Double vision really sucks!
 

I'm going to my ophthalmologist in a couple of hours. I'm going to ask for steroids. This is just way too irritating for me. Plus, today it started to set off some really horrible vertigo.

Anyone ever have double vision and had it treated with steroids? How soon did it work? Did it even work?

I called my neuro yesterday afternoon (he wasnt there) so he called me back this morning. He said that it sounds like I'm having an exacerbation (no kidding!) He said steroids might help, and to see what the ophtho says and to have the ophtho call him or fax the report to him later.

I should have asked him for a refill on my meclizine prescription. I think I'll go call him back for that. (I cant find my Rx bottle of Meclizine, so I'm using the OTC bottle of meclizine that expired in 2003)

edited to add:

I'm feeling really really sick right now from the vertigo that the double vision is causing (not quite THAT sick, but it's getting closer to the point where I'll be making a mess soon) The double vision is more pronounced today than it was over the weekend while I was out of town. Before it was just like a ghosting of an image next to whatever I was looking at. Now I'm seeing two totally distinct images next to each other if I look at anything closer than about 5 feet to me.

I'm about to start crying about this because even tho I can see things really clearly (just doubled if I try to use both eyes) this is a lot more disturbing than the first episode of optic neuritis was three years ago.

I did some more reading about ON and double vision, and I guess they can put a prism in my glasses to help with the double vision, so I might ask for that option before I leap for the steroids. (hate steroids, but I will beg on my knees for them to make this go away)

I'm really really really hating the MS more than ever this week.

double vision usually implies the nerves to the muscles of your eye are being irritated from the MS. Optic neuritis has blurry vision in usually one eye that sometimes can be interpreted as double vision. optic neuritis usually get steroids, starting to work in 1-3 days with maximal effect on days 3-5. double vision may get steroids, but recent evidence suggests limiting steroid exposure is better for optic nerve health long-term.

it took 3 days for me. My best advice is to go to bed. Cover your eyes, and rest. Keep hydrated, and be patient. Take this time to listen to music, or a book on tape, or prayers, or nap time. I found keeping my eyes open was more than I could take.

You will find if you keep ONE eye open and one closed, it should be much much better. If you must be up, then patch one eye, and later in the day, cover the other.

I hope you feel better.

Double vision was what earned me my dx of MS. It started in October and ended in April. It was severe, too. Couldn't drive, walked like a drunken sailor. I took a couple of med packs of Prednisone but can't say that they really helped me. Just as I was about to get used to it, it started to slowly clear up.

Hope your episode doesn't last as long as mine did. Maybe the doc can do something to help speed up the healing.

Did you see Kitty's avatar? The kitty on the left is putting a patch over one eye to not be drunk and dizzy anymore. too funny. :D

I had double vision in high school. They thought it was due to hystoplasmosis. But I've had doctors question that now. It could have been ms related they think. But in the process I got glasses that had a prism in one of the lens. It took a while to have them made. but everything happens so much faster now. i hope you get some relief soon.

Edited to add:
I forgot to say, it's nice that your doctors communicate so closely. My doctors are really good about this and I just appreciate it so much. They are really thorough. Glad you've got a good neuro.

Just got back. I was going to go with my parents to get something to eat, but I have the queasies now. (yuck!) So they're bringing me something home later.

Stopped at Walgreens to pick up the meclizine I had my neuro call in for me. (yay!!)

Eye doctor said that a prism might help, but he said they're expensive and take awhile to make. Said I could have steroids if I wanted to, but reminded me of the side effects.

He said that diplopia (double vision) usually goes away a lot faster than optic neuritis. He thought 3 - 6 weeks and it should be better by then. (3 - 6 weeks of this?!?!!eleventy!!! that's torture!)

What I decided to do, was sit around with this for a few days and see if it starts to get better after a week or so. (it's at it's worst today, so maybe it'll peak after a few days and slowly get better?) and if it's not any better by this time next week, then maybe I'll call the neuro and beg for steroids.

Said I could drive if the eye is patched, but since I've got the queasies today, I'm holding off on driving right now. When I do start to drive, I'm going to stick with just my neighborhood and the shopping center that's at one end of the neighborhood (dont have to get on the busier streets that way)

It's just weird when I have vertigo like I do now. I want salty food! Ignoring the diplopia, everytime I have vertigo I get hungry for foods that have a lot of salt in them. My dad is bringing me home a cheeseburger, and I ordered french fries because I know the place he's going oversalts everything.

I'm also hungry for Chef Boyardee spaghetti (with meatballs) That has to be one of the saltier canned foods around. I always have to be in a certain kind of mood for it.

What is it about the vertigo and the queasies that makes me hungry for salty foods...and chocolate. Weird!

I just put Scotch tape over the left lens of my glasses (eye doctor suggested it) to see if that helps me any. I just dont like the eye patch because it's rubbing on my ear and my cheek and irritating me just as much as the double vision. It seems to be helping.

It might also not be so obvious that I have a problem, since the eye patch is extremely noticable and I had people looking at me funny in the eye doctor's office when I had the patch on. (umm...why they were looking at me funny, I dont know. I was at the eye doctors, you'd think they wouldnt find it strange to see someone wearing a patch in the waiting room of an eye doctor's office!)

