For me, ON presented as a gradual dimming of my vision.

I started needing more light to read, and found myself holding books closer to my eyes when I read.

Because my vision loss was so gradual, I really thought I was just getting to the point that I finally needed glasses.

I put off going to the opthalmologist for almost 10 months because my husband had been in a bad accident...and going to the eye doctor for glasses just wasn't my priority!

The night before my appt. I realized I had a huge blind spot in my right eye. Large enough that I could lose things in it if I had my left eye closed!

At the dr. office the next day, I found that not only did I have a large blind spot in my right eye, I also had one in my left eye, although not as large.

About six to eight weeks later, I got the "you have MS" speech, and spent the week after Christmas recovering from IVSM.

So while I had eye issues for about 10 months, from the time I went to the dr. till the time I got the diagnosis was relatively very short.