[Erin524]

Ok, I'm a wee bit nervous about the pain in my eye. Called my eye doctor and he's leaving in a half hour, so I made an appointment with the other optho at that office later today.

My right eye has had pain on movement since friday. It's not a bad pain, but it's just familiar enough feeling that I'm a bit worried that there's a new optic neuritis getting ready to attack me. (better just be eye strain from not sleeping much lately...knock on wood...I hope it's not a new ON)

I was going to call the eye doctor's emergency number on sunday, but the pain went away. It came back yesterday evening (after the eye doctor had closed for the day, of course) and came back this morning. I only had about 4hrs of sleep last night, so I dont know if the lack of sleep has anything to do with it...but it's just a bit more painful today than it was at any point earlier during the weekend.

Just disturbing enough for me to decide for sure that it should be checked.

I really really really hope it's not a new ON coming to visit me.

Does anyone know if starting IV steroids right at the start of a case of ON before it starts to affect your vision, will the steroids help hold off any vision abnormalities?

I'm wondering if I should call my neuro and warn him that I might be about to get hit with a new ON?

I'm also wondering if it's something in the water, or maybe alien microwaves that set this off, because I've read several posts in the forum the past few days about people having problems with their eyes. Maybe my eye is feeling sympathetic towards the others in the forum who just came down with ON???

I'll post when I get back from the optho (appointment is at 330pm CST) I think I'll go try out my brand new shower head the plumber just put in to replace the broken, leaky one. Maybe washing my hair will help relax me and keep me from freaking out for a little bit.

[momXseven]

Good Luck I hope it goes well for you.

I'm starting to think all the eye problems are being pasted thought post, LOL. I also have seen a lot of eye things going on lately. I think I started it tho, LOL, mine started up Jan 3rd.

[lady_express_44]

According to the NMSS, steroids would not necessarily the best course of action for ON (due to the ONTT trial).

Originally Posted by lady_express_44

NMSS: people treated with oral steroids for ON did not do as well as those who didn't, and the use of them caused an increased risk of recurrence. Additionally, short-term use of IV steroids did not appear to provide any long-term benefit, and of course come with considerable risk:

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/doc...onproblems.pdf

Optic Neuritis Treatment trial results:

http://www.nei.nih.gov/neitrials/vie...Web.aspx?id=47

Cherie

[Erin524]

Originally Posted by momXseven

Good Luck I hope it goes well for you.

I'm starting to think all the eye problems are being pasted thought post, LOL. I also have seen a lot of eye things going on lately. I think I started it tho, LOL, mine started up Jan 3rd.

Ahh!! It's your fault! (just kidding!)

Maybe it's being caused by sunspot activity?

I called my neuro to warn him that I'm going to the eye doctor. I probably shouldnt bother him about it, but if I'm about to have a flare or something, I thought that maybe I should let him know.

I should have waited till I washed my hair to call him. He's going to call me back (he calls me back personally, doesnt make a nurse do it!) Now I'm afraid that if I go to take my shower, the phone will ring just as soon as I get the shampoo going in my hair.

I dont have any blind spots or weird vision things going on (yet) so I'm not quite as worried about this being something bad about to ruin my year, but it's such a familiar feeling to me that I'm a little scared that I'll soon be walking into walls and bumping into people walking on my right side.

In august 2006, when I had my first case of ON, I had eye pain on movement for at least 5 or 6 days before the Migraine From H-E-Double-Toothpicks hit me in the head and the blind spots appeared the next morning.

This eye pain started friday (mild pain), was still here saturday (still mild pain), went away sunday afternoon, and returned last night (mild, but just a wee bit more painful)

If I had to say what the eye pain was on friday (scale of 1 - 10, 10 being the worst pain) I'd have to say that the pain on friday was less than a 1. Last night it was probably a 1.2, and today it's a 1.3. Very mild, but just enough to worry me. (to compare, my first ON, I would have to classify that pain as a 479)

[ewizabeth]

Hi Erin,

I hope it turns out to be something minor like eye strain. I haven't had ON, the only part of me that hasn't been touched by MS yet, knock on wood.

