Opioids (Permanent?) Poor Vision After Opiate Use

[Rybee]

Hey All,

Been taking opiates for a few years now as part of my pain management plan.

I tapered off daily use on 4th July and went an entire month (felt like a year!) without touching any opiates. I had pretty shitty withdrawals for a week but my taper was slow and planned so it wasn't all that bad. However, since coming off opiates, my eyesight has been awful and I've had to wear glasses every day.

However, my back's seized up a little so I've been taking Oxycodone PRN and I've noticed that as soon as it kicks in, my vision squares up and I don't have to wear my glasses anymore. I assumed it was coincidence at first but now, whenever I take opiates, my vision comes back within an hour or so.

As said, I went a month clean and my vision didn't improve over that time and I had to wear my glasses daily. So I'm just wondering what's up? Will I ever get my natural vision back if I completely abstain from opiates for X months? I feel that 1 month was quite a substantial time to not take any, and the fact that it didn't seem to have any positive effect on my vision makes me a tad worried for my future.

#Help!

 

[Mad Dash]

Ya this should be a temporary side effect of WD. It can give you a bit of a general "haze"

 

[Sprout]

Could this be a result of the pupil constriction compared to dilation during WD?

 

[Mad Dash]

Could this be a result of the pupil constriction compared to dilation during WD?

Could be... I know when I first started my subutex the same happened to me.

 

[Rybee]

Thanks for the quick replies Mad Dash and SproutOnSmack,

I assumed this wasn't wholly unfamiliar territory with regards to withdrawals/side effects of opiate abstinence after medium-long term use at reasonably high doses - and far from the worst of withdrawal affects by any means, but it is starting to get to me now. Without my glasses, I' really can't read up close at all and it's all just a blur. If I ever misplace my glasses or leave them at home when I go to work, I have to go back home to get them as I just can't manage without them. It's just becoming a frustrating lifestyle adaption now that I'm starting to find very quite frustrating now.

Again, under the direct supervision and expertise of my experienced PM Consultant he's been having me rotate my opiates every ~3 months (Cycling through Morphine > Oxycodone > Tapentadol > Fentanyl > [and them back through the cycle starting back from Morphine again]. Over the last 2 years, my normal daily dose has of whichever what opiate I'm taking has been equipotent to around ~110mg Morphine per day. So certainly not light use or what I'd consider to be described as 'heavy use' by some standards of dosing - but I guess compared to the normal person taking opiates... Yeah it is a *fairly* substantial dose of opiates to have taken consistently over the last 2 years. Also, following withdrawals, my pupils dilated/ballooned quite obviously for about 10 days despite me following his fairly detailed taper plan.

So my explanation behind what's going on?
I'm not a pharma-guru by any means, so please chip in to correct me, but I'm guessing that my vision is being affected by my now somewhat slightly/over-dilated-pupils following 2 years of use, which then returns to normal when they're constricted, via the consumption opiates or other substances (of which I don't actually know of any others). Would that be safe to say is the reasoning behind it - even if it's a little bit of a naive/simplistic explanation?

I think it's just the fact I went an entire month clean with no real improvement to my vision which has just really made me question how long, if ever, it will take to return to normal if I was to abstain?

And lastly, is my ~2x week PRN use of opiates for legitimate pain REALLY holding me back from 'fully recovering/acclimatising' my vision? I know ideally, yeah I'd probably be better without taking any opiates at atll, but as said, I only hold out to using opiates when my pain threshold hits severe and I don't feel I have any other choice.

Any tips/advice/experience would be really comforting. Right now, I just feel that the two years of opiate use has permanently damaged/altered the ways that my eyes are functioning and will not be helped by any more abstinence from opiates, and my only choice is to wear glasses for the foreseeable few years of my life?

#Help!

 

[Mad Dash]

Well I would ask if maybe your vision is just getting worse, but you said when you re-dose it comes back. I mean one of the standard WD bullet points is "blurry vision" I think the problem is you got nearly clean but then you had to use PRN for pain now, so your body is saying: "Woah! dude whats going on? We WDing? Or we down to party? We only have so many buttons we can push up here!"

Also you may give LASIK eye surgery a try. Have many friend that have had it done in the military to become pilots, and it worked PERFECTLY. They literally have better vision than a human can have naturally.

edit: Really?... hashtag help? LoL

 

[Sprout]

All I can really offer is my own experience in that I quit a major Fentanyl/Heroin addiction (roughly 500mg-1g/day Morphine habit equivalent) CT approaching 3 months ago and my pupils are STILL dilated. Admittedly not as severe as during the acute stage, but still enough to warrant suspicion of stimulant use.
So it's not too surprising that a month later you're still experiencing dilation.

 

[BeachBum4u]

Yea, I use to run out of my meds every 3-4 months and every time I'd feel like I was cross-eyed. To watch TV without it being a real pain in the ass, I'd have to cover my left eye. This usually lasted 2-3 days or so. And for the record, this is the first time I've ever heard of others having this problem! I'm really fascinated that so many others have experienced this. So, I've never looked in the mirror to see if my eye(s) were over dilated but in theory, it makes a lot of sense. Since I don't plan on running out early in the near future, I won't be able to test this out, so I'm a little disappointed but I'll live. I'm not so curious as to go through WD's to find out. Thanks for the interesting info!

 

[dmtmixalis]

Maybe some withdrawal Derealisation? Does weird things to your vision.