HelenEdith
Reged: 05/04/2000
Posts: 125
Loc: S.E.London
|
|
I'm in a bit of a panic here - it could be over nothing or then again I might have a big problem...
I recently went onto a new migraine preventive, which does seem to be helping, so although I was initially reluctant about it because I was worried that it might make me think too slowly, I think it's going to be OK from that point of view, but I think I'm getting some visual side-effects. I saw my GP on Thursday and I'm off to the optician later today for a full eye exam including the pressure check for glaucoma.
If Topamax has caused glaucoma, I've probably got no option but to come back off it, which would be a shame, because it looks like it shows real promise of getting me compliant with the sickness and absence policy at work in terms of numbers of absences.
However, if I have some lesser side-effect which I need to live with, I'm probably going to have to make some changes around here. If it's the difference between feeling human all the time and spending up to four days every fortnight incapacitated to a greater or a lesser extent by migraine then the changes will have to be made.
What I am noticing is that since going on Topamax, I have become rather more light sensitive than I used to be. I also suspect that my lovely big CRT monitor at home is more of a strain to use than my flat monitor in the office.
So do I replace my home CRT with a flat monitor? If so, as I use it for image editing, the replacement flat monitor will need to be big and probably expensive as it will have to be one where the colours look the same independent of the angle of view.
Do I try putting one of those anti-glare filters over my current monitor? Has anyone had any experience of trying to edit images through such a filter?
Or do I get my optician to make up the new glasses I undoubtedly need with tinted lenses? Will these affect my colour perception and cause me to edit incorrect colours into my images? If the tint is recommended by the optician (I will hate it from a vanity point of view, but I might have to lump it and get on with it) I suppose I could ask for a shade which is effectively a neutral density filter. i.e. not pink or green or anything else that was likely to affect colour perception.
Does anyone have any thoughts on any of these purely from the point of view of which solution would be best for seeing colours correctly? I'm not expecting medical advice here! I've got a GP, an optician and a neurologist to cover those. 
--------------------
HelenEdith
|
LargeFormat
old hand
Reged: 24/10/2006
Posts: 1059
Loc: Buckinghamshire and Cumbria
|
|
I used to suffer from migraine. It stopped when I reached 50 although I still get headaches.
I wouldn't have tinted glasses or add on filters. An LCD might well help - you say you find the one at work better so that is rather conclusive. I use the 30" Apple Cimena screen but the Dell 30" is supposed to be just as good and significantly cheaper. Remember you would also need a dual VDI to drive a screen over 1920x1200.
|
HelenEdith
Reged: 05/04/2000
Posts: 125
Loc: S.E.London
|
|
The screen at work is better, but it's not a solution, and my eyes have been actually hurting since yesterday when I attended the office and used the flat monitor. I don't know whether that's due to the cumulative effect of the medication or sitting under the fluorescent lights in the office or what. (It just so happens that due to a medical emergency elsewhere in the family that I've been working at home and not sitting in front of my work monitor much lately. I've been in front of my CRT monitor with lighting from low energy light bulbs overhead.)
All monitor use is currently causing me visual distress resulting in a red and green shadowy transparent sunburst after image which stays around for a couple of hours after I stop using the monitor and which I can see whether my eyes are open or closed.
Driving has also been causing visual distress, but I can put on dark glasses for that. However, my dark glasses are too dark for use with my computer monitor. I tried them to see. And I couldn't see!
I'm a bit over 50 and hopeful that the migraines might quieten down somewhat, but they haven't done so yet, and with this work sickness and absence policy looming and me taking about twice the number of sick days a year that the policy sets as its upper target, I wanted to try and reduce the number of days I was taking off, plus I'd rather not be under the weather that often. It's got to the point where I'm reluctant to pre-book anything in case I end up wasting the ticket due to having a migraine and that's no way to live, so I really would like to be able to continue with this new regime if possible. However, if it is precipitating glaucoma, that won't be possible and I'll have to seek an alternative answer.
