Vertical Heterophoria Syndrome (VHS)

I got a call today in response to the questionnaire (2 days response time ain’t bad in my book). Good chat with the lady who called me. I mentioned MAV and she did say that they see a number of patients diagnosed with MAV who end up having dizziness and other symptoms as a result of VHS and that treatment for VHS often relieves the migraine-like symptoms. Very interesting. I’m not sure that it is worth a drive from Maine to Michigan just yet, but interesting none the less.

my question is this - does this condition only qualify to those who are not dizzy when their eyes are closed?

— Begin quote from “theogdenmancan”

my question is this - does this condition only qualify to those who are not dizzy when their eyes are closed?

— End quote

This is a good question. I ruled out my eyes as a source of my vertigo because I got my first episode of spinning vertigo upon waking up, and my vertigo is much worse with my eyes closed; therefore I assumed that my eyes were stabilizing me, not de-stabilizing me. Plus I have had double vision as far back as I can remember, and it never caused me to have vertigo. But having said that, there are people on that web site (for the eye doctor) that also woke up with spinning vertigo as a consequence of the vertical heterophoria.

I just got lenses with prisms, after an eye exam where I told my optometrist I had been diagnosed with MAV in 2009. She tested me and said she thought I have a problem with my eyes not being able to focus together. She first had me try computer glasses (I have terrible motion sickness on the computer, and I’m on partial disability because of it!). They seem to help and didn’t take any getting used to (I was warned it could take weeks).
Two days ago I got my distance glasses, and surprise, they also seem to make my vision more comfortable, and so far I feel less dizzy. So perhaps they will help with my “vision as a trigger” for MAV, or maybe I don’t have MAV but just the vision problem…?

Either way I’m hopeful- drugs have not helped at all, and seem to be getting worse as the weeks go on. I had never heard of any of this before, and I have to wonder why my previous optometrists never checked me for this!!

thanks for posting your experiences, every little bit helps.

So Dr. Debby Feinberg herself called me today- and it’s a Saturday! We had a good chat- she said I scored 47 on the questionaire, which doesn’t surprise me. I told her that the prism glasses help, but don’t completely take away my motion sickness (I went shopping today for my daughter’s birthday and started getting sick in the stores, then on the way home in the car).

She thinks I need to have the prisms fined tuned. My doctor prescribed them and told me to come back if I had trouble with them in a couple of weeks, but Feinberg says they typically give patients tester lenses to try out, and that the symptoms should completely go away immediately if the prescription is right for you. She told me I could fax her my prescription- she wanted to see if it’s vertical or horizontal prisms, or both. I have no idea. I just know that I have an old prescription because the newer stronger one is intolerable (she said that is typical), but when the prisms where added it was amazing how sharp everything looked!

She thinks I may not have MAV at all (I’m not so sure) but that my problems are probably all due to vision, and that it does get worse with age. This runs in families, and my brother was born with “lazy eye”; he suffers from migraines and can’t focus with both eyes even after surgery, so he will also definitely check into this.

It was very kind and generous of her to call me (I’m in the SF Bay Area). I may try to go see her if I need to- I’ve been getting worse and having a really hard time doing my job, part-time as it is.

Just thought I would post again to close the loop on my vision as a cause of my MAV after getting glasses with prisms- surprise! Still have the MAV…

I have been wearing the distance corrective glasses and glasses for reading and computer, both sets with prisms for about a month now. They seemed to help a lot at first, but then it became clear that my MAV symptoms were not going away. After two weeks I went back to see my optometrist to get her take on my vision misalignment and MAV symptoms. She said my misalignment was slight, and that she would only expect the prisms to help and not correct all symptoms. Using these glasses is just another small thing I can do that may help, along with other lifestyle management tweaks.

So I decided I wouldn’t rush off to see Dr. Feinberg (I’m wary that she doesn’t know much about MAV- she told me MAV symptoms are due to food allergies, which doesn’t seem to be the case for me). It doesn’t seem to me that my symptoms are all due to vision anyway.

