I googled the medication that she was taking or had just stopped taking at the time. It's a medication for Myasthenia Gravis. It does mention that an overdose would cause breathing problems.

and it also mentions that if you have heart problems or asthma, that it can cause breathing problems as a side effect. I dont know if she has any problems like that, but that could be one explanation for the "psychological attack" problems.

http://www.medicinenet.com/pyridosti...al/article.htm

Hi,
I think the breathing problems (at least the ones explained during the hospitalization) was due to the extreme fatigue and stress from all the gagging that was happening as they put the scope down my throat to look at my stomach (the medicine that i was on was causing severe acid reflux - which was aggravated by a hyatal hernia that i have - a hyatal hernia is where part of the stomach comes back up through the opening for the esophagus in the diaphragm) and they were checking for any signs of esophageal erosion from the acid that was coming back up all the time.

The vision problems alone, have been longstanding (i don't know if i have mentioned that before) but they have been long standing since at least the age of 7. I was dx w/ esophoria (a eye misalignment that the brain can compensate for) but my family was in denial about it so i never got treatment.

Fast forward to age 23 when I tried to drive and found out that i couldn't see past the end of the car, i was seen by a ophthalmologist in my college town who immediately referred me to Medical college of Georgia where i was seen by an ophthalmologist who specialized in strabismus (eye misalignment).

by the time that i saw her initially i was at 12 prism diopters and by the time i had surgery I was at 28 prism diopters (i elected to finish college before having the surgery b/c I didn't want to disrupt my academic pursuit by the unknown of what that surgery would do. I do not regret that decision.).

as a frame of reference on the prism diopters 6 prism diopters is considered severe eye misalignment.

I was at that in high school (when i first realized that i had double vision when driving - i had it other times too but my brain had learned to compensate for it when walking - driving at 60 mph or less was more than my brain could compensate for and thus severe double vision).

I didn't make an issue of it with my family at that time, if i even told them b/c i didn't want to loose my driving privileges that i had just gotten (i do regret that decision)! Plus I was in the midst of a domestic violence situation with my alcoholic step dad and i didn't want them to THINK that i had been drinking which is what i was always taught was the sole cause of double vision! (i don't drink to this day, never have but I don't think they wouldn't have accepted it at that time that i wasn't drinking - they do now).

the surgery that i had at age 23 is a surgery that normally is done at age 3!!!!

anyway, that might help explain somethings that i had forgotten to say earlier. let me know if that helps this make any more sense.

BTW when you have double vision that sometimes your brain can compensate for and sometimes it can't that can be very distressing, especially when your brain decides that it can no longer compensate during driving! That might could account for the anxiety attacks!

Also, I was dx with migraines also at age 19 (as a sophomore in college) and was under treatment for those through the remainder of my college career.

That could have been the "attack" (with the blurry memory that i have for the traumatic time that I had at age 16 with my stepdad) that i had in AP biology. The attack as i descirbe it now, may not have actually been that way, i don't know, b/c certain details are blurry and my brain likely filled in the missing pieces automaticly. All i know for sure at age 16 that the possible migraine that i had HURT and was very scary!!!!

As for the double vision continuing, that may have around the same time that my brain switched from compensating for it (esophoria) to (esotrophia - where the brain doesn't compensate as well for it and it becomes more persistent). I don't remember much about that time, b/c it was such an emotionally painful time for me. So i can't remember if the vision problems started before or after the pain, i just don't remember.

Bob, it sounds like you have (had) a number of health problem that could contribute to your symptoms and muddy the waters for a dx. However, from some of the symptoms you've described, it may very well be something is going on in your "C" spine that you should have checked out. I would follow up with a MRI of that area, as a starting point.

Good luck!

Cherie

Bob,

Sorry I had "keyboard in mouth disease" (akin to foot in mouth).

I read all the posts and agree that more follow up is needed to help you find some answers. You have been through a lot.