Going to the eye doctor later today

momXseven · 02-20-2008, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erin524

I have to go back to the eye doctor in the morning. The optho I saw today was a new one. (really new!) She said that she hadnt seen many cases of ON, but she did look at my optic nerves and said that she didnt see anything, not that that is too reassuring, since the inflammation could be retrobulbar.

She thought that it could be ON, but that she wanted me to see my regular eye doctor to make sure, and also because he had a notation in my chart saying that the next time I came in, he wanted to do an OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) Which from what I could find in Google measures the size or length or something of the nerve fibers and can tell just how much damage there might be to the nerve.

Then I'll get to play the ever boring "game" of "click the mouse button whenever you see the blinky lights in the big barrel shaped thingie". (forgot the name of that one)

The optho that I saw today did say it could be eyestrain, or something like a sinus infection. She admitted that she's not an expert at diagnosing optic neuritis, and that my regular doctor is the guy to see for that.

At least she checked to make sure I didnt have anything wrong that needed immediate treatment or something. She even told me that my vision (acuity?)has improved in both eyes since last time I was there. They made me read the letters on the wall, and the letters on the little card. I guess I did better in both eyes than I did the last time.

My eye hurts a bit more than it did this afternoon. I noticed that when they put the numbing drops in the eyes and then dilated them, that the pain went away after awhile. I'm guessing it's got something to do with the numbing drops.

I hope the appointment doesnt take too long tomorrow. I have to go to PT for my knee tomorrow afternoon.

I'm going to bed, I had 4hrs of sleep last night and my eye is starting to hurt a bit more.

Sorry you have to go back, I had to go a 2nd time also (still don't have any word if this is ON or not).
I hope your next visit goes well and fast.

Erin524 · 02-20-2008, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by momXseven

Sorry you have to go back, I had to go a 2nd time also (still don't have any word if this is ON or not).
I hope your next visit goes well and fast.

I just got it confirmed. It's optic neuritis.

*multiple swear words being grumbled under breath*

I'm ticked.

He did tell me that it's still early in this case of ON, and that it might (probably will) get worse in the next several days. (worse? worse would be if it goes like it did the first time I had ON!!)

Right now, I dont have any blind spots, altho new today, red light looks fuzzy in the newly ON eye and it looks sharp and clear in the other eye.

So, I guess I should not be surprised if my right eye develops blind spots in the next few days.

If it does get blind spots, or if the pain increases, he told me to call him up and I would be getting hooked up to the IV solumedrol for a couple of days and then they'll give me the ever unpleasant oral prednisone. (yuck!)

I'm very unhappy about this. Good thing I used some of that Trazodone (anti-depressant/sleeping pill) last night.

I think I'll need the antidepressant properties of the Trazodone more than the sleeping pill effects. I only took 1/4 of the pill last night. Gosh, did that work great to help me sleep. I'm not sure why I was scared to take it before. I'm pretty happy to find out that 1/4 of that pill was more than enough to help me sleep. I think I'd still be out if I had taken the whole pill.

momXseven · 02-20-2008, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erin524

I just got it confirmed. It's optic neuritis.

*multiple swear words being grumbled under breath*

I'm ticked.

He did tell me that it's still early in this case of ON, and that it might (probably will) get worse in the next several days. (worse? worse would be if it goes like it did the first time I had ON!!)

Right now, I dont have any blind spots, altho new today, red light looks fuzzy in the newly ON eye and it looks sharp and clear in the other eye.

So, I guess I should not be surprised if my right eye develops blind spots in the next few days.

If it does get blind spots, or if the pain increases, he told me to call him up and I would be getting hooked up to the IV solumedrol for a couple of days and then they'll give me the ever unpleasant oral prednisone. (yuck!)

I'm very unhappy about this. Good thing I used some of that Trazodone (anti-depressant/sleeping pill) last night.

I think I'll need the antidepressant properties of the Trazodone more than the sleeping pill effects. I only took 1/4 of the pill last night. Gosh, did that work great to help me sleep. I'm not sure why I was scared to take it before. I'm pretty happy to find out that 1/4 of that pill was more than enough to help me sleep. I think I'd still be out if I had taken the whole pill.

I'm so sorry

, I hope you don't get worst.
I do have a blind spot, most of the inside of my eye (near my nose) but I don't really notice it until I just look thought my left eye. And no, I still haven't heard anything from my eye Dr.

Erin524 · 02-20-2008, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by momXseven

I'm so sorry

, I hope you don't get worst.
I do have a blind spot, most of the inside of my eye (near my nose) but I don't really notice it until I just look thought my left eye. And no, I still haven't heard anything from my eye Dr.

I hope your eye doctor gets back to you quickly. Has he diagnosed it as ON, or is he waiting for another symptom to pop up before he'll say it is ON?

