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Hi everyone,
eventhough I'm not a doctor nor a medicine student, I hope I'm allowed to post this question here.
Last week I've had an isolated, transient 5 minute event of vertical binocular diplopia, apparently out of the blue. I was leaning down to pick up something from the floor, and when I sat back up I was seeing double. The 2 images were vertically separated, and the diplopia would go away when covering either eye. When gazing upwards the images would come back together, and it was worse when looking down.
After 5 minutes the problem just disappeared by itself.
I'm 30 years old, I didn't have any illnesses recently, I was feeling well that day, I didn't have a headache, I didn't feel dizzy or anything else. I just had a slight headache a couple of hours after the event, around the orbits (the same kind I get when I have ocular migraines with flashing lights, which I get 2-3 times a year). Incidently, I've had an ocular migraine 2 days after the event.
I'm otherwise healthy, and only have slight hypertension (140/80). Optically I am hyperopic (+1.00 with -0.25 astygmatism). The only relevant medical history I have is a 10-year addiction to nasal decongestant (rhinitis medicamentosa), which I was able to stop about 2 years ago. To date, I still have a very stuffy nose, and I'm unable to breath normally through either nostrils at night, depending on what side I lay on. Sounds like chronic sinusitis or nasal polyps to me, and I should probably have it checked out by an ENT sometimes.
I'm not sure what to think: by google'ing around one gets quite hypochondriac. The kind of diplopia I experienced sounds like a 4th cranial nerve palsy, but there's no literature about an isolated 5 minute episode (and a palsy isn't supposed to be transient, is it?). There are sites listing it as a migraine symptom, or as a side-effect of sinusitis. Then there's the "bad" stuff like MS, tumors and myasthenia which I prefer not to think about (and I really don't have any other symptoms).
Could this just be a random happening "just because"? I'm not really sure I want to go through the "full program" (the $1 million check-up including MRI, CT, etc) because of a 5 minute event. What do you think? Should I just disregard it? Refer to my GP? Or to an opthalmologist? There's nothing to see, as I now see normally and my eyes seem aligned... and apparently lots of diplopia cases are just idiopathic.
Disclaimer: I'm not replacing a real doctor with the Internet, and I will probably refer to a doctor, especially if the problem shows up again. But I'd like nontheless to hear your opinions.
Thank you for your interest
-Manuel
eventhough I'm not a doctor nor a medicine student, I hope I'm allowed to post this question here.
Last week I've had an isolated, transient 5 minute event of vertical binocular diplopia, apparently out of the blue. I was leaning down to pick up something from the floor, and when I sat back up I was seeing double. The 2 images were vertically separated, and the diplopia would go away when covering either eye. When gazing upwards the images would come back together, and it was worse when looking down.
After 5 minutes the problem just disappeared by itself.
I'm 30 years old, I didn't have any illnesses recently, I was feeling well that day, I didn't have a headache, I didn't feel dizzy or anything else. I just had a slight headache a couple of hours after the event, around the orbits (the same kind I get when I have ocular migraines with flashing lights, which I get 2-3 times a year). Incidently, I've had an ocular migraine 2 days after the event.
I'm otherwise healthy, and only have slight hypertension (140/80). Optically I am hyperopic (+1.00 with -0.25 astygmatism). The only relevant medical history I have is a 10-year addiction to nasal decongestant (rhinitis medicamentosa), which I was able to stop about 2 years ago. To date, I still have a very stuffy nose, and I'm unable to breath normally through either nostrils at night, depending on what side I lay on. Sounds like chronic sinusitis or nasal polyps to me, and I should probably have it checked out by an ENT sometimes.
I'm not sure what to think: by google'ing around one gets quite hypochondriac. The kind of diplopia I experienced sounds like a 4th cranial nerve palsy, but there's no literature about an isolated 5 minute episode (and a palsy isn't supposed to be transient, is it?). There are sites listing it as a migraine symptom, or as a side-effect of sinusitis. Then there's the "bad" stuff like MS, tumors and myasthenia which I prefer not to think about (and I really don't have any other symptoms).
Could this just be a random happening "just because"? I'm not really sure I want to go through the "full program" (the $1 million check-up including MRI, CT, etc) because of a 5 minute event. What do you think? Should I just disregard it? Refer to my GP? Or to an opthalmologist? There's nothing to see, as I now see normally and my eyes seem aligned... and apparently lots of diplopia cases are just idiopathic.
Disclaimer: I'm not replacing a real doctor with the Internet, and I will probably refer to a doctor, especially if the problem shows up again. But I'd like nontheless to hear your opinions.
Thank you for your interest
-Manuel
