ANA Discussion Forum
Post-Treatment => Eye Issues => Topic started by: windy on July 25, 2008, 10:03:02 pm
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I am pre treatment for my 1.1cm AN. I have had eye pain since December in my right eye. I have a corneal eye disease, but have been seen twice since the diagnosis of the tumor and they state my eye looks and respond very well with no abnormalaties, with the exception of the eye disease (early stages). Both eye physicians feel my trigeminal nerve must be affected by the tumor. However, the neurosurgeons insist it could not possibly be affecting my eye, due to its size. The eye physicians are not convinced and I am not either.
My eye pain is getting increasingly worse and even find it hard to move my eye in different directions without a strain. Has anyone else had this experience, prior to surgery or radiation? Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
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I had dry eye prior to treatment.
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Windy,
it is not uncommon for the AN to affect the trigeminal nerve, thus causing insensitivity to the cornea. In my case, my corneal reflexes are absent. True, it usually happens with larger ANs, but the location matters too. Because of the absence of sensation, the cornea becomes really dry and irritated, because it does not send the correct signals for tear production. Eye drops can correct the problem. Have you tried them?
Do you have any other symptoms, such as absence of sensation elsewhere, numbness, odd taste etc?
Marianna
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Yes, I do have some sort of odd sensation on the right side of my face, but I have no altered taste. When you have facial numbness, are you completely void of feeling in your face or is it just a sensation?
I have been using drops twice a day now for dryness. It does seem to help.
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It is just an altered sensation. I can feel pressure and I can tell when something is touching my face.
The trigeminal nerve has three branches, depending on which branch is affected you may feel the altered sensation at different locations.
My neurosurgeon did a very siimple "pin-prick" test to figure out which branches are affected (all of them in my case, but it did happen gradually over a couple of months), may be you should ask your doctor(s) to do it too.
My optometrist advised me to use the drops much more frequently, even every 2-3 hours if needed. This is because you cannot feel that the cornea is irritated until it becomes way too dry (because of the decreased sensation). For me, I found that 4-5 times a day is sufficient.
Marianna
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I kept having problems with my contacts for years in my right (AN!) eye .... nothing really bad .. just kept getting a case of red eye once in a while ...(but for 15+ years!)