Tinnitus and Visual Snow / Eye Problems

Hey folks!

So I have been on this forum for about 7 months and consider myself being lucky that I can what not deal with my T and Visual Disturbances I have developed since onset.

I generally speaking got T from noise damage and feel like have NIHL (cannot hear above 12000hz) and have multiple hiss sound in my ears.

Now, after 2 days of T onset I have developed eye floaters, light sensetivity, BFEP, halos/starbursts around lights at night, visual static across my vision and in certain lightning condition objects shimmer in my vision.

Today I had an appt follow-up with very good retina specialist and have mentioned this to him (I was abscessed with floaters during my first visit about6 months ago and did not give any attention to VS. I actually thought I get this because of floaters) but as time passed it got a little worse and I found out that floaters are not the cause.

Him and his staff performed very detailed exams on my retina with all kinds of OCT scans and etc, which have not revealed any issues that could be detected inside the eye (except floaters).

It seems like I am really not the first patron he worked with that had similar symptoms and asked me if I was exposed to any medicine/drug/toxic stuff. He said that he wants me to do an EMR test on my vision and gave me referral to Doctor who does such thing (seems like he is actually only one in my city). I am sure he would send me for MRI as well + Nero, but I told him that I got MRI with contrast few months ago at ENT Neuro and nothing came up.

Just wanted to see if any of you folks did EMR tests and what results have you gotten ?

Thanks!

 

Are you sure that you tinnitus comes from noise damage,
have you been tested for Lyme?

 

I never had rash nor other symptoms that come with this. I am also not exposed to these types of ticks since I liege in concrete jungle and travel insubway/taxi - not a tick environment.

Yes I am sure since T came on day when I went to shooting range + two loud movies in a row (also been sick day before).

 

Might it be that you are more focussed on your body and whats wrong with it, since you got T?
I've just noticed that I have a floater as well now.. And I was a bit more light sensitive when I first had T I think.

 

No, because hearing and vision are two of five sences that humans do use 24/7 and i had no issues with my ears nor vision prior to onset of T.

I heard many people saying that i just started paying attention, after which i just show them on wikipidia about VS and picture of what i see at night - no questions afterwards.

 

I can't find much information about the EMR test on google.. What is it exactly?

As you know I have the same symptoms. Appearance of floaters, blue entopic phenomenon and (mild) visual snow, afterimages, starbursts, halos.

I am 99,9% sure it's a brain thing. The floaters have always been there but suddenly my brain doesn't filter them out, same for the white blood cells that we can see in the sky... Just got to find a way to retrain the visual filtering function of my brain..
Did you have anxiety/stress after your T onset? If I read on internet most people get these symptoms after anxiety. I definitely had anxiety for a couple of weeks due to my T spike in December.

 

@Rubenslash Hmm, yes i woukd say i had an anxiety, but really only after getting T (wanted to put bullet in my head after hearing from ENT that i gotta live with it).

However, i have never ever experienced anything related to T or VS. Absolutely 0.

I could take stress away fairly easily (i just joke around when stressed, that takes it off for me).

Night i heard my T - i literally had a panic attack and quite frankly never experienced anything like that before. I rushed to ER to see if i have heart attack or something...they let me go home, nothing was found.

Now, as far as i understand EMR tests processing mechanism from eyes to the brain (something close to EEG or whatever they use to measure brain reaction to T). I never heard of such test, but googling VS and EMR led me to forums of VS sufferets.

At this particulair point i think that people that develop T for whatever reason - have pretty decent chanse on developing VS. It also applies to people who has VS - can develop T.

As far as i understand, if our brain gets "extra" trashy signal(s) - it may or may not be able to filter them out and on top of that messes up processing mechanism.

I could vote for having halos/light sensetivity to be caused by some sort of damage to retina due to PVD, but that seems like that is not the case because people of age 55+ y/o would have halos/etc, and as i have researched - they have not (some do due to cataract, but thats because of wrong lenses and etc).

 

I have quite dense visual snow, afterimages, dim vision, poor night vision , contrast poor, my vision also seems to wobble and is double, especially at distance. God knows how all this happened but I heard visual snow and T are common together too... if I could put a bullet in my head I would, haven't seen a still image for 6 months now

 

I have visual snow, floaters, halos and after-images. I also have a PVD, the visual issues don't bother me anymore, i developed loud tinnitus several years after that. More prominent in my left ear.

 

What was the cause of your T?

 

So there is a connection between T and floaters/starbursts etc. Before T I used to have few floaters. After T it's a bit more annoying. On top of that I get frequent starbursts. Any insights from anyone? @Rubenslash I also did have anxiety. I still have but I'm more depressed/sad especially when I think about the future.