I'm seeing the optician later this afternoon and at least I'll get an answer about whether the pressure is up in my eyes. I know that it always does run at the high end of normal. If I'm lucky, my problem is something other. I was doing Internet research a couple of weeks ago and had virtually convinced myself that my problem wasn't glaucoma, or I would have sought medical/optician advice a couple of weeks sooner even though I was trying to work, fit in music practice for a concert I did an item in a couple of weeks back, fit in hospital visits, fit in looking after the cats whose owner was in hospital, but is now thankfully home again, etc, etc... We got her home from hospital and I thought I'd better get the ball rolling on me. I'm no use to anyone if I go blind by not looking after myself.
I've got a Sapphire Radeon 9200 Atlantis graphics card in my PC. I suspect that might not be good enough to support the sorts of monitor you're suggesting, but I need to go away and do my homework as it's not a bad graphics card - and I also need to check what my credit card can stand after it's been to the optician!
I never expected to need to be asking these questions on here, but then you never do until they come out of the blue and bite you.
--------------------
HelenEdith
|
beejaybee
Marvin
Reged: 18/07/2007
Posts: 4442
Loc: Really Here In Name Only
|
|
Commiserations, I get migraine too, fortunately not that many and short lasting too, but vastly more painful than anything else I've encountered including root canal work without anaesthetic.
I found that for a couple of hours before an attack my eyes become abnormally sensitive. To very faint light sources as well as bright ones becoming painful. Sometimes this was actually useful, as when in a pre-migraine state I could see stars about one fifth as bright as the faintest I could normally see in my telescope....
Don't worry about glaucoma ... that's symptomless until you start losing peripheral vision ... however a pressure check is worthwhile doing anyway, as it will show glaucoma long before it becomes a problem, and treatment is effective at halting the progress of the disease.
Quote:
since going on Topamax, I have become rather more light sensitive than I used to be.
Is it just dilating the pupils, or is there a real increase in sensitivity? If the latter, I'm interested....
Quote:
Or do I get my optician to make up the new glasses I undoubtedly need with tinted lenses? Will these affect my colour perception and cause me to edit incorrect colours into my images? If the tint is recommended by the optician (I will hate it from a vanity point of view, but I might have to lump it and get on with it) I suppose I could ask for a shade which is effectively a neutral density filter. i.e. not pink or green or anything else that was likely to affect colour perception.
I'm afraid that a dispensing optician's idea of "neutral tint" is rather different from a photographer's. The "grey" lenses aren't too bad, though you will probably find they actually have a distinct magenta cast. Having said that, they seem to have difficulty making "grey" lenses in deep shades, if you need a lens with a strong light reducing effect then the "brown" lenses are definitely better, even though they viciously suppress green and blue light.
One thing you might try doing with your CRT, check that the refresh rate is turned up as high as it (and the graphics card) will support, that may make it much easier on the eye. You should be able to turn down the brightness and contrast to some extent without losing the tonal and colour balance.
Hope this helps.
|
HelenEdith
Reged: 05/04/2000
Posts: 125
Loc: S.E.London
|
|
Well my pressure has come back at the high end of normal but that's where it always comes back. However, apparently (and I didn't know this) pressure is higher in the morning and I had a 4pm test, so I'm to go back one morning next week for an early pressure test to be on the safe side.
I don't know whether my pupils are dilating or whether my sensitivity is genuinely increasing. I will have to think about that one. I do know that in the dark, pupils naturally dilate, and that when they do so that my astigmatism becomes noticeably worse. I have trouble reading matrix signs at night but have no problem reading them in the daytime. I may be able to tell from how I can manage things like that whether my pupils are dilated or not. It's an interesting question.
I've elected to go without a tint. I could have had reactolite on my regular pair of glasses, but that probably wouldn't have helped much with the monitor.
The screen only seems to have one refresh rate, so there's not much I can do there. I've always been satisfied with the screen until now and don't think anything has gone suddenly wrong with it. I think it's me that's changed.
I already have the contrast turned down fairly low, as I've always been somewhat light sensitive. I haven't actually been doing a lot of image editing lately as my hard drive is full. I've been mostly emailing and web surfing and using the PC to run work terminal emulation software. I use the "Rose" windows theme, as that's just about as low contrast as you can get. However, I wonder whether I need to tailor it to get rid of the white background and make it a light colour instead - or even a pale grey.
