How it began:
I remember it was around the beginning of the year 2011 that it began with episodes of feeling rather sleepy during the daytime and me in my usual hard-working style, ignoring it and continuing to work. By July 2011, my eyes would burn if I worked too long. By October, I felt sharp stabbing pain behind my eyeball and eyes burning. By November, the muscles below my eyeball begin feeling tensed and strained. This progressed to muscles all around my eyes feeling strained. By December, my upper cheek muscles and muscles just above my eyebrows started getting strained.
Searching for a cure:
My first visit was to a physician. His first question I remember, was whether I was getting enough sleep. I said yes (because I thought I was). He asked me a bunch of other questions and assumed it was dry eyes. He prescribed me ayurvedic eye drops. It didn't help.
By the end of December, when the strain got so bad that I couldn't even keep my eyes open, an ophthalmologist listened to my explanations, said the strain has reached a chronic stage, said it can't be dry eyes, told me not to use ayurvedic drops and suggested it may be due to allergens. She prescribed me a change in environment. She prescribed me drops with anti-allergic properties. Thankfully, the prescription for a change in environment helped me get a transfer to my hometown (colleagues and relatives thought this was my plan of going back home, but they didn't know the amount of pain I was going through).
Strangely, even after being at home, I wasn't getting enough sleep and the eye strain continued. Visited numerous ophthalmologists for the subsequent two years in Bangalore, and they said it could be astigmatism (I couldn't wear the astigmatism lenses for more than 5 min), they suggested dry eyes, they said it might just be psychological and referred me to a neurologist. One ophthalmologist thought I was faking it just to test him, since he couldn't see any problem with the eye. During this time, I've had to use lenses of lower and lower power and finally figured that I didn't have any strain if I didn't wear spectacles.
What it feels like:
During this entire episode of more than two and a half years, I've been through the trauma of not being able to do any proper programming. As long as I was handling short modules of programming I could manage it (it reflected in good appraisals), but it was a torture because I couldn't focus on the screen for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. The real trouble came when I was promoted and put in charge of a completely new project with a technology I had to re-learn. The eye strain started taking a toll, because I had to work hard at office and come back home and learn too. What made it worse, was colleagues who thought I was making up a story of eye strain. I found only two ophthalmologists among the twelve whom I consulted, who really cared about curing me. For the others, it was just a job.
I know what it is like to work hours at an end on the computer. That's what I used to do during my student life and the early part of my career. Being able to focus for hours at an end is how I became a good programmer. Software programming isn't a choice I made because of the good pay. It's a hobby. It's what I love doing.
I hated not being able to focus and always wanting to keep my eyes closed because of the pain.
The progammer that I am, I was constantly trying out things to solve my problem too. I figured that I wasn't getting enough sleep and solved it. There was a direct connection between the amount of sleep I got, and the amount of strain I experienced. I also figured that since not wearing spectacles wasn't giving me any strain, it could be because of the visual acquity of the fibre/plastic lens. Tried glass lenses and was surprised that there was no strain.
I sit at home right now (holiday), wearing my glass lenses, happily typing away at a screen I've been staring at for almost the entire day, taking breaks in between. It's such a relief to be my old programmer self again. Being able to concentrate on programming is such a blessing! My eye muscles are still in the process of healing completely. It's not a joke, recovering from chronic strain and continued strain for more than two years at a stretch.
Am grateful to my managers for being understanding. Although during my time of weakness a few greedy, uncaring colleagues have taken advantage, pretty much like vultures. I guess the best thing to do is to forgive them and move on.
Conclusion: The ophthalmologists couldn't diagnose it correctly. One of them said it might be a rarest-of-the-rare case when I went back and told her of the cure. Trial and error with logical reasoning (or let's call it debugging) helped. I believe what happened to me was a lack of sleep, the sleep debt accumulating over a period of months and my sleep cycle being locked at six and then at four hours (by Oct/Nov 2011 I used to suddenly wake up at 4am for no apparent reason and couldn't go back to sleep. When the sleep cycle gets locked like this, you will no longer feel sleepy during the day, but your eyes won't get the necessary rest). So the Anxit pill my brother gave me (credit goes to him too for his House MD style ddx) seems to have broken the sleep cycle. Trial and error showed that I needed at least seven hours of continuous sleep at night to have no strain. I still can't understand why the glass lenses don't give me any eye strain, when the fibre/plastic lenses are giving me strain although I've worn them for many years earlier, without any problem.
Hope this post helps anyone with a similar problem.
