Fuzzy vision

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buellman91
buellman91 Member Posts: 32
in Head and Neck Cancer #1
Currently I am diagnosed with SSC Stage 4 with origin at base ot tongue and tumor positive for HPV. I have gotten 2 out of 3 chemo treatments of Cisplatin and 21 out of 35 radiation treatments.
I was recently put on a fentenyl patch for pain and another patch for muscous. Within the last 10 day my vision has become blurry. I will be 60 in June and use reading glasses but the things that are normally clear are now fuzzy. Anyone else have this symptom?
Bill

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  • D Lewis
    D Lewis Member Posts: 1,581 Member
    #2
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    Yes
    Hi Bill,

    Welcome to the forum, but so sorry you have to be here with us all.

    I noticed issues with my vision when I was going through treatment. I attributed it to the chemo, the pain meds, and the benadryl in the throat medication I was taking. It was only temporary for me. You should bring this up to your doctors, though. They may want to take a closer look to see if anything else is going on. I don't really know if chemo and the pain meds can cause permanent vision changes.

    I had SCC stage 4 base of tongue, HPV+ as well. I had the three rounds of cisplatin as well as the radiation. Gee, now I'm wondering if the radiation had anything to do with it.

    Deb
  • hawk711
    hawk711 Member Posts: 566
    #3
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    D Lewis said:

    Yes
    Hi Bill,

    Welcome to the forum, but so sorry you have to be here with us all.

    I noticed issues with my vision when I was going through treatment. I attributed it to the chemo, the pain meds, and the benadryl in the throat medication I was taking. It was only temporary for me. You should bring this up to your doctors, though. They may want to take a closer look to see if anything else is going on. I don't really know if chemo and the pain meds can cause permanent vision changes.

    I had SCC stage 4 base of tongue, HPV+ as well. I had the three rounds of cisplatin as well as the radiation. Gee, now I'm wondering if the radiation had anything to do with it.

    Deb

    Hi Bill and Deb
    I am 2 years post treatment for BOT with mets to neck. I had 6 rounds of chemo and 36 rads. I threw up constantly from mucous and as a result tore my retina in right eye. Had surgery after treatment and now all is good with that eye. However, I have 'floaties' in my other eye that blurs my vision quite a lot. I think the rads caused the floaties and also made the retina weaker. All speculation, but just wanted you to know that my vision was altered a great deal too......
    Hey D Lewis, you and I traveled the same road and the same time. Hope all is going well for you up in the mountains.....
    All in all, I am enjoying life and going in for PET in a couple weeks. looking for NED again.
    Live each day with passion.
    Steve
  • George_Baltimore
    George_Baltimore Member Posts: 303
    #4
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    Evoxac
    I didn't have vision problems until I tried Evoxac. It's a drug that is supposed to stimulate saliva production. As soon as I stopped taking it, my problems stopped. Could you be starting with cataracts? One other thing to consider, if you have had any Hyperbaric Oxygen treatments, that temporarily can change the lens in your eyes.
  • longtermsurvivor
    longtermsurvivor Member Posts: 1,842 Member
    #5
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    Very definitely
    My near and far vision turned to crap in the middle of radiation therapy. I also got this tremendous tear production, and my tears seemed sticky. I decided to wait a couple of months after radiation to see the optometrist. I'm one month post rads right now, and I think it is good i waited. Vision has improved quite a bit, and my tear production has dropped way down. I don't know exactly what the relationship was, but it certainly appears to have been related.

    Pat
  • buellman91
    buellman91 Member Posts: 32
    #6
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    longtermsurvivor said:

    Very definitely
    My near and far vision turned to crap in the middle of radiation therapy. I also got this tremendous tear production, and my tears seemed sticky. I decided to wait a couple of months after radiation to see the optometrist. I'm one month post rads right now, and I think it is good i waited. Vision has improved quite a bit, and my tear production has dropped way down. I don't know exactly what the relationship was, but it certainly appears to have been related.