I might find the PhotoShop desktop less wearing on the eye than, say, this forum!
It will be interesting to see how much difference updating my glasses prescription makes. After three years (yes, bad me, I've been economising on glasses, but the optician got me good an proper today with two pairs of varifocals for the price of one, plus reading glasses for reading in bed, plus piano glasses because playing the piano in varifocals induces a conditiona akin to seasickness...) I'm sure my eyes have been having to work hard with my old prescription, so I might even see some benefits just because I don't have to try so hard just to stay in focus.
I still need to bear in mind that I might need to update to a flat monitor if updating my glasses alone isn't enough to sort out my visual problems. I think that I might be forking out a tenner for more frequent eye tests for a while to keep abreast of the glaucoma situation, too, just in case anything develops.
--------------------
HelenEdith
|
geoffL
addict
Reged: 15/06/2007
Posts: 670
Loc: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
|
|
Have you looked at what refresh rate you have your CRT monitor set on?
I'm very sensitive to this and can;t work at a monotor set on 50 or 60Hz refresh as it gives me migraine.
Ideally I have mine set at 85hz. The setting is in display settings, advanced > adapter > list all modes (well on mine anyway).
This isn't an issue on LCDs as the screen are much slower so less affected by this.
--------------------
Geoff Love
Take a look at my other pictures at:
www.geofflove.co.uk
|
Malcolm_Stewart
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/07/2005
Posts: 2373
Loc: Milton Keynes, UK
|
|
Quote:
... I think that I might be forking out a tenner for more frequent eye tests for a while to keep abreast of the glaucoma situation, too, just in case anything develops.
Hopefully you should be able to get eye tests for free if they're glaucoma related. You may need a GPs note.
Once contact sends me emails with a dull green background so as to help his eye sight problems, but I don't know what the condition is.
If you do find a reasonably priced flat screen monitor viewable over a wide angle of view, and with half-decent colour do let me know. In my experience, if they're affordable they're good in one direction only, and around here, I've never seen an up-market LCD monitor. (I'm using an EIZO pro-grade CRT at the moment, but it's getting older every day.)
Hope you get it sorted.
--------------------
Malcolm Stewart
|
HelenEdith
Reged: 05/04/2000
Posts: 125
Loc: S.E.London
|
|
My refresh rate is 75Hz and much to my surprise, there are no alternatives listed. Whether I could find a more specific driver for my monitor and get some more refresh rates offered, I don't know. My monitor is getting older all the time. It was new in the last Century. 
--------------------
HelenEdith
|
HelenEdith
Reged: 05/04/2000
Posts: 125
Loc: S.E.London
|
|
I do think that white backgrounds may have suddenly become a problem for me. In fact I wonder whether white paper is as much of a problem as predominantly white displays on a monitor. It only seems to have happened since starting on Topamax, so it does seem to be drug-related. It's a matter of working out whether the cure is worse than the disease, and if I can find a workaround for these red-and-green shadowy sunbursts, provided they aren't an early glaucoma symptom, I'd like to find a workaround, as I think that the disease is worse than the cure.
I will remember to post on here if I find that affordable multi-angle viewable flat monitor. Having just forked out for varifocals, plus free second pair with added polaroid, and not free third pair of reading glasses for reading in bed and not free fourth pair of piano glasses for, well, playing the piano, I probably don't want to buy an expensive monitor this month.
I do need to go back for a follow-up morning pressure test before I'm declared not at glaucoma risk and then I've got a follow-up appointment with a GP, who may still want to refer me on somewhere in any case.
