This is a new development. I had surgery two days ago and one pupil is now a little bigger than the other.
I had the on-call doc paged and she said it was probably withdrawal from the anti-nausea patch that I just took off today. She didn’t sound concerned. But I guess my hypochondria is kicking in. In movies one dilated pupil means a stroke and imminent death. My husband is making fun of me but I’m kind of worried.
I also just took a hydrocodone. I feel a little drugged but no shortness of breath or pain or anything. I feel ok. [name]Just[/name] one big pupil. It’s weird.
if you’re sitting at the computer typing coherently you’re fine.
[name]One[/name] dilated pupil is a sign of a massive head bleed, or a stroke so huge that a large part of your brain has died and is swelling (vasogenic edema). As the brain swells it is compressed by the skull and has nowhere to go but down, so it starts to squoosh down & out of the head. On the way out of the foramen magnum, the nerve that controls pupillary constriction is compressed and taken out of commission. Voila-- unopposed, unilateral pupillary dilation.
However, people in this condition are comatose and usually unable to breathe on their own, let alone type.
If you had a scopolamine patch on, withdrawal causes pupillary dilation, but that should be symmetric. Hydrocodone causes small pupils, not big.
There is no real obvious reason, but all the scary etiologies are excluded by your normal functioning.
Thanks, [name]Blade[/name]! That post was a roller coaster: relief, horror, relief. LOL!
The Internet tells me if you take off the patch and rub your eye, this can happen as the medicine is transdermal. My eyes have itched all day and I’ve rubbed them. But then the Internet is not famous for its accurate medical info.
You make two medical doctors who don’t seem concerned so I guess I will try to follow my husband’s advice and simmer the f word down.
I am what happens when you watch ER every day for years. On ER people come in with an ingrown toenail and by the end of the episode they are coding and then dead. And a noble yet exhausted blood-spattered doctor has to go inform the family and then have a long conversation with a hot nurse about how hard it is being a doctor and then they do it.
But life isn’t ER. Hospitals are not sexy. And my brain is not exploding. So I will try to simmer.
When I was going threw chemotherapy they have me a scopolamine patch to put behind my ear. Once you take it off and get some of the medicine on your hands and rub your eye, it can cause dilated pupils. It will go away in about a day. I agree with blade, if you’re typing this well you should be fine. It could also be environmental or from makeup. [name]Feel[/name] better soon!
