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Dilated pupils and tics


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Sam had his eyes tested for the first time yesterday. He had drops in his eyes to dilate the pupils. No big deal. The eye test was fine except that his eyes don't converge well so it's tiring for him to read for long periods, so they gave us some exercises to work on to improve that.

 

Today at school he was totally not focused, ticcing a lot in all kinds of ways and really off topic. He came home and I knew immediately that he was having a really bad day and his teacher confirmed that. I couldn't work out what had changed until I looked at his eyes! His pupils are still dilated. I stood his brother next to him by the window and his pupils are hardly contracting at all. I put a call in to the eye doctor and am waiting for her to call me back. But this is the first time that I've ever seen a real connection between something and his tics - there's never been anything this obvious before. I know someone mentioned recently about D2 receptors in the retina increasing dopamine if they are overly sensitive. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? I'm wondering if wearing tinted glasses of some kind would really help him out, as he's been glancing at lights/the sun a lot lately and I think he's overly sensitive to them and is distracted by them, but then looking at them is increasing his tics.

 

Does anyone have any comments or suggestions??

 

Sue

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Sue,

 

I am in the process of making an appt. for my youngest son for the eye Dr. too. Thanks for sharing this. Maybe Cheri will have something to share. I know her husband was just bothered by eye testing. Sorry, no experience here with that.

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Hi Sue, I have been trying to figure this out a lot lately. I have noticed my son seems to be light sensitive and also seems to have dilated pupils a lot compared to my daughter. I read on a PANDAS website that children with PANDAS seem to have dilated eyes during an episode. I have been wondering if some children with Tourettes have dilated eyes often too. I havent figured out if my son is PANDAS or not. Anyway, I do think it is somehow tied to things. I took my son to an optomologist and he tested him and said he did have extra pressure in his eyes. We are doing more testing. I have gotten him glasses that change to dark in the sun and this does help with his sun sensitivity while playing outside. I am not sure if it helps with his tics. I have also bought him some special glasses that he can wear while reading and watching tv inside that are dark. I am looking into seeing if there are some type of contacts that help with light sensitivity. I have read on an epilepsy website that some seizures are tied to photosentsitivity and someone posted on there that she has special contacts that help a lot-amber colored. I have found some online, but they are discontinuing them this month. They are by NIKE and Bausch and Laumb. Anyway, I am not convinced that photosensitivity is my sons complete problem, yet maybe some. Perhaps your son has some photosensivity issues too. Have you done the no screens test on him before? No tv or computer etc. for 7-10 days to see if this helps his ticcing? Claire has posted tests that can help if this is one of his issues. We are on day 9 of no screens. I had seen a gradual decline and almost tic free yesterday, yet today he came home from school with what I think is a new tic. I cant figure it out and am frustrated. I asked him if he watched tv or did computers at school and he said no. UGHHH!!!!

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My son does not have PANDAS. He is very light sensitive. In the past, he will have been tic free for some time, and then a day at the beach or long car ride will set him off. I'm still trying to connect the dots. I have been looking at information on photosensitive epilepsy. Apparently, in this case, the light flicker is too intense and causes all the neurons to fire at once instead of in their intended order, creating the seizure. I figured if it can set off a seizure, why can't it set off tics? Maybe my kid can diffuse the influx better so he just suffers some aftershocks instead of a full-blown seizure.

 

They have tested different things in clinical trials (drugs, sunglasses, avoidance techniques). It appears that POLARIZED sunglasses work quite well as they cut the glare, or flicker. Flicker is not just from screens, it can be from moving water, watching out car windows, sunlight filtering through blowing trees . . . Changing to LCD or plasma monitors and tv seems to be a good idea. Sitting 9 to 10 feet from tv so that your peripheral vision can take in more of the room helps too. Also sitting at a slight angle, not directly in front of the tv, and never in a dark room. Cartoons are much worse than regular tv, and never fastforward or rewind while watching as it intersperses intense horizontal lines of light in between picture. They actually instruct people with this form of epilepsy that if they approach the tv to change channels or are in proximity of an ambulance or other flashing lights that they should cover one eye with their hand. (Oh, I almost forgot -- disco balls are out! On the bright side, they are much easier to avoid than strep or gluten :lol: .)

 

Tami

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Just a quick update. It took almost 2 days for Sam's pupils to return to normal. He had them dilated on Tuesday afternoon and they were almost back to normal on Thursday morning - they were contracting when I shone a light in them. This morning (Friday) I can see that they are smaller than yesterday, so I think even thru Thursday they were not totally back to the right size. I checked in with his teacher today and he is doing way better.

The eye doctor wasn't too concerned about the length of time it took for him to return to normal, but we agreed that it makes sense to get him some Transitions glasses. I'll be doing that in the next couple of weeks. Not sure how well he will adapt to wearing glasses but I'm determined to give it a try and will update everyone if it seems to be helping.

 

Sue

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