I'm wondering if my doctor treats it with steroids? Especially now that I saw Cherie's reply?

I'll keep you in my thoughts!

[momXseven]

Originally Posted by Erin524

Ahh!! It's your fault! (just kidding!)

I know

Well I do like to share

[Erin524]

Originally Posted by ewizabeth

Hi Erin,

I hope it turns out to be something minor like eye strain. I haven't had ON, the only part of me that hasn't been touched by MS yet, knock on wood.

I'm wondering if my doctor treats it with steroids? Especially now that I saw Cherie's reply?

I'll keep you in my thoughts!

I've read the same stuff that Cherie posted here before about the ONTT. That was one of the first things I read about ON and MS when my problems all started in 2006. It helped me decide to not do steroids back then.

My neuro and eye doctor have both told me that sometimes they'll treat ON with steroids, but I guess they both think that the ON has to be fairly severe to even warrant steroids. I'm pretty sure if this turns out to be ON, it's no where near as bad as it was for me in august of 2006.

I'm not really a big fan of the steroids anyways...well, I loved how I felt on prednisone last summer when I had vertigo, but I absolutely hated all the side effects. Hated those side effects enough that I'm pretty sure the only way I'll allow myself to be treated with steroids again would be if I get the vertigo back, or if I had paralysis or something truly nasty like that.

I may ask questions about steroids occasionally, and sometimes consider taking them, but I really do not want to take the steroids unless I'm flat on my back and unable to move or if I'm flat on the back because of vertigo. Those are pretty much the only symptoms where I'll probably be begging for the solumedrol.

I made it thru the first case of ON without steroids, hated it the entire time the vision was recovering because I thought it never would. This had better be eyestrain or the start of a weird but not harmful migraine, and not a new case of ON.

[Erin524]

Originally Posted by momXseven

I know

Well I do like to share

well, I hope your ON clears up quickly and doesnt cause you any more problems than it has.

I dont mind sharing...well, I do, but at least there's other people to talk to that are having similar problems, whether it's numbness or wacky vision crap going on...or something new and not-all-that-exciting with the MS.

Knowing that others are dealing with the same things and can share experiences sometimes have made me feel better.

I think my eye hurts because I've actually been feeling so much better in the last couple of months compared to how I felt at this time last year. The MS Trolls just want to remind me that they're still here and to not forget about them.

I think I'll go poke myself with a shot of Copaxone and pretend it's causing the MS Trolls lots of problems so that they'll forget about messing with me and my body for a bit.


My neuro just called me! (that's so cool, he doesnt make his nurse do it) He said he was glad that I called to let him know that something was going on, and told me that if it is ON, that it would depend on how severe the optho thinks it is whether or not they'd give me steroids.

He did tell me that when you DONT have a positive MS diagnosis, they usually will NOT give steroids, but that if you've got the definite MS diagnosis, that they're more willing to give steroids for optic neuritis. (I still probably wont do steroids unless it's really messing with my ability to see)

He said that I was doing this totally correctly. That I'm not going to be wasting the optho's time getting my eyes checked out today. He said it's better to get it checked and have it be nothing, than to ignore it and have it be something bad.

I'm just going to guess that it's probably ON and that they'll figure out what to do about it once they get a look at my optic nerve. That way I dont get my hopes up that it's just eye strain.

If it's ON, I'll just have to wait it out again like I did last time. At least now I've been practicing with crocheting and knitting without having to look at what I'm doing, so at least I wont have to worry about not being able to play with my yarn stash this time around if I'm unlucky enough to have vision wacky-ness again.

[NurseNancy]

erin,

i hope you're ok.
please let us know.

[Erin524]

Originally Posted by NurseNancy

erin,

i hope you're ok.
please let us know.

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.