weird reactions

I had a real interesting experience and am wondering if others have had something like what happened to me, happen to them.

I went to the optometrist last week to have my eyes checked. Not a totally routine thing but close enough. They put drops in my eyes to dilate them. As my husband doesn't work far from the hospital, I headed to his office to have lunch with him. On my way there I began feeling ... not well. I progressively felt worse and worse...light headed, palpitations, sweating profusely, and feeling like I had to void. I wanted to pull over but sensed that if I did, I wouldn't be able to get to my husband and help. Getting to him was all I could focus on. When he saw me he put me in the back seat and back to the hospital's ER we went.

Long story short, My blood pressure was bottoming out. They kept me there for about 6 hours with an IV running and eventually decided that I had metabolized the dilating drops and they had effected my blood vessels. the effects have totally messed up my system and I continued to have problems through the weekend, nearly a week after having had the drops. I'm doing better now but still feel rather fragile.

Joy

3 Comments

wow

by jessie - 2008-07-30 02:07:39

i have had drops. i have had 2 cataracts done this year. i have not had a reaction. everyone tho is different. thank god you drove straight to your husband and he took you to e.r. it will be interesting to know if anyone else has had this problem. jess

dilating drops

by Pookie - 2008-07-30 03:07:02

Hi Joy,

so sorry to hear that your BP dropped so rapidly and that you feel like Yuck lately, hopefully things are improving for you. What is your normal day to day blood pressure? is this the first time it ever bottomed out on you?

just wondering however, here in Nova Scotia, Canada, if you have your eyes dilated we are not permitted to drive a vehicle for 24 hours.

Pookie

bp and eyesight

by verger - 2008-07-30 07:07:18

it took me a long time to figure out why my eyesight was freaking on me, and it was because of low blood pressure. after my initial heart attack(unrelated to your eyedrops), i could barely look at a piece of white paper without going blind. i was restricted to not driving for the first 3 months after the heart attack. when i finally started, the first thing i noticed was that i needed glasses whereas before the attack i was fine.

things finally progressed , but there isn't a day that goes by where i cannot focus because of the brightness. i was so freaked out so i went to see an eye doctor for the blind, and they didn't even have a clue.
i have now figured it out on my own (doctors didn't have a clue or answer to it) that it's because my blood pressure gets dangerously low. i have an at home monitoring system. actually that's one of the reason i have a pacemaker, before it was a defib,

to make it short, i still suffer everyday and driving is the worst, i just say a little prayer and put on my blind man glasses. i've asked all the doctors a million different times, none had an answer until lately.

LAY DOWN WITH YOUR FEET LIFTED.. gets the blood flowing back to the noggin. guess i'll have to get a cot and pillow to put in the car.

those must be some eye drops that you have. my advice, get some of these wrap around polarized glasses, cheap about $30 american dollars. i call them blind man's glasses 'cause they are big and fit right over any prescription glasses. they're the only things that permit me to drive right now.

good luck

verger

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Your pacemaker receives radio frequencies.

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