Christopher Lee

UPDATE – 30/11/2011

Since I posted this entry in January 2011 my eye lid has not improved and every time I bring it up at the doctors they just refer me to a neurologist because GP’s don’t know much about the condition known as ptosis (droopy eye lid). Just today I found out why it’s drooping. For the past two weeks my left eye’s vision has gotten worse (I have always had astigmatism in my left eye which is a vision impairment) so I finally decided to have an eye test. When I saw the optometrist I brought up the fact that besides blurriness in my left eye, my eye lid is also drooping (along with the other symptoms identified in the original post below). Her diagnosis was that because I haven’t been wearing my glasses enough, I put so much strain on my left eye that it weakens the nerves in my eye lid, causing it to droop. I have no doubt she was right because I find that when I do wear my glasses, my left eye doesn’t droop as much but I wasn’t 100% sure. And the reason why I never wore my glasses was because it was never a serious issue until recently. So now I’m going to start wearing my glasses more often (even when I’m not reading) and see if the drooping goes away. I will update this post in another month!

Original Post – 20/01/2011

I’ve been having a massive headache for the past three days along with other symptoms such as my left eye drooping and having sharp pains around that area, general eye strains and migraines. The symptoms have gone now (after four days) but I wanted to share my experience as I found it really hard to find any useful information on the internet that matched my symptoms.

On the third day I was starting to get worried as I was recalling a story my aunt was telling me about how one of her family friends had some sort of illness where one side of her face started drooping/deforming because the nerves and muslces started failing on that side of her head. This prompted me to research more on my symptoms on the internet, searching ‘left eye drooping’ which lead to more scary stories of people discovering tumours and other severe illnesses. But rest assured, it probably isn’t as bad as you think regardless of what your family and friends tell you or what the internet says. Having said that, I am by no means a doctor or am providing any medical advice whatsoever. I am simply writing this post to let you know that you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet as it’ll probably just scare you & may actually cause more stress, leading to more migraines and headaches! Also to provide assurance to whoever in the world out there who is experiencing exactly what I experienced – the pain will soon pass! But general rule of thumb, stop making excuses & go see a bloody doctor if you’re really worried! I will now share my symptoms and the outcome.

Day 1: I went into work with a slight headache in the morning which gradually progressed into a migraine by lunch time. It became so bad that any movement would cause my brain immense pain. When I went out for lunch, I started experiencing symptoms of dehydration – sweating, dizzy, blurry vision, weak, tired, drained. My eyes became very sensitive to the sun light & I also felt like throwing up from the dizziness.
I took two nurofen zavance (ibuprofen) but I don’t think it helped much. Although the severe migraine gradually passed by the time I went home, I still had a headache and eye strains just below my forehead. During my sleep, I started getting chills as if I had a fever. I also became very thirsty – it was not a good sleep.

Day 2: The headache and eye strains lingered around, still feeling tired (due to the poor sleep). As a result it was affecting my work as I found it hard to concentrate. Initially I thought it was the lighting in the office or my monitors but I’ve been working in the same environment for over 3 months now and I have never experienced a severe migraine like this before.

Day 3: Similar to day 2, headache and eye strains still around. It wasn’t until the this day did I notice the pain was mostly around my left eye and left brain/head. I also realised my left eye lid felt heavier than normal, as if it was bruised or something. I looked fine in the mirror but when I took a photo of myself, not only was my left eye drooping, the entire left side of my face looked like it was drooping! This is when I started researching on ‘left eye drooping’ on the internet but all I found was some illness called ptosis where the muscles or nerves on your eye lid aren’t functioning or responding properly. No where did it mention it would cause headaches and pain. So I wasn’t satisfied with that diagnosis and continued searching until I finally found a post from someone saying his doctor advised it’s one of the side effects you get from migraines. With this I was able to relax and stopped stressing, which believe it or not by night time all my symptoms disappeared and I was back to normal.

So there you go guys, if one of your eyes start drooping after a migraine, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have a tumour in the back of your eye or you’ve suddenly contracted some serious illness whereby one side of your face will start drooping and deform haha. I hope this post provided some sort of ‘light’ at the end of the tunnel, the pain will go away (and if it doesn’t you should probably go to a doctor!).