warm from B3, niacin...high doses can cause niacin flush. Good luck I've never heard of problems with B 12. Niacin flush is like your own private summer :-D