Oh, and I've got an off-topic rant coming on. Topamax is mainly used to treat epilepsy, but is additionally recognised as a migraine treatment at low dosages. However, you need to be sure that you don't run out of it as stopping taking it suddenly can result in seizures, whether you're epileptic or not. So I went to my GP a couple of weeks ago and got it added to my list of repeat medications I can request electronically and duly requested a refill in plenty of time. I picked it up from the pharmacy along with something else and I was in a huge hurry as I was in a race against time against the local traffic wardens (I beat them fortunately) so I didn't check the contents of my packet until I got home and as I have a prepayment card I wasn't alerted by the prescription charge, but the surgery didn't authorise the repeat on the Topamax but marked it for review! So now I've got to go and do battle with them over it. Just what I didn't want to do. I hope it can be sorted out over the phone as I don't want to have to see the Dr just to get him/her to write a prescription that should have been written when I requested it electronically. I've missed enough time from work lately due to a family illness without having to miss time due to some Dr getting officious and demanding my presence in person. If he needed that, why didn't he say so instead of adding it to my list of medications I could request electronically. I'm seeing a GP on Thursday, but I'm not sure I've got enough tablets left to last until then. I might have to count out all my pills to check. And I already know that the pharmacy don't keep the 25mg size in stock, so I need to factor that into how long my supply has to last. Grrrr.... OK, that's the end of my rant.
--------------------
HelenEdith
|
HelenEdith
Reged: 05/04/2000
Posts: 125
Loc: S.E.London
|
|
Just a quick update: I went back for my follow-up pressure test and the pressure in my eyes was asymmetric, with the right eye being significantly higher than the left eye. The optician wrote to my GP, and my GP advised me to come off Topiramate, which I'm in the process of doing. It's not the sort of stuff that you can just quit without potential repercussions. I went down from 2-a-day to 1-a-day for 2 weeks and now I'm on one every other day for 2 weeks, after which I quit completely.
The sunburst is still with me, but is less obtrusive as the drug is withdrawn.
The GP has referred me to an opthalmologist, where I've been classified as routine and given an appointment in August.
However, this whole thing has got me quite rattled, as I have other vision problems associated with migraine which are not an aura and I may attend A&E at the local hospital with the eye facilities next time the sight in my left eye drops off from being able to read most of the bottom line of the eye chart to struggling to read the letter at the very top. My GP has known about this problem for a couple of years and has theorised about what it is, but if there's a possibility that it's glaucoma related, I'd like something a bit better than theories and intend to go to A&E next time I have the problem.
So as the sunburst is getting less obtrusive as the drug is withdrawn, my monitors can probably stay as they are. I have changed the background colour in Windows from white to a pale green, which I think helps somewhat as well.
I haven't done much image editing recently due to a shortage of hard drive space, but we've finally found a USB enclosure that actually works with a 500GB IDE hard drive, so I've now got plenty of hard drive space again, and if I can find the time, I might sit in front of my computer and edit some pictures. I've got plenty waiting to be done!
--------------------
HelenEdith
|
Malcolm_Stewart
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/07/2005
Posts: 2373
Loc: Milton Keynes, UK
|
|
Hopefully tings will improve for you.
Nearly 30 years ago I had some queer eye problems, and for a variety of reasons didn't see my GP until about 3 weeks after they started. I was thoroughly chastised by my GP for delaying (How was I to know that eye problems were classified as "urgent" ? - the receptionist certainly didn't read out a list of possible "urgent" conditions, and it was before the days of the Internet), and I was sent to Moorfields as a priority case. They checked me for detached retinas etc. and ended up treating a sizable cyst without surgery.
My eyes have now settled down and just suffer from astigmatism and very limited accommodation.
--------------------
Malcolm Stewart
|
HelenEdith
Reged: 05/04/2000
Posts: 125
Loc: S.E.London
|
|
That was lucky that you got treated when you did!
I didn't get told off for not reporting my problems sooner. I did say to my GP that I could have mentioned them when I'd seen him several weeks previously but it didn't even occur to me to do so, as people with migraine are used to seeing things that aren't there!
As the Topiramate works its way out of my system, the sunburst is gradually fading and I think I'm becoming less light sensitive, so for all its positive qualities, it probably isn't the right drug for me, which is disappointing, as I really thought it might be the magic potion that would enable me to comply with the attendance targets set out in my work sickness & absence policy. Hopefully the neurologist will have something else up her sleeve that will do the trick without the eye side effects.
Meanwhile, I've still got a load of pictures I took in Yorkshire last October to finish editing; and since then I've been to the Biggin Hill Air Fair and the Wrotham Steam & Vintage Classic and I've taken a lot of cat portraits. I've certainly got plenty of reasons to sit in front of my monitor!
--------------------
HelenEdith
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
