Erin - waiting to hear from you. Hope it went okay and you got some answers and help.

Kebsa - you are so right. While I am not so crazy about the way some people stare at me "Why do you need a cane? You're so young...." Better that than thinking I drove to the store after 6 martinis.

Little do they know the cane is hollow and that's where I hide the martinis... J/K.

When I first got the optic neuritis, and I was waiting for it to go away, I hated to go shopping. Because I'd be walking down an aisle, minding my own business, and someone would walk past me on my blind side while I was trying to turn that direction to go somewhere. I'd usually get a snippy attitude from people, saying that I was rude and cutting them off or something. I'd explain that I was blind in one eye at the moment and did not see them.

Boy, could you see the disbelief in their eyes. I'd get a response like "yeah, right." and they'd storm off on their self-important and entitled way, cussing under their breath about how rude I was.

I got to the point where I just let them assume that I was a total bwitch and tried to ignore them. Altho, it's kind of hard when they ram into you with their shopping cart and dont offer so much as an "excuse me".

My dad had the same problem when he had cataracts in one of his eyes (he's actually had them in both eyes) Some woman in a WalMart that's kind of in a bad part of town went off on him because she thought he bumped into her because somehow that either made him a racist, or that he was trying to cop a feel or something (please, she was scary looking) He also got the "yeah right" response from the lady when he explained he was blind in one eye.

I guess, people are rude because they dont understand and dont know your situation, and apparently dont believe it when you tell them you've got some "invisible" symptom that only you can tell you have. They just assume you're drunk or stoned, or that you're a jerk. If you try to correct their assumption, they get all defensive and nasty about it.

I guess it's something we MSers (and people with similar problems from other diseases) will have to put up with occasionally. It'd be nice to get people to not make assumptions that we're all drunk and stumble bunny-ing our way down the sidewalk just to get in their way.

Oh yeah, edited to add: Got back from the doctor's office. Got an xray (it was normal) and a nice Rx for some physical therapy. (I cant afford an MRI right now) Hopefully the PT will help the knee and I wont have to go for an MRI. I hate MRI's anyways, so anything to keep out from under the big, scary, noisy magnet...

Erin so sorry for ALL you are going through.

Just remember when we fall or injure a body part, there are lots of tissues that get inflammed and STAY inflammed until it all heals up. AND then ther is "referred" pain or pain that is around or near the injured part that is nOT part of the injured area. Getting rest, PT if necessary and allow your body to heal hopefully will help.

Good luck in your recovery

Warmly Jan

Good luck ar rhe docs!

yeah, referred pain is quite interesting at times. I have low back pain, and it causes my hips to hurt (according to my neuro and my regular doctor) Right now I want to scream because it hurts...so the bad back, sore hips are not doing my newly worse knee (it was already bad when I hurt it)

Tonight I did something interesting. I was sitting on my bed, and I noticed my kneecap had slipped over to the side of my knee. (eww!) Not all the way over, but partially off the side of my knee. My kneecaps have always been floaters, but I've never had a kneecap float quite that far before. I think I'll be calling the PT place as soon as I get up in the morning.

I'm actually kind of excited about the PT, maybe they can suggest some good stretches for my back and hips that will help that pain go bye bye while they're helping me with my knee.

Hi Erin
I've been following (lurking) your trials with you injury. Having hurt myself recently. I'm with you about the PT. I'm going to take with me as much as I can to get the injuries healed and myself into better condition.

Sending wishes for the best recovery for you.