UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

I have a lot of strange eyesight sensations that I get, and I wanted to describe some of them and see if they are things other people have, or if they are something to worry about that could be bigger problems. I'll explain some of them...

I like to run, and when I do so, when I land on the ground, my eyes have a quick shot of blurriness. It's like a zap through my eyes...almost like I can see the veins in my eyes real fast. I also notice this when I walk outside, but its not as bad as when I run. It's really a weird sensation.

Also, my eyes tend to have almost a static-like affect throughout the day. It's almost like a slight, very fast flickering of light. This is only really noticeable if I try (mainly if I go into a darker room after being in the light), I can ignore it pretty easily, but its there nonetheless.

I alse just have a hard time staying focused on things. It seems as if, when I move my eyes from one thing to another, they have a hard time re-adjusting to things. I also have a spaced-out feeling when I am looking, it feels like a blank stare, because my eyes don't seem to focus comfortably together.

Some final things...I see floaters pretty bad. Sometimes I feel like I see things that aren't there out of the corner of my eyes, like something shoot by real fast, but I think those could be related to floaters. I also have eye pain. It's not really bad but its a slight soreness almost around my eyes.This is usually worse as the day goes on (I stare at a computer all day at work), but sometimes they hurt right when I wake up in the morning (and I get the light-flickering in the morning as well). I tend to get headaches related to my eyes as well.

Anyways, I apologize if I didn't describe everything too well, but I wanted to get some feedback about my situation, and see if I am the only one who gets strange things like these. Sometimes I worry that I have worse problems than KC. I'll also post if I think of any more that I forgot about.

Hi Timtim

I can identify with some of these experiences. Flickering - yes. The blank stare thing - yes, I put this down to the eyes staying quite relaxed unless they really need to focus in. Another weird one I have - if I have my eyes closed, in the dark and and I move them around, sort of looking 1 o'clock, then 8 o'clock, then 4 o'clock.............in a certain direction I get like a flash of light in my grafted eye! I know this sounds really weird but I had to share it!

Val-I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one. That flash of light thing sounds very strange (I guess a lot of what we deal with is).

I thought of another one that I left out. I've noticed recently that if I just look at something and stare at it, it seems to move a little bit almost in a wavy motion. It's not still. The way I noticed this was, I was cutting the grass, and I was going to empty the bag, and I looked down at it, and it had dirt on top of it, and it looked like all of the dirt was slowly sliding down to the middle of the bag. So I started at it for a while and noticed that it kept doing this, but when I looked closer, I noticed it wasn't moving. This kind of freaked me out

I would be interested in hearing other people's strange visual stories as well...

timtim

One of the problems we all have is that we have to use metaphor to describe our experience. There are some things that we cannot describe directly.

I think I recognize some of the experiences you describe here, but there is a word of caution: having Keratoconus does not make us immune to other eye complaints. Have youb een checked for other ophthalmological problems?

It may be that running leads to a temporary increase in your IOP. Why not go to your family practitioner and explain as well as you can what you 'see' while you are running and see if she or he thinks that there are grounds for a referral?

Andrew

Hi Tim

You have a few visual illusions going on here that will take some sorting out. People with KC can be prone to visual effects when running etc because the cornea is thinner than usual so sometimes heart beat and jarring due to landing when running can make the cornea vibrate.

Floaters - many people have those - they are bits of debris in the eye that move about. Generally they are OK but if combined with any flashing or flickering then I have to say that this should really be checked out by dilating your pupils up and having a good look round inside. This is standard procedure for ANYONE reporting "flashing and floaters" because it just might be a problem with your retina. However, the flashing CAN be due to the effects of muscle pull on the lining of the eye, but no-one can tell until they have a look. This goes for you too Val.

Your normal optometrist can check for this and actually this does emphasise that really, just because you have KC and are attending a clinic for KC, it does not mean that you can ignore everything else about your eyes! Also, in a contact lens clinic in hospital, the fitter will not automatically check the overall health of your eyes when you go - as its a Contact Lens clinic. If you mention any problems they will get you referred to another clinic or have you checked some other way - but you do have to report the problems for people to look at them! All of you should have a regular optom you go and see as well - and in fact they may well be able to help with some of the muscle balance problems many of you are reporting.

This leads onto the problem with objects seeming to move when they are not. If you end up seeing out of one eye only for a long time .... this can lead to strange movements as described. Again, this can only be investigated by someone who can physically examine you - I can't diagnose it from here! Same goes for the eyes being sore - this could be from as diverse reasons as drying out of your eyes through staring at the screen all day to once again, problems with your eyes working together.

If you do have a regular optometrist, please do go and make an appointment for an eye examination and bring up all these queries. If not, then you need to go and find one!! For example, people who have their eyes examined in glaucoma and diabetic clinics regularly also do have their eyes checked regularly by optometrists... "You know it makes sense"!!