godsang

I am starting my own post of this issue. My friend posted my situation for me, but now I've joined the forum and thought I'd put it out under my thread. I am a 36 year old female who rides 4-5 times per week. I'm in good health.

When I ride, I get this strange fogginess in my vision. It's like I'm wearing glasses that fogged up, only it's not the glasses. It encompasses the whole field of vision. I have no weakness, dizziness, faintness, or fatigue. I feel energetic and strong. I maintained a 16.9 avg for 67 miles the first time I got the clowdy vision. It lasted 10 minutes. The next time was after riding for 6.5 hours, 100 miles, 18.2 avg. The clowdy vision lasted a couple hours and I couldn't drive right away. My next 80 mile ride caused it as well. All these rides were in the summer/fall.

On all these rides, I was properly fueled with carbs the night before, carbs for breakfast, hydrated pre and mid ride. I never got the tunnel vision, cold sweats, and fainting that would come with a glucose crash. The clowdiness fades gradually over the next couple hours. Now that it cold out, I am mostly riding my mt bike in the woods. When I ride at night for 2 hours, I have a slight amount of clowdiness. I am beginning to wonder if the problem starts after only a short time of riding, but I couldn't tell in broad daylight. The headlights from cars as I drive home cause some blurriness and a halo effect. I wonder if it's part of the same problem.

After all these rides, my eyes feel moist. My contacts come out easily enough and the cloudy vision lasts even with the contacts out. So I don't think it's filmy coated contacts.

I had a full blood workup and my blood sugar level was tested. My thyroid was also tested. I saw a neuro-opthamologist and he did 2 hours of testing for glaucoma, peripheral vision, optic nerve scan, and a test for how my eyes lubricate themselves. I passed everything with normal results. He said, "You're fine. Go ride your bike." On the next 50 mile road ride, I saw that it was starting to happen again. I know what to look for now, so I can detect it on shorter rides.

A friend told me he knows someone who has exercise induced glaucoma. That's what prompted me to plan a ride and go immediately to the doctor post ride. This way, the doctor can see exactly what's happenning as the problem is occurring.

Has anyone heard of such a thing?

RUOkie

It sounds like you are approaching this correctly. The important thing is to r/o elevated intraocular pressure (exercise induced glaucoma). Like I said on your friend's post, another possibility is ocular migraine or basilar migraine. This is usually treated with beta blockers. Ask the optho doc about that as well. Good luck

DaveSSS 

I've had blurry peripheral vision in one eye after a long ride. It goes away, so I never looked into the cause or cure.

JaceK

First cloudy Not Clowdy

Have you ever tried riding with glasses? I can't deal with riding with contacts, I lose vision in my right eye if I use contacts.

JonnyUtah75

Dumb question...but I'm assuming you're riding with sunglasses? I went on a 2-hour ride last week without any eye protection, and I had vision trouble for about 10 minutes afterwards.

Machka 

Is it like a film that covers your eyes? If so, at first does the film appear to sort of float around and cover part of your eye, and then eventually it covers the whole thing? Does stopping and rubbing your eyes make the film go away?

CdCf

Since it affects the entire field of vision uniformly, it is very unlikely to be migraine-related partial blindness (scintillating scotoma), as that typically produces completely blind spots with normal vision around the blind spots.

DieselDan

High or low blood sugar can cause similar symptoms. Did you have an A1c screen done with your blood work?

Romans8:28

If you're not wearing glasses when riding (or ones that adequately block the wind), what you are describing is to be expected

FL_MarkD

I have experienced trouble with my vision after riding, even with sunglasses. I am blind in my left eye, so I thought it was more 'strain' related to the right eye. I have found that using artifical tears after the ride greatly diminishes the problem. Even though my eyes do tear from the wind and you would think adding additional liquid is not the answer; the drops seem to help quite a bit. My symptoms usually lasted a few hours or until I took a nap and let my eyes rest.

I hope you find what is causing your problem and that you can continue to ride!

Mark

nkfrench 

Wind and low humidity can dry out your eyes and possibly cause some corneal swelling (causing the halo effect around streetlights). Wear sunglasses during day, clear/yellow safety glasses at night, blink often and keep hydrated. Try putting in some eyedrops / saline solution and see if that helps.

My eye doctor's office has a ceiling fan in the waiting room. I have to make sure I don't sit under it -- it dries my contact lens and eyes enough to make a noticeable difference on my vision test. Think sad thoughts if you don't have eye drops or eye protection handy.

RT

I am surprised that with the vigor of your pursuit to an answer that nothing has come up. Keep looking - I have only had this happen once, and it was because I had not eaten enough, subsequently passing out (pulled over in time). Let us know if your immediate post-trip doc visit yields any positive results.

StephenH

I've had this problem too, most recently on a couple of 200k brevets. I've noticed it in the past, but it wasn't as bad then, but on one of the more recent brevets, I wasn't able to drive home when I got back to my start point.

Everyone I've asked has said "It's dry eyes". I even asked on an eye-care website and the guy there said it was dry eyes. But, my eyes don't feel especially dry, and eyedrops don't seem to do a lot.

It's always been associated with coldish weather for me, never had it happen when it was hot and dry. The one ride where it was so bad, I was riding back into a stiff wind for about 7 hours.

