MEDICAL EMERGENY... Aquarium related ?

[Reefguide]

Hey guys I'm having serious issues here, can my reefs be responsible ? A friend suggested that maybe I came in contact with Zoos or Shrooms ? here's the breakdown:

For the last 2 months or so ive been loosing my vision in my left eye. It's basically tunnel vision, all the periferal vision is black.

I've gone to my primary doctor and he couldnt expain it so he refered me to a Opthamologist. The Opthamologist says he expected to see severe nerve damage but found absoilutly nothing wrong with my eye. he said that "1 plus 1 did not equal 2" He also has no idea what is causing the vision loss. He sent me to a Nuerologist but I jumped the gun and went to an Emergency room. The ER ruled out Stroke, heart attack, heavy metal poisoning (arsenic, lead, copper, ect), and a million other things. They also found nothing wrong with my eye or bloodwork. They also did a CT scan to rule out a possible Tumor. I then went to the Neurologist where 2 Neurologist debated what may be wrong with me. Neither see anything wrong with the eye and they are also can't explain it. They sent me to a MRI & MRA which I did yesterday and the results arent yet in to his office. (they did give me a cool cd with all the MRI pics on it ) I've gone to 5 doctors and nobody can figure it out. I have more blood work to do to rule out MS and yet another team of Opthamologist team to see later this week. I was fortunate enough to be able to pull strings and go to the leading doctors here in their perspective fields. These guys are the top dogs here in Miami, but yet still can't find anything wrong with me.

To sum it up, There is aparently nothing else wrong with me besides the vision in one eye and the eye physically looks "normal in every aspect"

I know Zoos contain zooxanthellae which is toxic. Could I have maybe rubbed my eye after handling some softies or zoos?

I have yet to discuss this with the neurologist, but seeing as nobody can figure it out I figured I'd loook at this as a possibility.

Thanks guys !!

Hey Mods, How can I change my handle to "One Eye'd Willy" ??

 

[SpicyBalls]

zo's, specifically palythoa's can be very dangerous, or fatal to some animals (dogs) if ingested or if you get the toxin on your hand and some how get it into your body... eat it, cuts on hand, etc.. with regards to sight.. it's def a possibility but i do not know enough about the affects of the toxin on the body.. anyway to get a sample of the toxin to the lab so they can check it out...
_________________
Alzheimer's Disease Forum

 

[liquid]

I would at least bring it up as a possibility to them. Normally I don't do this, but I'm going to link to a discussion going on in another forum as it might prove beneficial for you: CLICK HERE.

Shane

 

[Reefguide]

Thanks man, That helps. I definatly need to talk to my Neurologist.

 

[clarionreef]

I know Zoos contain zooxanthellae which is toxic.

I think you have zooxanthellae confused with palythoa toxin. IIRC, zooxanthellae isn't all that toxic.[/quote]

 

[Reefguide]

Yeah your right cortez thanks...

 

[Fastmarc]

Sorry to hear of this.
As SpicyBalls stated, some zoo's, especially from the Palythoa sp (eg. Palythoa caribaeorum) could be very harmful.
I think the first thing you need to find out is which zoo's you have been exposed to, to see if any potentially harmful one's are there. Maybe posting it here might give some here the oppertunity to help id and figure out how toxic they are, if any.

 

[Carpentersreef]

It would take a person 5 years to get that kind of medical attention up here.


If you're lucky.


Hope you get it solved.

Mitch

 

[Rob Top]

Here's another thought on what your problem could be. You need to get your back adjusted. I had a similar issue a couple years ago, add in major head aches with the sight loss. Went to the doc, had all the tests, ending up being given a line about having "stress respnoce disorder" I wasn't coping with the stres in life well. As a side note that really stressed me out. So I figured ok things where crazy at work and home at that point, I'll play along and for 6 months was heavly sidated. Once the major stressers in life where gone, new job, sisters faimly moved out, I figure I am good to go, and stop the meds. Problems come right back, but with added neck pain. I go to my bone cracker, get adjusted, and he asks if I had a fall that I landed on my left side from cuz everything was jacked up there. Yeap, about 6 months ago.. Bla bla bla
The neveres that control everything come out of the spine at some point, if your spine is jacked up the nevere and what it controls can be jacked up too. Once this was fixed I was really stresed out about how much I spent on other docs when all I needed was a back crack. Stedd responce disorder my @#$

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, that may not be a bad idea. There all kinds of nerves all over your body that are for other parts of your body. See a chiro.
~wings~

 

[Jegg]

Question: had you been doing any glueing of zoo frags just pryer to this eye problem !

John

 

[waterfaller1]

This is going to sound strange..but is there any way you were bitten by a puppy or a bird?My ex had an eye problem..the dr's were very concerned..symptoms were like glaucoma.It turned out to be a parasite from a conure{parrot}. 8O

 

[SnowManSnow]

Had a similar problem.. but was caused by a detached retina.. kickboxing injury. Seems if you had a poisonous reaction then there would be some tissue damage somewhere these guys would have found.. causing the problem ...at least somthing inflamed. Good luck with it.. keep us posted..

 

[Anonymous]

Also if it were a sistemic toxin, you would have problems in both eyes.

 

[sedgro]

Reefguide- I am sorry to hear about your vision loss. Its got to be a scary and frustrating thing to feel it slipping away and not have an answer yet.

That being said, I feel I just had to comment about a few things in this thread being an ED physician (if anyone has any doubts about my credentials you can look me up at http://www.in.gov/hpb/) and all.

1) Unilateral (one sided) vision loss has a very broad differential diagnosis list. Many of the people hear have already mentioned some - acute angle closure glau coma, retinal detachment, optic neuritis (most commonly caused by Multiple Sclerosis), other primary visual problems, stroke, masses to name a few. Sounds like your primary and the other MDs you have seen are making good progress on narrowing down the list. They have excluded many of the common things which leaves the "zebras" - the less common things like the Zooanthid toxin you are thinking of. Medicine is not always fast and sometimes there are no easy answers. The human body is a complex thing and we still do not know exactly how everything works. I think the MRI/MRA is going to be your best bet.

2) While chiropractors do some great work on the spine, your optic nerves are cranial nerves and go nowhere near the spine. I can't see how an adjustment would help you vision.

Good luck! I hope they have something figured out soon.

John Boe

 

[tazdevil]

Just to add, if you have MS, the MRI will see the changes already occuring in your brain. If you have a family history of this disease, then your more prone to getting it.

On the mention of Chiropractors, we like them in our buisiness because they give us plenty of it! In all seriousness though, there are some good one's, but plenty of bad one's. Stay away from one who recommends "neck manipulation" that basically involves wrenching on your neck, or sudden twisting of it. I can't tell you how many times we see patients through the ER who have had this done, only to have severe neck/back pain, numbness in extremities (arms/legs/fingers/toes) after having this done. Now they have a bigger problem, instead of a potentially manigeable situation (mildly herniated disc, physical therapy can help and fix) they now have an emergent situation requiring surgery (severe herniated disc, which compresses nerves to the point that nerve damage can ensue).


Just a word of caution, but get the MRI results before you go further.

Also, rubber gloves are about 30 cents, and there are entire sleeves that go to your armpits that would keep your hands dry.