Thursday, November 11, 2010

Convergence insufficiency

Today while watching my partner scrub a wall, I noticed that my vision was kind of jerky. At certain points, it was like his arm jumped or fractured. I happened quickly, but continued to happen while he scrubbed.

Later on inside, I tried to play with the effect, looking in a mirror and waving my own arm about. It didn't do it.

I decided to do a Google. The results are that it may be a very mild nystagmus, but it's most likely to be a convergence insufficiency.  Reading the description of the symptoms was very 'ah ha!' - practically a BFO moment.

There is a relationship between accomodative insufficiency and convergence insufficiency but I can't yet make out the difference in layperson's terms.

Basically, if convergence insufficiency is inherited, it can be cured. There is definitely some underlying mechanical issues. In fact, I was given exercises for this when I was 17 or 18, when I was first prescribed glasses for reading.

It's got a lot worse in the past year or so. Now, usually when I do any close work my vision is blurry, especially through the mid-field. If I look in a mirror when I've been doing close work, my vision is blurry and distorted around the eye area. Sometimes I can't actually see faces.

Usually I have to do what I nowadays class as 'a lot' of close work: more than a couple of hours of intense reading/computing/sewing etc.  If I take breaks every 20 minutes, that helps too. Sometimes as little as a few minutes will be enough to trigger it, and the breaks don't cut it like they used to. It usually wears off after an hour or two or a good night's sleep.

It's not something I've actually talked about much. I do sometimes say my eyes have been 'googly' but I have not defined how this vision problem differs from my other weird neuro shit experiences.

It is different, and it is getting worse.  There, I've said it. From this I discern that I am more upset and worried about this than I let on.