| Posted by Brian Ring ® , Sep 09,2001,21:32 | Archive |
My question is this, does anyone have experience with this? How was the progression after the twitch started? Did it lead to full closure or what?
Any personal experiences would be greatly appreciated. Obviously I'm going to an opthamologist, but I'd like to get the first person experience.
How about the injections. Are they painful?
Thanks!
Rick
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Re: Recent Eye Spasm
Hello Rick and welcome to the Blepharospasm bulletin board. You might want to contact the BEBRF and have them send you some information on Blepharospasm and also look through the Main Pages that you will find at the top of this page. You will find lots of useful information there regarding BEB.
Re : Recent Eye Spasm --- Brian Ring Posted by Shirley-Arkansas-USA ® , Sep 09,2001,21:51 Top of Thread Archive You may or may not be developing blepharospasm. It won't hurt to read up on it though.
Many people have tics or twitches in their eyes and never develop BEB. Everyone is a little different even if they do have or develop blepharospasm. I started out with eye irritation, light sensitivity and eyes that just wanted to close. I initially thought that I was just having difficulty with my contacts so I stopped wearing them but my symptoms continued to progress. I had minimal symptoms of the above listed for six months or so and then within about two months time my eyes were squeezing so tightly that they felt like they were going to turn themselves inside out. I had horrible headaches from this. I was unable to drive or watch TV or read or walk down a hallway without trailing my fingers along a wall to know where I was.
I was diagnosed fairly quickly and treatment begun.
Some people find the injections very painful and others like myself don't find that they hurt very badly at all.If you are just having the symptoms that you mentioned above, you probably will not get a diagnosis of BEB but it does deserve to be watched. It would be to your advantage to ask the foundation for a list of doctors in your area that are familiar with Blepharospasm. Not all ophthalmologists are.
Like I've said, everybody's symptoms are a little different and not all doctors are aware of this disorder so you do need to see someone that is knowledgeable in this area that can monitor you and see if your symptoms do or hopefully do not progress any further.
You may just have an eye twitch that will go away. Stress can makes things worse be it BEB or not.
Shirley in AR.
Re: Recent Eye Spasm
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Hi, Rick, and welcome!
Re : Recent Eye Spasm --- Brian Ring Posted by Lynn Yarbrough ® , Sep 09,2001,22:36 Top of Thread Archive It sounds like you may have something unrelated to BEB, perhaps just tired eyes! The way the Dr. will diagnose you is first to look at how your eyes behave when you blink, which of course you can't see. If you would like to know what he sees, get a video recorder and take a video of yourself blinking. If you see only your eyelid moving, forget it. But if you see your eyebrow, lids, and the upper muscles of your cheek involved, that's what BEB looks like.
The second thing the Dr. will do is to try to precipitate a spasm. You can do this yourself, and should try it with the video: close both eyes and hold your eyelashes in place with you fingers while trying to open your eyes. Then release the lids and see what happens. If you do have BEB, you will see a full-blown spasm triggered by the effort of trying to force your eyes open.
As to the shots: yes, they are painful to a degree (what do you expect from a Dr. pushing a needle into a VERY sensitive spot?} but the pain is short-lived and you will not notice it by the time you leave the office. The pain is less from the actual moment of injection than from the swelling of tissue as the fluid enters the muscle. THAT hurts. For pain relief, use Tylenol, NOT Aspirin or Advil, which are blood-thinners and will cause internal and external bleeding.
Oh - almost forget. If you are troubled by ONLY ONE eye, that may be hemifacial spasm (HFS), which is in most cases easier to treat surgically, and can be completely cured (currently BEB cannot.)
Good luck!
--- Lynn
Re: Recent Eye Spasm
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And occassionaly there is a lucky person like me. I get 24 shots and they don't hurt except for one felt like a bee sting , Can't even tell where some of them are and no after effects. HFS (HEmifacial Spasm)
Re : Recent Eye Spasm --- Brian Ring Posted by Ann Doyle ® , Sep 10,2001,14:43 Top of Thread Archive
would be a better diagnoses since there is a cure in Microvascular Decompression Surgery--not at all pleasant but a permanant fix. Ann Doyle
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