Why hasn't it gone away?

[Jo3016]

I have just looked at previous posts of mine and in April this year, I wrote about having exactly the same eye problem as I have now - blurriness/shadow type feeling on my left eye. That time, when an optician told me that there was nothing wrong with my eyes, I believed her and the symptoms gradually went away, mainly because I wasn't obsessing about it all the time.

I saw an optician nearly a week ago with the same symptoms but I don't seem to believe him!! I have seen a doctor too who thinks it is to do with long term problems on my left side with sinusitis, tinnitus and glue ear (also a mucked up wisdom tooth extraction on that side). But the symptoms just keep getting worse!!! I am obsessively checking my sight in both eyes, staring at myself in the mirror. My eyes feel tired and sore - the muscles around them ache and I feel like I am frowning all the time.

I don't understand why I felt better before and not this time!! Surely, I keep telling myself, a brain tumor wouldn't disappear for 8 months only to return suddenly in December. Surely, an optician would see if there was a problem, even indications of a medical problem and refer me to a doctor. I can't see that. I can't stop thinking that this will never go away.

I just keep thinking that this will ruin my Christmas and then I sit here crying!! I don't know what to do. :weep:

[Franz]

Jo,

I don't know anything about eye problems, but I do know that the more you concentrate on a symptom, the worse it can get. (Last year I became vaguely worried that a small lump on my face might be cancerous. I kept touching it and it got bigger and bigger. When I stopped worrying about it it just went away.)

If your eyes ache all the time, it could be simply because you're constantly concentrating on them and doing things with them to "test" them. I know if I have stomach cramp, the more I concentrate on it the worst it gets.

If there is a physical cause, it sounds as though your doctor doesn't think it's serious. It could be just one of those niggling inexplicable problems that most of us get at some point.

You could always ask to see a different doctor, for a second opinion.

F

[Helen1973]

Hi Jo! I know exactly what you mean, but you did hit the nail on the head yourself. 8 months without symptoms is a surefire sign that this is not a brain tumour, not to mention the fact that the optician did a thorough check. I'm sure that anxiety and tension are the cause here. I myself am amazed and apalled at how easily my brain/body can mimic the symptoms I'm afraid of; then of course there is the sheer persistance of these 'symptoms' when I get stressed over them. I'm convinced that what you are suffering now is a similar thing. It's amazing how just the smallest thing can set us off and put us back on stressing over an 'illness' that we thought we had already crossed off the HA list months ago. This has happened to me so many times, and I'm sure others here too. I hope that I've helped and that you feel better soon.:hugs: