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I have started B12 eyedrops. "Bausch + Lomb Vitamine B12 Chauvin" , they are cyanocobalamin eyedrops in a preservative-free formulation (I can't tolerate BAK).
I have started B12 eyedrops. "Bausch + Lomb Vitamine B12 Chauvin" , they are cyanocobalamin eyedrops in a preservative-free formulation (I can't tolerate BAK).
degen "Bausch + Lomb Vitamine B12 Chauvin"
I struggle understanding the instructions of the product I was prescribed because of language reasons. I googled about yours, and read "Warning: This is a medicine. The eye drop solution is treatment for eye infections." So apparently they are not just a supplement of vitamin B12? Did you get them over the counter or did you go to a doctor?
martin I had an appointment with a functional optometrist and had to cancel because of work. I'm done with my show so I'll be making an appointment soon. I'll definitely let you know what the results are. I also have some notes about the production monitors for you guys, which I'll be posting soon.
martin So I finally had my functional vision exam! She did find a couple issues- and although they are both mild, and not the culprit behind my light sensitivity, the right glasses may help reduce the strain I experience. I have a very slight astigmitism, mild binocular vision dysfuction, and mild poor eye teaming. So, I'm going to have my 20th pair of glasses made, which will contain the following: a very slight prescription, FL-41, blue blocking, anti-reflective and prism lenses. I've basically tried all the above in lenses with little result, with the exception of the prisms. They really seemed to help. I performed better on the testing with them on... my vision seemed calmer, more balanced/stable. So I'm hopeful the new glasses might finally be the pair that will make using my dimmed-down, flux & ditherig hacked, lighting gel taped over the screen, screen.... even easier to tolerate. Thank you again Martin for urging me to get these tests done.
She also had me try some different colored lenses on, none of which helped much (and I've already done the Irlen testing which proved useless), however one pair I really liked. It could just be that they happen to be my favorite color. They are a very vivid purple, and they are called syntonic goggles. As of now the company only makes them in a paper frame, so they look like the 3D glasses you'd wear at the movies. She wants me to wear them for 20 minutes per day while using my phone, it's a form of vision therapy. So we'll see if I notice any improvement from wearing them over time. Might be worth looking into for some of you. They were only $25.
Next, I have the information for you guys about the production monitors. So the ones they typically use at video village (where the director, DP etc sit and watch the scenes being shot) are Sony Trimaster EL. Model PVM A250 Professional Video Monitor. 100-240 V 50/60 hZ. I asked the video guy if these screens dither, and he said they do not. Apparently they are very expensive, about 2k, but I have looked a little and seen them online for cheaper, although I cannot attest to the quality of the cheaper ones. I'm wondering if my ability to tolerate those screens (I can typically watch them for several minutes at a time with no problem, as opposed to a regular tv, my threshold of tolerance is less than 10 seconds) has something to do with the fact that it's live as opposed to recorded. I may have touched upon this issue above, but I can't scroll through everything, I've been having twitching again lately and trying to type this quickly. I'm wondering if when the videos are edited, if something about the compression or something else is making it less bearable. Maybe because it's less natural? I'm definitely thinking of purchasing one of these monitors, just a less expensive one that I can return if it's unusable. If anyone decides to try one, please let me know the model and about your experience with it.
Lastly, I saw yet another ophthalmologist in search of these b12 drops. She'd never heard of them but I'm going to try and find those Bausch + Lomb drops mentioned above online. She seems to think my issues stem from dry eye, and wants to aggressively treat it with 2 weeks of steriod stops (FML) in conjunction with Restasis. I have mixed feelings about taking steroid drops and starting Restasis. When the light sensitivity issue started, I DID have very dry eyes, and the neuro optho I saw wrote my diagnosis as "photophobia, orbicularis spasm/pain & twitching secondary to dryness". The dryness has improved from needing Refresh preservative free drops every half hour to never needing them during the day. The only time I really notice extreme dryness is in the middle of the night when I get up to pee. So... I think it is possible that it's a contributing factor, however I still believe that something in my brain is the main issue. Has anyone taken FML for dry eyes? I'm hesitant to take them for a full two weeks, and she wants me to start the Restasis one week after I start the steroid, so there would be a week period that the drugs overlap. Seems like a lot. Also, I've read that you have to take Restasis forever. Luckily, my insurance covers it, but I may switch insurance soon, and also not sure I want to be dependent on an immunosuppresive drug for life. I brought this concern up to her, she said some patients take it for a while then find they don't need it. Any information/experience with this would be most helpful.