I've got an appointment with the eye doctor Tuesday anyway, so I'll ask him, but don't expect to hear anything much different. I do plan to check into getting side-shield safety glasses or something like that to try to limit the wind. I wear glasses anyway, but the lenses are fairly small, so they don't do a whole lot to shield from wind.

garethzbarker

pull a long ride at night with glasses and see if it happens?

aicabsolut

Do your eyes get red and swollen? Bike riding (wind, smog, allergies) trigger an allergic conjunctivitis type reaction which can affect my vision some. It also makes my eyes feel pretty uncomfortable. Allergy drops that constrict the blood vessels help (used sparingly and w/out contacts in) as does taking something like Claritin.

kf9yr

If your problem does turn out to be your eyes drying out from the wind try sunglasses similar to these:

https://www.opticsplanet.net/wiley-x-...unglasses.html

They have a foam seal that keeps the wind out of your eyes. I have pollen allergies and these help to keep my eyes from drying out and itching as much as they do with normal sunglasses. I use the tinted lenses during the day and the clear ones at night.

RacerOne

I'd say it sounds like you're going about this in the right way. Let us know what you find out.

nahh

Congrats on actually going to the doctor, not just asking BFers. but...

This happens when I wear contacts and no sunglasses to ride. my eyes dry out, and at some point, the contacts are so dry they quit focusing. solution: wear glasses.

Also, i've had migraines a few times and you can get visual aura from those, ranging from little spots to huge vision blocks.

emkdesign

This happens to me too! Not as extreme as your describe though. There is a change in the way visuals get processed in my head, sort of like kinda spotty or lost of stadic almost. Its very very subtle, there though. The most aparent effect is tracers, like if you look at a bight object and then close your eyes there is a after image for much longer then normal. This makes driving at night hard if I just rode.

I don't know the cause but my guess would be something to do with either dopamine or serotonin being screwed with a little.

To me this seems linked to HPPD which i had for many years of my life but now only crops up when I drink caffine or go on very long rides. Might be worth a read of HPPD stuff out there.

kh6idf

I get this cloudy vision after working outside in hot weather. If it's really hot and I am sweating and keep this up for a few hours, my vision gets cloudy and I have to remove my contacts. If I immediately put new ones in (I wear daily disposables) they fog up too. I have to wait 2 or 3 hours before I can put new ones in and my vision doesn't fog up. I haven't had any problems bike riding, but I just started in November and the hot season isn't here yet.

godsang

Wow, I'm new on here, and I am really happy and surprised at how many people wrote posts about my condition. I really appreciate it!

I'll try to address the questions and points people brought up.

RUOkie, I am definitely going to ask about exercise induced glaucoma.

CdCf, I think you're right that it's not related to a migraine. I have had a migraine in the past and I saw the scintillating lights in one part of my vision, but this problem happens across my whole field of view.

Some mentioned having a problem in one eye, but mine is a problem with both. It's still happenning in colder weather, maybe even more than in warmer weather.

I have always ridden with glasses designed for cycling. They wrap around my head a bit, but they don't completely shield my eyes from the wind. They are tinted dark grey. I wear my contact as well. The contacts feel moist. I always put in eye drops during and after the ride, but they don't seem to help prevent or stop the fogginess. It doesn't seem like a film over my whole eye. Rubbing doesn't help. After the rides, I've looked in the mirror and no matter how close I lean, my vision is so blurry and foggy that I can't see what my eyes really look like. I took a picture of myself one time and they looked blood shot. The line between where the colored part ends and where the white part starts was blurred. There was no sharp line. I don't know if that was a film or if the colored part was leaking into the white part so to speak. That was why I brought up pigment dispersion....


If the eye dr doesn't figure it out, they next thing I will do is try riding with goggles that block the wind. I'll also try riding with my contacts out.

I dont' know if an A1c test was done with my blood work. It doesn't sound like the HPPD.

I will definitely let you all know what happens at my appointment.

Thank you!

StephenH

I just got back from having a regular checkup and all at the eye doctor. I asked him and he says "your corneas are getting dehydrated"- so dry eyes. He says the solution is wrap-around sunglasses. Those won't work well for me, so I'm going to try some side-shield safety-glasses and see how they work. On order now.

godsang

Thanks StephenH,
My appt is on 2/1/10. I'll post an update then.
Angie

FL_MarkD

One other quick note. My eye doc suggested to NOT use some the common over the counter eye drops, but rather use a high quality artificial tears. Some of the other drops contain agents that actually can increase the problem because they cause constriction in the eye. Check with your doc on what brand of drops they suggest. Yes I know they might 'push' the ones that they are paid to push, but spending a few dollars more each month to avoid this problem is worth it.

Mark

Faust

When I haven't taken vitamins for a few days I have what I can only describe as a vision blocking corona effect. It usually starts right after I've looked out from a darkened area into brighter light. Looking back into the darker area that I'm in there appears to be a "C" shaped area blocking the center area of my vision. Opening or closing either eye and it remains. I asked my ophthalmologist and family doctor about it, however neither knew of anything like it. Fortunately, I found that if I take a multi-vitamin, within a half hour or so the problem disappears. My guess is that this problem is related to mal-adsorption due to my inability to digest gluten (celiac disease).

If you are not already taking a multi-vitamin, perhaps one prior to your next big ride would help.