Dizziness and Vertigo Disrupting Active Lifestyle

Jamie* is a very active 37-year-old.  He loves soccer, surfing, snowboarding and tennis.

Jamie’s physiotherapist recommended he see Dr Nick as Jamie is reporting neck pain secondary to a snowboarding accident.  He also reports dizziness and vertigo symptoms relating to his blocked and ‘popping’ left ear.  His head can ‘shake’ when he looks to the right, although this does not occur when he is driving.  The symptoms are more prevalent with anxiety and less when his right eye is covered or when the left ear doesn’t feel blocked.

Jamie has a lazy right eye since childhood.

Optometrist findings

After several eye tests, Dr Nick found Jamie to be moderately short sighted in his right eye.  He can see well with little correction in his left eye.

Recommendations

Most patients with a short-sighted imbalance like Jamie’s, will suppress the image in their bad eye and function on the other eye.  This helps to reduce confusion in the visual cortex when the person processes their images of the world.  However, the effect of this is a significant reduction in depth perception.

To improve and give Jamie the ability to co-ordinate his vision and make it easier for him to process visual information, Dr Nick has prescribed multifocal glasses for general use.

Glasses may not always be ideal for such an active lifestyle like that of Jamie’s, so Dr Nick prescribed contact lenses to use during physical activities.

A follow-up was recommended in twelve months.

Results

After twelve months, Jamie reports his dizziness symptoms are not a problem anymore and he is loving his contact lenses for soccer and surfing.

Jamie says ‘I get headaches when I surf without my contact lenses!  I am a better soccer player and can’t imagine playing soccer without them anymore.  As for my symptoms, they are all gone too.’

On examination at the check-up, Dr Nick found the spectacle correction was unchanged but the best corrected visual acuity in the right eye had improved from 70% to 95% (his left eye was 100%).  This indicates a strong growth in his neural network and a much-improved capacity to process visual information.

Jamie will now react and adjust to visual stimuli faster and more accurately and this will improve the stability of his visual field.  Dr Nick is not surprised that Jamie gets headaches when surfing without his contact lenses and that his soccer performance has improved on the field.

Jamie’s improved binocular vision will cause a reduction in visual fatigue and enable him to read more comfortably for longer periods of time.  In fact, Jamie has recovered his passion for reading.  He hadn’t read for over 2 years prior to his visit to Dr Nick.

Jamie is to return to Dr Nick for a review in twelve months’ time.

If you have symptoms which haven’t been successfully treated through other medical practitioners, perhaps you should consider an eye test and examination.  Call Dr Nick to discuss your concerns and he can recommend your next step.

*The patients name has changed to protect their identity.