 

No it is caused by Lyme in my case, might want to check that out if you got other symptoms as well

 

Have you been diagnosed with Lyme's? I will ask my doctor but reading the above makes me feel much more suspicious about fluconazole. It's an anti-fungal drug which I was prescribed two month before T. From what I read online, the FDA has a few neurotoxicity reports for that one. Big time...

 

I tested positive on the antibodies which means that I have been infected with Lyme. It does not necessarily mean it's an active infection but given the symptoms, it's hard not to believe so.

 

Curious if you happen to take a benzodiazepine drug?

 

Doesn't that mean that if you address the infection, you will improve with your symptoms?

 

You mean in general?

 

Yes, it does. So that's my next step

 

Yes, like on a regular basis, or if you are even trying to come off of one.

 

@Rubenslash
That's cool!
Seems like you're on the right path to get rid of those S*%T!

 

There are many threads throughout the forum in which benzos are thoroughly discussed. In general benzos are not a long term solution. You can easily build tolerance in a few weeks and experience nasty withdrawal symptoms. Long term benzo usage and stopping the drug cold turkey can also lead in excitotoxicity that can give you among others, severe T. Better use benzos only in case of emergency.

 

You not alone i also have T and visual snow it startet out with tinnitus and over a year later i got VS.

Just in case people are curious. This is my hearing test, and i have been testet 3 times over 2 years this is my latest one. And it has been around the same every single time. And if im right this is in the normal hearing range, i dont even have mild hearing loss :/
I have like 3 diffrent sound 1 inside my head 1 in left ear and another one in my right hear.

 

any other symptoms??
after my tinnitus onset... 5 months later i got visual snow.. then after 7 months morning pain...
it could be lymes, get tested.

 

Not sure, I think it was a combination of a couple of factors. I DJ'ed and noticed my ears were unusually sensitive. I was on a high amount of Amoxocillin, and I think it's side effect is noise sensitivity. A couple weeks before this I was experiencing more intermittent moments of tinnitus. My body was giving me warning signs before I woke up one morning 2 days after I DJ'ed with a loud ringing in my left ear.

 

I've had it in the opposite - vision issues for decades before T. I mentioned VS to an eye doctor years ago. He acted like he never heard of it. Lots of people with migraine with aura deal with VS. No cause found there though.

I did have years before getting chronic fatigue a doctor say I was having sensory overloads rather than panic attacks. He said every brain has a filter and mine wasn't working right. He wanted me to take Xanax for a couple of weeks to calm my nervous system. (I didn't). But I did look for triggers to avoid them and it helped. I recently read more info on CFS and it was focusing on exactly info processing by the brain.

Also I've had a macular hole and PVD going on. It is normal in older folks so shouldn't really cause issues. When it happens prematurely it gets caught and causes visual problems. Mine resolved without surgery (thankfully). The starburst I think was when it released - at the time I thought it was tearing. I am extremely nearsighted and that has been blamed for all the visual issues. Oddly they don't bother me because it seems like I've always had them. I have had super sensitive hearing too though along with language y processing issue. I just thought it was interesting with the CFS that some are now wondering if it is all related to sensory gating too.

Also are you on the autism spectrum at all. My son is and as I've been told the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.

 

Hello! I had no health issues (expect normal dentist stuff - even that, very rare) up untill onset of this stuff and that is 26 years. It is hard to convince me that i had this all in sleep mode for 26 years and BAAM! - i got the whoke bucket.

I had couple mri's and all came clean, multiple very detailed eye exams and tests - clear. Otoryntology/ENT - clear.

My Visual Snow and T are presistant, other things like joins/stomach/mood/memory kinda come and go (except my right knee which is getting a bit bad).

 

Hopefully with things coming on so suddenly you can find a cause. My Dad deals with migraines with aura and super sensitive hearing before the menieres. His mom had the hearing sensitivity too. Several of my cousins have children with autism and I think one of my half brothers has issues too. So not exactly a mystery there (lol).

I find it really interesting though how much sensory processing seems to be a factor -,or at least is now being recognized for its part rather than how they use to dismiss people as being too sensitive or nervous..

 

I dont have family members with autism nor hearing/ear related issues. As i said - i was pretty much blessed on health side of things.

Correction: i have a mild acquired scoliosis due to bad posture and Anterior Pelvic Tilt (these are directly related) - working on that.

 

What do you mean with morning pain? I too have VS, tinnitus and morning pain ( in fingers). Makes me wonder what the connectio is.