But I’m happy to have the new glasses- they help with computer work, and even make reading books etc. less stressful on the eyes, but I still can’t do either for as long as I’d like.

Oh well, back to learning to live with MAV…

Wow,

I had no idea this was already brought up on here. I’ve just been reading through the posts on this thread and I feel obligated to go there now and check it out. This place is literally minutes from me! I wish I would have seen this thread back in July. I had no idea about this eye place til just last night. It doesn’t look like anyone here has actually been to her clinic in Michigan and had her personally do an evaluation. That’s it, I’m going. Not just for myself, but for everyone here as well. I believe it’s my duty. I’m too close to this place to just blow it off. What if there is something to it.

Greg

Awesome! So cool that you’re so close that you can easily make a visit without having to pay travel expenses and take time off work.

I’m very interested to hear about your visit and what you learn–hope you don’t have to wait too long to get an appointment!

Anne, they said I should be in in a few weeks. I really want to see what they’re proposing here. I doubt my insurance will cover this, so it might cost me $360.00 for the evaluation alone. The evaluation will take up to 3 hours. First they do the eye tests (whatever those are), then they have you try a pair of glasses that are suppose to be right for whatever the test results are and they have me walk around for about an hour or so in these glasses. By then I’ll know if it’s gonna take some my visual vertigo away. Sounds promising but not holding my breath. I think if it worked like they’re saying, it would be all over the world by now making a ton of money.

Greg

Kelley
I also had bells palsy but it was years ago. I have a slight weakness in my left eye and left side of face from it. I have read that bells palsy can trigger mav. I think mav causes us to be more reliant on our eyes for balance that it why we have problems visually. Also having a weaker left eye from bells palsy makes it even harder for the brain to compensate. I do lots of vrt to desensitise my eyes.

For all of you who have gone to the Vision Specialists of Michigan (formerly Birmingham) website, I can attest that it is not bull. I was having headaches that lasted more than three days, vertigo and dizziness so bad that I would pass out. On bad days, I could not focus or even talk. Doctors originally thought I was having a stroke, but all tests came back negative. I went to see Dr. Debby and had an extensive testing done. She was able to prove how the prisms worked compared to my current vision. Amazing difference. Immediately upon wearing the “pretend” lenses for an hour in the office, all symptoms went away. Noticed difference immediately upon wearing new prescription lenses. That was back in October 2009, and I have had little instances of dizziness or migraines or other symtoms. Just had checkup last week and prisms are working fine, just needed to tweak my vision itself. My insurance covers the condition under medical, and the prisms are covered by my vision plan. ICD9 Diagnosis code is 378.43 if you want to see if your medical carrier will pay for visit. It is only covered if she diagnoses you with VHS.

P.S. Most optometrists are not able to correctly diagnose VHS.

Hope this helps. Karen

— Begin quote from “beatles909”

Anne, they said I should be in in a few weeks. I really want to see what they’re proposing here. I doubt my insurance will cover this, so it might cost me $360.00 for the evaluation alone. The evaluation will take up to 3 hours. First they do the eye tests (whatever those are), then they have you try a pair of glasses that are suppose to be right for whatever the test results are and they have me walk around for about an hour or so in these glasses. By then I’ll know if it’s gonna take some my visual vertigo away. Sounds promising but not holding my breath. I think if it worked like they’re saying, it would be all over the world by now making a ton of money.

— End quote

Greg - what was the outcome of your visit to these guys?

Mup

Mupp,

I never ended up going to see. I thought about it and figured it’d probably be another chase with no celebration at the end. I still think about it sometimes though. I may one day jump up and go try it out. It’s very tempting even to this day. I just have a hard time parting with the $360.00 at the moment.

Greg

Of course my friend, of course, it is indeed a lot of money. I spoke to them on the phone. They seemed very thorough. I didnt qualify for them to treat me so they said I should go to the Mayo clinic if I wanted treatment in the USA.

Stay strong my friend.

Honestly cannot tell if you joking Scott. Can you really do a at home test by covering your eye.?