MagnuM yeah, I've been prescribed Cipro a few times in the past 5 years.

I also suffer from Hay fever / chronic allergy to dust / dust mites, etc.

JTL I think just a bad card.
However, happy to say the RMA is complete and I have a new replacement one 🙂 (entirely new computer - not just a new card)

I must say, the different between the IPC Intel HD4400 (with the IPC2 I was using as backup) and nvidia with dithering disabled is a huge difference for me - despite a 8-bit non-PWM monitor.

In case anyone was wondering where I was going with my question, Health Canada just released an updated bulletin last week about the potential for fluoroquinolone toxicity in rare cases:

http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/recall-alert-rappel-avis/hc-sc/2017/61900a-eng.php
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/medeff/reviews-examens/fluoroquinolones2-eng.php

Now I don't mean to scare anybody! Millions of these Rx's are written out every year. Like I said, rare cases, and any link is a streeeetch!

The mentioning of the potential for delayed side effects for days/weeks was the most interesting to me. I believe I may have read a similar FDA warning in 2013 about it.

I took a two-week round of Ciprofloxacin (500 MG) from Feb 11, 2006 --> Feb 23, 2006, and was also taking an anti-inflammatory called Arthrotec (75 MG) at the same time. On the morning of Sunday, March 12, 2006, I woke up to symptoms of sudden and severe brain fog, head pressure, derealization/depersonalization, and an intoxicated feeling that felt like a drug reaction (and no, I wasn't drinking the night before, lol). I stopped all Rx prescriptions at this point.

It's been almost 11 years since that day with the issue chronic and daily, and the cause never found. Getting such bizarre LED sensitivity starting in December 2011 just added to the mystery. I have no idea if the two issues are linked or not. I just wonder if some sort of CNS toxicity could have happened, but there is no way to prove or disprove that theory.

Like I said, don't get scared, because it could also be completely unrelated!

  • JTL replied to this.

    I just wonder if some sort of CNS toxicity could have happened, but there is no way to prove or disprove that theory.

    It's certainly possible. I was exposed to hydrocarbons from a faulty heating system for a few days, and from that limited exposure years ago am now sensitized to all sorts of hydrocarbons and have an immediate, painful reaction to them, and will for life. From my reading, once a sensitive individual is exposed to a substance and sensitized to it (develops an increased reaction/other effects) it is nearly impossible to "de-sensitize" that person. They just need to live with it.

    I'm not saying this has definitely happened to you, and given the extremely small % of people susceptible to this it is extremely likely it has not happened, but there is a non zero chance.

    Well I just came home from my tonsillectomy (painful), the nasal septum surgery will take place in 20 days. I'll give you an update shortly after the that.

    4 days later

    Jerry

    Similar. This all sounds like self-diagnosed WebMD paranoia.

    A. Look at one LED monitor - get immediate headaches/migraines/eye strain lasting for a little while to days
    vs
    B. Look at another LED monitor - nothing

    There's just something wrong with certain LED panels (response/image retention/etc) that affects certain people. I picked a monitor from http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/flicker_free_database.htm and received immediate relief. You may have to select one from that list with the best specs, but you should find relief as as well. This is coming from someone who can't even take a few minutes of certain LED panels before having a 3-4 day headache.

    Now if you already have health complications and migraines before, a different monitor will likely not cure that.

      train44 There's just something wrong with certain LED panels (response/image retention/etc) that affects certain people. I picked a monitor from http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/flicker_free_database.htm

      Thats not a definite. I am using a monitor right now that is certified flicker free on that page and am having troubles with it. It's looking to be much more video hardware/driver dependent than monitor dependent.

        Agreed. I purchased a flicker free, low blue light and high refresh screen and had problems when connecting it to a known good PC/video card.

        5 days later

        train44 I think my main problem is caused by "moving objects" on screen. With the new BenQ GW2760HS monitor (supposed to be PWM and FRC free) connected to nvidia card in a Dell xps8910 desktop, I can look at a static screen without any problems. But if there are things moving on the screen and it does not have to move very fast, eg, scrolling up and down at a normal speed, switch screens with alt-tab as we usually do, when loading a webpage, even typing words like what I am doing right now, I will start to get headaches immediately. I have no problems watching things moving in real life although I do get motion sickness on bus if I am tired. I feel like the screen induced symptom gets worse if I don't have a good night of sleep. By the way, my testing results on BenQ monitor and nvidia card are mixed. I will report that when I can make better sense of what is happening.

        One more piece of information: I wear a blublocker clip-on whenever I am in front a screen.

          Jerry Did you turn off BenQ's AMA option? Im not saying I'd get headaches but it definitely increases eye strain with my monitor.
          And about NVIDIA cards: Here we once thought that NVIDIA=good, but it turned out that's not always true.

            KM I was just going to try to turn it off, but it is already set to off by default. My desktop has an integrated intel card, I am not sure if that can make a difference in any way. I ordered an HP desktop with AMD processor and nvidia card just to completely get rid of intel. The HP desktop will arrive by the end of this month.

            Jerry Interesting you mentioning the moving thing. I could never play FPS such as UT or Quake because I would get nausea from all the movement. Playing games such as Age of Empires 2 was OK, though. It involved a lot less moving of the screen and it would happen in a lot more predictable ways.

            I hate these new movies in 60fps, they make me dizzy like crazy.

              Jerry That may point to refresh rate. Pixels being redrawn as objects move around the screen may be a trigger if they are not refreshed quickly.

                __528491__ I could stay up all night to play starcraft when I was a college student. There were no problems at all. Now I cannot even touch that game. I could not play counter strike though, the 3D thing give me problems.

                ensete make sense. Maybe I should try a high refresh rate monitor. Does the graphics card have anything to do with refresh rate, or a monitor is enough to have it under control? Thanks.

                  Jerry Both. The monitor needs to support the refresh rate and the video card needs to be able to push the pixels that fast

                    ensete I did a bit research thru the internet. It seems that an important performance measure for a graphics card is frames per second (FPS). There is a lot discussion about it for playing video games. It seems to take a very good graphics card to get over 60 FPS. Most of the average video cards can only give less or much less than 30 FPS. And it is related to the screen resolution, the higher the resolution, the less FPS. My understanding is that the refresh rate of a monitor is capped by the FPS of the graphics card. If the card can only do 30 FPS, then the monitor with 60 hz refresh rate does not give you 60hz. It is actually only 30 hz. There are software to measure FPS in a game. Not sure if there is any way to find out the FPS when not playing a game?

                    I played a bit more with MSI afterburner this weekend. After installing a counter-strike game, the MSI afterburner starts to work once I launch the game. It shows that my nvidia graphics card can render 75 frames per second (FPS) which matches the refresh rate of my BenQ monitor (75hz) under 1024 X 768 resolution. If I minimize the game window and let it run in the background, FPS drops down to 45-50. If I exit the game, then MSI burner can not pick up the performance of graphic card and shows 0 FPS. It seems that the graphics card does not render frames at a constant rate despite the fact that the refresh rate of a monitor is fixed at a constant. Launching the game somehow makes the graphics card work more effectively. I tried to actually play the game for a few minutes, did not feel uncomfortable.

                    I also tried the same thing on the integrated intel card (after disabling the nvidia card), almost instant headaches. MSI burner cannot pick up any FPS in the game. Intel graphics card is definitely one of the headache causes if it is not the only cause.

                      dev