I remember it was around the beginning of the year 2011 that it began with episodes of feeling rather sleepy during the daytime and me in my usual hard-working style, ignoring it and continuing to work. By July 2011, my eyes would burn if I worked too long. By October, I felt sharp stabbing pain behind my eyeball and eyes burning. By November, the muscles below my eyeball begin feeling tensed and strained. This progressed to muscles all around my eyes feeling strained. By December, my upper cheek muscles and muscles just above my eyebrows started getting strained.
Searching for a cure:
My first visit was to a physician. His first question I remember, was whether I was getting enough sleep. I said yes (because I thought I was). He asked me a bunch of other questions and assumed it was dry eyes. He prescribed me ayurvedic eye drops. It didn't help.
By the end of December, when the strain got so bad that I couldn't even keep my eyes open, an ophthalmologist listened to my explanations, said the strain has reached a chronic stage, said it can't be dry eyes, told me not to use ayurvedic drops and suggested it may be due to allergens. She prescribed me a change in environment. She prescribed me drops with anti-allergic properties. Thankfully, the prescription for a change in environment helped me get a transfer to my hometown (colleagues and relatives thought this was my plan of going back home, but they didn't know the amount of pain I was going through).
Strangely, even after being at home, I wasn't getting enough sleep and the eye strain continued. Visited numerous ophthalmologists for the subsequent two years in Bangalore, and they said it could be astigmatism (I couldn't wear the astigmatism lenses for more than 5 min), they suggested dry eyes, they said it might just be psychological and referred me to a neurologist. One ophthalmologist thought I was faking it just to test him, since he couldn't see any problem with the eye. During this time, I've had to use lenses of lower and lower power and finally figured that I didn't have any strain if I didn't wear spectacles.
What it feels like:
During this entire episode of more than two and a half years, I've been through the trauma of not being able to do any proper programming. As long as I was handling short modules of programming I could manage it (it reflected in good appraisals), but it was a torture because I couldn't focus on the screen for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. The real trouble came when I was promoted and put in charge of a completely new project with a technology I had to re-learn. The eye strain started taking a toll, because I had to work hard at office and come back home and learn too. What made it worse, was colleagues who thought I was making up a story of eye strain. I found only two ophthalmologists among the twelve whom I consulted, who really cared about curing me. For the others, it was just a job.
I know what it is like to work hours at an end on the computer. That's what I used to do during my student life and the early part of my career. Being able to focus for hours at an end is how I became a good programmer. Software programming isn't a choice I made because of the good pay. It's a hobby. It's what I love doing.
I hated not being able to focus and always wanting to keep my eyes closed because of the pain.
The progammer that I am, I was constantly trying out things to solve my problem too. I figured that I wasn't getting enough sleep and solved it. There was a direct connection between the amount of sleep I got, and the amount of strain I experienced. I also figured that since not wearing spectacles wasn't giving me any strain, it could be because of the visual acquity of the fibre/plastic lens. Tried glass lenses and was surprised that there was no strain.
I sit at home right now (holiday), wearing my glass lenses, happily typing away at a screen I've been staring at for almost the entire day, taking breaks in between. It's such a relief to be my old programmer self again. Being able to concentrate on programming is such a blessing! My eye muscles are still in the process of healing completely. It's not a joke, recovering from chronic strain and continued strain for more than two years at a stretch.
Am grateful to my managers for being understanding. Although during my time of weakness a few greedy, uncaring colleagues have taken advantage, pretty much like vultures. I guess the best thing to do is to forgive them and move on.
Conclusion: The ophthalmologists couldn't diagnose it correctly. One of them said it might be a rarest-of-the-rare case when I went back and told her of the cure. Trial and error with logical reasoning (or let's call it debugging) helped. I believe what happened to me was a lack of sleep, the sleep debt accumulating over a period of months and my sleep cycle being locked at six and then at four hours (by Oct/Nov 2011 I used to suddenly wake up at 4am for no apparent reason and couldn't go back to sleep. When the sleep cycle gets locked like this, you will no longer feel sleepy during the day, but your eyes won't get the necessary rest). So the Anxit pill my brother gave me (credit goes to him too for his House MD style ddx) seems to have broken the sleep cycle. Trial and error showed that I needed at least seven hours of continuous sleep at night to have no strain. I still can't understand why the glass lenses don't give me any eye strain, when the fibre/plastic lenses are giving me strain although I've worn them for many years earlier, without any problem.
Hope this post helps anyone with a similar problem.