I'm pretty sure I'll be getting a blind spot or two soon. My eyes are still dilated right now, and if I look thru just the right eye, I can see a patch of blurry vision that wasnt that bad last night...so I think the blind spot is still building itself.

My eye hurts more than it did yesterday, now it hurts if I close my eyes to yawn or sneeze in addition to being sore if I move my eye side-to-side.

He told me that I could take ibuprofen or tylenol for the pain, or I could even take the Midrin that I have for migraines. (said the Midrin might work better, since it's got the sleepy properties to it)

I had to think about this seriously, and asked the opthalmologist several questions about it. I think I will be taking the steroids if/when he offers them. I just dont think I can wait this one out this time. I about went mad the first time I had ON, waiting for it to get better. I was going to sign up for school in the next few weeks, and I dont want to have to skip going back again because the MS Trolls that live in my brain dont think I should be going back to school.

So, I guess if this gets worse in the next few days, I'll be learning where the infusion center is (guessing that it's at the MS Clinic)

I guess I'll get my computer set-up for voice commands and reading text out to me like I had it in 2006. (love that text-to-speech program!)

I'm just really peeved off that the stupid MS Trolls have returned to drive me batty.

momXseven · 02-20-2008, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erin524

I hope your eye doctor gets back to you quickly. Has he diagnosed it as ON, or is he waiting for another symptom to pop up before he'll say it is ON?

He wasn't in the office when I went in the 2nd time, he was going to look at the 2nd VF test and compare it to the 1st and than let me know if it's ON or something else.

Erin524 · 02-20-2008, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by momXseven

He wasn't in the office when I went in the 2nd time, he was going to look at the 2nd VF test and compare it to the 1st and than let me know if it's ON or something else.

My visual field tests were good so far. Even tho when I put the eye patch on, my vision in the unpatched eye seemed to gray out or get a big shadow in it. (weird...)

My left eye (the one that had ON in 2006) had improved to better than it was the first time I'd seen this eye doctor. The right one, the eye doctor told me, looked like I missed a few of the blinky lights but that he didnt think that was too strange, but said it could be that I've got a blind spot that's not too obvious yet.

I think I'm going to have to not read all the optic neuritis threads that people have been posting. I swear, this is the "fashionable" MS symptom to have this month. "Everyone's doing it"

I hope your ON and my ON will be healing very soon. It sucked the first time around for me, I'm sure that this time will have a lot of suckage tagging along with it too.

Bearygood · 02-21-2008, 03:39 PM

Erin, so sorry to hear this but glad you found out early. I didn't do steroids last time but if I'm ever faced with this this again, I think I would. To avoid further inflammation, I think it would be worth it. (Last time I had already hit the top of the curve by the time I found out and was headed toward recovery, albeit, a long one!) Are they not offering steroids as an option for you?

Erin524 · 02-21-2008, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bearygood

Erin, so sorry to hear this but glad you found out early. I didn't do steroids last time but if I'm ever faced with this this again, I think I would. To avoid further inflammation, I think it would be worth it. (Last time I had already hit the top of the curve by the time I found out and was headed toward recovery, albeit, a long one!) Are they not offering steroids as an option for you?

It's an option, but not yet. He wants to wait and see if it gets any worse. I'm supposed to call him back if the pain in my eye gets worse, or if I develop any blind spots.

So far, so good...my eye doesnt hurt any worse than it did yesterday, it still hurts, but it's not too horrible. I've had black eyes that hurt worse than this. It hurts if I move it, and it hurts if I blink or squinch my eyelid too much, but it's no where near the pain I had in my other eye when I got ON in 2006. (to compare, this is a 3 on the 1 - 10 pain scale...the first case of ON was a 12 on the 1 - 10 scale, before the blind spots appeared, and the night before and the day that I got the blind spots it was a 478...worst pain I'd ever felt)

I actually have a pain in my tailbone right now that hurts more than my eye does.

Bearygood · 02-21-2008, 04:51 PM

Will you go in for another visual field test though? My ON started with pain but it took a few weeks to notice any discernible blurriness or blind spots. Before that occurred though, my visual field test was abnormal -- I just didn't know that I wasn't seeing correctly at the time.

Erin524 · 02-21-2008, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bearygood

Will you go in for another visual field test though? My ON started with pain but it took a few weeks to notice any discernible blurriness or blind spots. Before that occurred though, my visual field test was abnormal -- I just didn't know that I wasn't seeing correctly at the time.

I go back next friday for another visual field test and I think also to get a picture of my optic nerve taken. (they called it an OCT) The computer that works the optic nerve camera thingie wasnt working yesterday...some sort of weird technical difficulty.

I hope that camera thingie is working, I want to ask for a copy of the picture.

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