Blair and they are called syntonic goggles
Glad to hear you are making progress. My optometrist has also prescribed this for me. 3x a week at 20 mins, with different colors every few weeks. They have a name like "Mu Delta" or "Alpha Omega", curious what yours is? Different colors are prescribed for different ailments. Did your optometrist give you a specific diagnosis (e.g. "convergence insufficiency")?
I've been on: Mu Delta, Alpha Omega, and Upsilon Omega D. I believe they are purchased here, but looks like they only sell to licensed optometrists.
I've noticed a mild improvement with them, but some people have had remarkable results. This video describes it well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqTbB4mffss
Did your optometrist do a visual field test? People with our issues often have a very small visual field; syntonics helps open this up. I was a bit skeptical at first of syntonics, after all, how much can colored light help? But my visual field has opened up provably. Here's another video from that same Dr. about visual field: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT_6WLBNBmI. It seems the professional reference on this stuff is from the College of Syntonic Optometry.
If glasses don't help, you might ask if you are a candidate for vision therapy. It won't help your astigmatism, but can help treat the root cause of your eye teaming issues.
On the subject of screens, an e-ink display will probably be usable for you, as a last ditch effort. Not ideal for watching movies because the refresh rate is low, but usable for social media, reading news, etc.
On a side note, curious if you've tried Ashwagandha or L-Theanine at all?
Blair Could you share, if you can find out, what type of eye teaming problem you have (i guess either convergence insufficiency-exophoria or excess-esophoria) and what degree of (usually people have 3-5, more is problematic, I have 20). It would be helpful for research. Glad youre getting better!
A lot of us have experienced "dry eyes" as a result of this issue. It's not the cause, in my experience, but a symptom. I personally did have a period of dry eyes, but that is no longer a problem for me - and yet my symptoms remain. So I think that might be a red herring - but I am not a doctor, so maybe it's worth giving it a shot if only to rule it out?
Sorry and glad to see someone else with the same issue we have. Sorry they are suffering like we are, glad to see it might be getting more common enough to warrant attention
OP, curious if you have any sinus issues. I'm starting to see a definite link between the two. Your sinuses are highly enervated, if inflammation is compression/acting on nerves there is can throw all sorts of things out of whack. I've had three sinus surgeries and he last one made a noticeable different in some LED triggers for me.
Agree on the nightmare of LED's making their way into cars and headlights, head over to lightmare.org there is a petition trying to bring notice to the issue
ensete curious if you have any sinus issues.
Chronic sinusitis here. Never had surgery. Definitely saw a link to eyestrain.
ensete lightmare.org
I had never heard of this, thanks.
Gurm A lot of us have experienced "dry eyes" as a result of this issue.
I have recently been three times to an eye-doctor because of eyelid twitching. I was told I do not have dry eyes. Years ago I was told the opposite and recommended drops. So, I agree with you, eyestrain is not caused by dry eyes in my case.
After a mont of vitamin B12 drops and simple exercises like eye push-ups, my eyes got better. At work I can use various (shared) computers mounting Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1, and graphic cards like Intel HD Graphics 4400, NVIDIA GeForce GT 710, Intel HD Graphics 530. There is another PC with Windows 10 Home 32-bit (10.0, Build 17763) and Intel HD Graphics 4000, which looks okay.
More important, I re-gained total control of my MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014) with Intel HD Graphics 5000 and macOS High Sierra. I uninstalled the updated Microsoft Office and re-installed the version prior to the eye problems, but I believe that was just a red herring. For unknown reasons, my eyes could hardly stand any artificial light from last November to until a month ago.
I am still very unhappy though. The configuration of my office desk was changed and I am half in the dark, half under a ceiling fluorescent lamp. As soon as I sit at my desk in the morning, my eyelids start dancing. I feel dizzy and unproductive, which generate a lot of anxiety and frustration. In this job I am quite free, so I often escape the office and sit elsewhere, possibly at a window, but this makes my work inefficient. Also, I need to use at my desk a virtual machine with Windows on an iMac 21.5" Late 2013 with Nvidia GeForce GT750M. This screen is quite troublesome, but the strain could come solely or mostly from the ceiling lamp. I will try to block the lamp sensor on a weekend when no-one is around, and see how I do with the iMac. In any case, it is not a permanent solution since I cannot force the person aside me to work in the dark. He has absolutely no issue with the ceiling lamp.
A few considerations/questions.
