On our last cruise to Alaska, I experienced something that I had never experienced before. I temporarily lost part of my vision. It was one of the scariest experiences of my life and certainly not something I ever expected to happen.
Before every cruise, I always visit the doctor to get a prescription for the Scopolamine patch to prevent sea sickness. I don’t know for sure that I would get sea sick without it, but I don’t want to take any chances. I do get car sick especially when I read so I know there’s a possibility that I could get sick on a ship. In addition to the ship, we were going to be out on some smaller boats for excursions and we had a 9 hour train ride to Denali National Park. I wanted to make sure I had it all covered.
I also use Bonine when I can instead of the patch. On this trip I used Bonine for the first 4 days. I put my first patch on the following day when we were taking a small ferry ride out to an island. As per the instructions, I left it on the next two days which were sea days. The morning after, I put on a fresh patch.
First Signs
We disembarked the ship and headed to the train for our trip to Denali. It was about an hour into the ride when I first noticed something was off. We went down to the dining car to get breakfast and I noticed the menu looked a little blurry. The sun was streaming through the windows and I thought it was just due to glare and possibly the fact that it was super early and I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before.
After breakfast we went back to our seats. I tried to pull out a knitting project I had brought with me. I needed to knit around 100 stitches before going to the next round. But when I tried to count to make sure I was on track, I kept losing count. I couldn’t tell how many stitches were on the needles. After trying 5 times to count, I just gave up and put it back in my bag and traded it for a book instead. I tried to read a few pages but noticed that I was having to hold the book extremely far away from me in order to see the words on the page. Something was very wrong.
On a normal day my vision is perfect. My eyes are 20/20 and I don’t wear glasses or contacts. There are some days that my vision is just a little blurry if I only get around 4-5 hours of sleep so I just thought that’s what was happening. After giving up on reading, I got out my phone to just pass the time. But I had trouble even seeing the screen on the phone. I have an iPhone 6S Plus so it’s not a small phone by any means.
I tried to pass the rest of the day just taking photos. Most of them however are slightly blurry because I couldn’t focus properly. After we got to the lodge, we ate dinner and then went to get settled into our room. We had combination locks on our suitcases. I was trying to open one of them and got so frustrated because I absolutely could not see the numbers. Not at all! I was starting to freak out at this point. I had to have my husband open the suitcase for me. That evening I had a scheduled hike and left soon after, trying to put it out of my head.
Things Get Worse
When I got back from the excursion, I went to bed thinking everything would just be okay if I got a good night’s sleep. No such luck! I woke up the next morning and it was still the same. Putting on my makeup was extremely difficult. I know most people would probably just go without but I don’t even go out to the mailbox without makeup on….that’s just who I am. But I couldn’t see my own eyes in the mirror to put on eyeliner.
At this point I was almost in tears and tried to go talk to my husband about it. He was standing right in front of me and I couldn’t see his face. It was all blurry. I knew something was horribly wrong. I could still see things in the distance but my close up vision was gone. My husband even had to read the menu to me at breakfast because I couldn’t.
Finding my Answer
When we got back to the room again, I pulled out my phone and started Googling. I had to hold it at arm’s length to read but I was determined to find an answer. I had my suspicions and they proved to be correct. Loss of vision is a little known side effect of the Scopolamine patches. I was amazed to find other people out there that suffered a loss of close up vision due to the patch. Some of those people said their vision returned after a day or two, some said it took a couple of weeks, and there were a few that said the vision loss was permanent for them. (While I do not advocate self diagnosing over the internet, in this case it truly saved my vision.)
Panic and relief set in all at once. I was sure I had my solution, but at the same time I worried that my eyesight was going to be permanently changed. I immediately went to the bathroom, ripped the patch off my neck and then washed my hands and the area of my neck that it had been on.
Getting Checked Out
By the next morning, my vision was back. Not 100%, but close. And by the day after, everything seemed to be back to normal again. After we got back home, I visited my doctor who confirmed that it is a rare side effect. As it turns out, the medicine in the patch can have the same effect as when you get your eyes dilated at the eye doctor. It widens the pupils and causes your close up vision to go blurry. I am extremely grateful that in my case, this was only temporary. And I had used the patch many times before and never had any issues. But this time I did.
I also checked with my eye doctor to make sure there was no permanent damage and everything looks okay. While I am not willing to risk the side effects by using the patch again, I want others to know that there is a risk. Most of us don’t read the side effects that come with prescriptions. And we especially don’t read them if we’ve taken the prescription before and have had no problems with it. Although this side effect is rare, it can happen and hopefully this will help someone else who experiences the same thing just as my Google search helped me.
