Pressure behind eyes

[Efyl]

Hello--for the last 5 weeks I've been experiencing a problem that hasn't abated. Actually, the first couple weeks it was minor, so I hardly paid it much concern. In time though, I started finding that my eyes would get strained and that there were feelings of them having a pressure or sense of discomfort on the inside of the eyes towards the nose or perhaps along the bottom of the eyes; and as well, sometimes a sense of my eyes feeling "stretched". This seemed to occur when I did activities that involved more concentration of the eyes--reading, computer work, driving, etc. As I had suffered at times from tiredness of the eye due to computer strain, I eventually realized these sensations were different and much more persistent. So, I went to my optometrist (a friend who checked me very thoroughly) and the results were that my eyes tested out fine and don't appear to have any visual problems--in fact, I tested less nearsighted than I did several years ago (I'm late 30's). I went to my general practitioner and she cited the excessive amount of pollen in our region this year and that it might be an allergy and/or sinus-related issue. She suggested a Loratamine OTC and then adding a Flonase spray to see if it would make a difference. I'm 10 days into using Loratamine and 5 days into using Flonase. I've also tried a saline nasal spray. Now, I don't have too many nasal symptoms--I've tended to wake up with post-nasal drip but have experienced very little congestion, if at all. If I've had headaches or "discomfort" in the head/sinus regions, it's been relatively minor and infrequent. The other oddity is that I've tended to go through periods over the last 8-12 years of computer strain symptoms--e.g., affecting my eyes, wrists, shoulders, neck (the latter 3 at the moment). The onset of the symptoms appeared at about the same time as did the post-nasal drip and the eye strain issue. It wouldn't seem that odd to me as I've done extensive computer work over the years--except for the fact that recently I hadn't been doing that much. Furthermore, over the last 3 weeks I've dramatically reduced my work and I still suffer some mild symptoms. My question is--as I'm not that well educated on allergies, could this be an allergy issue and can allergy issues sometimes set off other issues in the body? I know my doctor saw the onset of these multiple symptoms as "coincidence" but since I know my body well in terms of how it responds to computer work, I'm rather surprised that I'm experiencing computer strain problems without doing significant computer work. Hence, I'm wondering if there is some more systemic issue (even if it is allergies or something like that). I guess in the back of my mind I'm worried about Lyme Disease since I've grown up in an endemic area and seen several people suffer from strange symptom sets. Any thoughts are appreciated.

[Rowena Santos, MD]

How are you? Allergy symptoms appear when the body's immune system begins to respond to a substance or allergen as though it were a dangerous invader. Some substances, because of their chemical make-up, are more prone to generate an allergic response in humans.

Lyme disease is an infection that is spread by ticks. Aside from the red rash, Flu-like symptoms such as tiredness, headaches, sore muscles and joints, and a fever are also observed. Without these symptoms, you don't have anything to worry about.

Regarding your computer strain problem, this is an issue of ergonomics in the workplace wherein your office should do something about the musculoskeletal disorders brought about by your work. It would be good to talk this over with your Office Safety Committee.

Take care and keep us posted.