1) I still have decades to work, but I am skeptic I will see the day that at least lighting will be customizable in the office. I do not see why I should go thru this nightmare daily and even feel ashamed of telling my disturbs, just because most people do not suffer from a similar problem. We can hope that charities like lightmare.org make enough noise, but in my opinion until we have support/ evidence from a medical standpoint, there is no way out.
2) @martin et al. have resorted to optometrist treatment. I read about heterophoria. I sought help but where I am optometrists only sell glasses. The eye-doctor told me to sleep more and work less, and eventually he can inject some Botox to stop the twitching. My question is: if I can use my MacBook Air 10 hours in a row without problem at home, and minutes under the ceiling lamp at work kill me, is it still a problem of eye-teaming, convergence, etc. etc.? I feel dizzy even if I just talk to someone or sit there reading on paper, no electronics. Would the type of exercise @martin has been doing help? "My" push-ups seem to help only for computer-use, but I am unable to build tolerance against "bad" light.
3) In labs and other rooms there is the same type of ceiling lamps except the light is whiter and brighter. Those fluorescent lamps do not bother me. It looks like warmer light was chosen for offices. Can the light color make such a big difference? I always heard blu light is bad, and I have been trying to protect myself with Iris and orange glasses since. How come now that warm light is killing me? Does anyone know if the flickering of fluorescent light strongly depends on the emitted wavelength?
AGI 3) In labs and other rooms there is the same type of ceiling lamps except the light is whiter and brighter. Those fluorescent lamps do not bother me.
The below goes in the opposite direction. Interesting...
KM
"The red emission from the phosphor has a slow time decay, and so the red light has a low amount of flicker (the red light is integrated over time). The blue emission is very fast and has the most flicker."
http://www.conradbiologic.com/articles/SubliminalFlickerII.html
AGI Yes it can be, and it might not. Unless you get properly diagnosed, its pointless to philosophize about it. How about self diagnosis? I can share some tools with you and how to use them. You need to order a few things but that should not be expensive - Maddox test. It would at least either motivate you to find some proper optometrist, or not waste your time. Feel free to write me an email.
Blair Another user mentioned getting an EEG since they think it could be a mild form of epilepsy. By any chance did you have one done when seeing the neurologist?
Until I measure the frequency of an eventual flicker...what is the likelihood that low power / warm light generates eyestrain? We are told that blue light is bad, but what if too little blue light is bad too? Also, I read in old threads that some people are bothered by certain colors. I am tempted to ask to replace the "electro bulb" with a "natural" color.
I was taken a brain MRI to dig into the eyelid twitching problem. Everything is okay, and no reason for the spasms could be found. I could not get all because of the language barrier, but I think the eye doctor and the neurologist were particularly interested in a potential contact between a nerve and something else. However, such contact does not exist and there is no difference left to right in my brain, although twitching almost only affects my left eye.
When I mentioned external triggers, in particular fluorescent and LED lamps which have been giving me troubles for over an year, I was told to take a break and relax, that there is no scientific evidence modern lighting poses eye/neurological threats.
Not sure whether this exam is more comprehensive than an EEG, I think they look at different things but I felt I have no chance to get further examined unless I change doctors.
AGI I think the eye doctor and the neurologist were particularly interested in a potential contact between a nerve and something else
That's a theory that I have for some time: Optical nerves somehow having contact to surrounding muscles - which they shouldn't. So the muscles (eyes, eye lids, face...) get nerve impulses from the incoming light. Day light = constant input, so not much muscle activity per second. But anything that flickers, even tiny oscillations (temporal dithering, pixel shifting), make the muscles tense over and over. Persisting eye strain caused by just a few seconds of exposure would then be some form of muscle soreness. Giving a muscle the order to micro-move several hundred times a second should lead to fatigue quickly.
KM One thing at least in my experience is that so long as it's a PWM-free monitor, it should be fine.
On a good monitor a bad device causes symptoms and a good device doesn't, also using a Cloud PC on good system creates issues. I had an MRI a few years ago and results were 100% normal.
It has to be dithering/pixel movement? Also, it's doubtful these effects are present on our 'good systems' and I can watch HD content and read text and everything is sharp and clear. I don't understand the reason to employ dithering, as in my experience it actually makes colors look too saturated and overbearing. I don't believe it dramatically enhances picture quality enough to need it. It now seems to be standard on all modern devices, and I really want to know why this is the case.
An interesting idea, but if the nerves from your eyes were not insulated sufficiently you'd experience some pretty severe visual distortions, if you could see at all. And the connection would work both ways, you'd wiggle your eyebrows and your vision would cut out for a few second.