    Pat

    Thanks everyone. Glad to hear I was not the only one! I was obviously thinking the worse case scenario (tumor in brain etc.) It still worries my as I had SCC on the left side of the neck in 2006, had surgery and radiation but did not experience this.
    The combination of chemo/radiation is beating me up.I had to spend a couple days in the hospital last week getting fluids and fighting off "bronchitis". I resisted getting the tube but now that is the only meythod of nutrition. At the 2/3 point, I dread the last chemo treatment but my wife has a plan and I am sure I will emerge from the fog.
  • D Lewis
    D Lewis Member Posts: 1,581 Member
    #7
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    buellman91 said:

    Thanks everyone. Glad to hear I was not the only one! I was obviously thinking the worse case scenario (tumor in brain etc.) It still worries my as I had SCC on the left side of the neck in 2006, had surgery and radiation but did not experience this.
    The combination of chemo/radiation is beating me up.I had to spend a couple days in the hospital last week getting fluids and fighting off "bronchitis". I resisted getting the tube but now that is the only meythod of nutrition. At the 2/3 point, I dread the last chemo treatment but my wife has a plan and I am sure I will emerge from the fog.

    Hang in there Buellman, you can do this!
    By the time I got to that third chemo, I was truly just running on faith. I felt like I was leaping off a cliff with no idea where the bottom was. My doctors had the plan, my family had the plan, I knew that I had once had the plan, but at that point it was all I could do to just keep slogging forward, one day at a time.

    Believe. You will get through it.

    Deb
  • D Lewis
    D Lewis Member Posts: 1,581 Member
    #8
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    hawk711 said:

    Hi Bill and Deb
    I am 2 years post treatment for BOT with mets to neck. I had 6 rounds of chemo and 36 rads. I threw up constantly from mucous and as a result tore my retina in right eye. Had surgery after treatment and now all is good with that eye. However, I have 'floaties' in my other eye that blurs my vision quite a lot. I think the rads caused the floaties and also made the retina weaker. All speculation, but just wanted you to know that my vision was altered a great deal too......
    Hey D Lewis, you and I traveled the same road and the same time. Hope all is going well for you up in the mountains.....
    All in all, I am enjoying life and going in for PET in a couple weeks. looking for NED again.
    Live each day with passion.
    Steve

    Steve
    All is well up here in the mountains, and I'm damned glad to still be here. I'll be holding good thoughts for your upcoming PET and getting ready to do the happy dance for you again.

    Deb
  • Mikemetz
    Mikemetz Member Posts: 465 Member
    #9
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    Blurry vision
    I also had blurry vision and was told it was a side effect of the fentanyl patch. With all of the meds I was taking at the time, there was no way to verify it--it could have been any number of things, or interactions. I do know that once the rads and chemo ended and I started to wean myself off the patch, my vision cleared up.

    Mike
  • sonyk728
    sonyk728 Member Posts: 124
    #10
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    Are you taking Salagen/Pilocarpine for dry mouth?
    Buellman- not sure if you are taking Salagen but I do note I have a bright yellow sticker on my RX bottle that says it may caused blurred vision. Get well soon!
  • buellman91
    buellman91 Member Posts: 32
    #11
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    sonyk728 said:

    Are you taking Salagen/Pilocarpine for dry mouth?
    Buellman- not sure if you are taking Salagen but I do note I have a bright yellow sticker on my RX bottle that says it may caused blurred vision. Get well soon!

    Culprit for vision problem
    I have two patches....fentenyl for pain and Transderm Scop (scopolamine) for the muscous. My wife researched side effects for each and saw that burry vision was a side effect of the scopolamine...I did take it off for 1/2 day but there was no difference. I'm sure it would take more than a few hours. Anyone else on or have been using that patch?
  • KTeacher
    KTeacher Member Posts: 1,103
    #12
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    No patch
    No chemo but rads did effect my vision for awhile. I do wear glasses and they didn't seem to work for reading for awhile. Seems like back to normal around 6 months.

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