New Glasses & Headache

I got my new temporary glasses today, with a prism in the left good
eye and about 3D stronger Rx in the bad right eye. It certainly
improved my vision in the right eye alone, though with considerable
distortion that apparently cannot be corrected, due to scars on my
macula and retina from my recent macular hole and retinal detachment.
But the two eyes combined vision was uncomfortable and overwhelming,
to say the least, although I could see details. The optician
(apparently the store owner or manager) told me that it would take
some time fo adjust to the new glasses and advised me to go home and
get used to them.

Actually, I got 2 pairs -- one for driving and the other for computer
and indoors use, 1.25D weaker than my driving Rx. I decided to start
with the indoors pair and wore them for a couple of hours. Indeed, my
vision "stabilized" and became more comfortable after about 30
minutes. But then...

I suddenly felt a severe pressure pain in the lower right and left
back of my head. I canoot recall ever having headache in that
location, and it was scary. The headache seemed to increase as the
time went by.

I called the optician, who advised me to remove the glasses and start
again tomorrow. I ased to speak with the optometrist, but he was with
a client. I left my number and asked that he call me back, but he
didn't.

I followed the advice, removed the new glasses, put on the old ones
and got off the computer. First I saw double and had difficulties
focusing, but this disappeared within a few minutes. Most
importantly, the headache diminished almost immediately, and now (3
hours later) it's gone. This may be a convincing indication that the
headache was caused by the new glasses.

What should I do next? Should I try again tomorrow? Is it safe?
Apparently my new glasses, by improving my bad eye vision and
decreasing the disparity between my 2 eyes, caused my brain to process
the information from the bad eye which it had probably ignored in the
past 4 months since my retinal detachment surgery. But why should it
cause headache?

I feel that this experience is beneficial before going through a
cataract surgery in the bad eye. Now at least I have a choice, which
I will not have if the IOL implant doesn't work properly for me. I
also found out the best vision I can anticipate from the bad eye with
the proper Rx, although I presume the cat removal will improve it
somewhat, but not significantly.

On Apr 20, 11:22 pm, "Ms.Brainy" <mikabra...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I got my new temporary glasses today, with a prism in the left good
> eye and about 3D stronger Rx in the bad right eye. It certainly
> improved my vision in the right eye alone, though with considerable
> distortion that apparently cannot be corrected, due to scars on my
> macula and retina from my recent macular hole and retinal detachment.
> But the two eyes combined vision was uncomfortable and overwhelming,
> to say the least, although I could see details. The optician
> (apparently the store owner or manager) told me that it would take
> some time fo adjust to the new glasses and advised me to go home and
> get used to them.
>
> Actually, I got 2 pairs -- one for driving and the other for computer
> and indoors use, 1.25D weaker than my driving Rx. I decided to start
> with the indoors pair and wore them for a couple of hours. Indeed, my
> vision "stabilized" and became more comfortable after about 30
> minutes. But then...
>
> I suddenly felt a severe pressure pain in the lower right and left
> back of my head. I canoot recall ever having headache in that
> location, and it was scary. The headache seemed to increase as the
> time went by.
>
> I called the optician, who advised me to remove the glasses and start
> again tomorrow. I ased to speak with the optometrist, but he was with
> a client. I left my number and asked that he call me back, but he
> didn't.
>
> I followed the advice, removed the new glasses, put on the old ones
> and got off the computer. First I saw double and had difficulties
> focusing, but this disappeared within a few minutes. Most
> importantly, the headache diminished almost immediately, and now (3
> hours later) it's gone. This may be a convincing indication that the
> headache was caused by the new glasses.
>
> What should I do next? Should I try again tomorrow? Is it safe?
> Apparently my new glasses, by improving my bad eye vision and
> decreasing the disparity between my 2 eyes, caused my brain to process
> the information from the bad eye which it had probably ignored in the
> past 4 months since my retinal detachment surgery. But why should it
> cause headache?



Getting used to the new script will not hurt your eyes on a permanent
basis. Different eye muscles are now being forced to do their jobs,
whereas they were on the sidelines prior. Headaches are common (around
orbit and forehead) when a major script change is done.
When I wore glasses, it would take me a little over a week for me to
get used to my new script.
Really, the worst case scenerio for you would be to take the lenses in
for a tweaking. And only if you still get headaches after a couple of
weeks.

I have done a quick research on the Internet re brain-eye connection,
and found out that the visual processing center of the brain is in the
occipital lobes located in the rear base of the skull. My headache
was exactly there, which suggests that the pressure and pain was on
the brain itself. I also want to do some reasearch on muscles.

My OD called a few minutes ago and said he would reduce the Rx to make
me "more comfortable". From what he has said I gather that he will
reduce the correction for the bad eye. I am still skeptical. If he
does that, the disparity between my eyes will grow back closer to what
it is now, which again will apparently cause my brain to ignore the
image from the bad eye, and this will supposedly make me happy. But
if so, what would I gain? The new glasses then will not improve my
right eye vision because the brain will simply ignore it.

I have assumed that the main impairness of my bad eye is because of
retinal and macular damage, and the effect of the cataract is minor
only. But I may be mistaken. Is it possible that the cataract
contributes greatly to the problems I describe? I just don't want to
find myself with similar headaches after a cat surgery and an IOL that
my brain cannot accept. Any thoughts? Or should I simply leave it to
the professional experts to resolve and decide, trusting that they
know in advance what they are doing?