I asked about the prisms. The ophtho told me that from my description of the symptoms that my vision is changing daily and that the prism probably would not work for me. He said if it stabilizes and doesnt get any worse or any better after awhile, he'd check into making me a pair of prism glasses. Until then tho, I'm wearing Scotch tape on my left lens of my glasses and a dark patch (the dark patch for when I'm outside in the sun)

Sending hugs of symapthy your way. Fuzzy visin, double vision, etc all all for the birds. The nausea - we won't even mention how much fun that is!

Hope this all clears up and FAST;)

(my hubby says I look sexy-scary in my eye patched days. Yeah, like I felt I was sexy - not...)

I noticed this morning, that if all the lights are out, I dont have that much of a problem. Even with the tv on. Makes it kind of hard to read or crochet or knit tho. (well, I can probably crochet or knit with my eyes closed)

Maybe if I learn to read Braille, then I could get a bunch of library books to read?

They do make books on tape, Erin, for those of us who have a hard time reading. They're actually quite relaxing.

I've got the entire Harry Potter series on dvd, and I've been buying Stargate audio plays on cd (cant exactly call them books...they're more like episodes...run about an hour long mostly) I got a new one of those on monday that I havent listened to yet, and another one should be here any day for me to listen to. (with two of my favorite actors from Stargate in it. I'm so excited about that one!)

I have a computer program that I bought in late 2006 that I use to read fan fiction that I find on the internet. I use that at night sometimes when I go to bed. I usually fall asleep about 10 minutes into listening to the computer reading to me. The voices that program use are better than Microsoft Sam (the voice that does the narration on Windows computers)

I also have my iMac computer that uses the voice Alex (an Apple voice) that sounds pretty good.

I wish I had a Kindle2 (I have the Kindle1) The K2 has a text-to-speech function on it. I dont know if my Stargate novels would have the TTS enabled on them tho. So I'm not sure I'd be able to have those books read to me thru a Kindle or not. Some publishers had a hissy fit about the TTS and made Amazon disable it for some things. Jerks!

My dad has a K2, so I could borrow his to listen to some Tarzan novels, and John Carter of Mars (both my dad and I are Edgar Rice Burroughs fans)

I just cant wait for this stupid double vision to go away. I hate it. I think I hate it more than I did the giant blind spot that I had when I had optic neuritis 3yrs ago. I'd rather be in pain than have double vision.

What irritates me is that I just bought a membership to the exercise place down the street, and now my eye is all fubar and I just dont want to go exercise with a patch over my eye. It never fails, everytime I want to do something to improve myself, the MS Trolls get jealous and decide they want some attention and make life miserable for me for awhile.

back when i was diagnosed...they made plastic prisms for my glasses
 

sorry to hear about your experience...double vision/vertigo is what led me to be diagnosed (optho said was either brain tumor or ms). my double vision lasted from late jan 08 until june-ish 08. it truly sucked.

but my optho did make some prisms (plastic) to put on my lenses...they fell off a lot so i made him give me a couple of pairs...despite his terrible bed-side manner...he was wise in telling me to wait for the expensive option of having a prism lens...also as the double vision changed over the months getting gradually better...steroids were not given as an option even though i asked...

now, when i get tired, stressed or super hot...the doubles return! usually have to rest it out but it truly sucks....

hopefully, things will get better for you..do ask about the plastic "stick-on" prisms...i can ask my provider about the name if you need help...take care, m

FIVE MONTHS??? It lasted five months for you???

I called my neuro a few minutes ago to ask about steroids. This is driving me bananas. It's not so much the doubles, but the spinnies that the doubles are giving me. I'm tired of feeling sick.

Hopefully steroids wouldnt make me feel sicker.

I just spent money getting a gym membership that I cant use now, and I wanted to go back to school in a couple of months. I cant do any of that if I'm seeing twins of everything and cant walk straight.

stupid $%^&ing MS!! It $%^&ing sucks!

I'm getting steroids! ummm...yay?
 

my neuro finally called me back. I asked about the steroids...he was going to give me oral steroids (eww! and, arent you supposed to NOT take oral steroids for vision problems??)

So, after talking to him for a bit, and him realizing that I've read the ONTT (Optic Neuritis Treatment Trial) and that I'm not comfortable taking the oral for a vision problem....he's trying to get a steroid infusion set up for me.

He actually called my regular doctor to see if they can do it in their offices...(very close to my house) I'm betting they wont do it in their office, but will probably find me a nice close infusion center to have them done at.

I'll have to remember to show my regular doctor my membership to the exercise place, so that he'll see that I tried to start doing the exercises he wanted me to do the last time I saw him a few weeks ago. Maybe he'll still give me the LDN? (knock on wood...or particle board...there's wood in particle board isnt there? can it still be lucky if you're knocking on particle board?)

I'm wondering if they'll be able to do it tomorrow? Or if I have to wait over the weekend before they'll hook me up to a bag of steroids?

I am not looking forward to the side effects. Last time I had steroids (of the oral kind) I ended up with a rather icky infection of the female kind AND a staph (MRSA) infection in my nose. I hope that I dont get anything nasty like those.

I've never had IV steroids...can anyone tell me what it's like...is it as bad as the doctors make it out to be??

Our stories are very much the same (unfortunatley :rolleyes:). My double vision is what led to my dx, too, and mine lasted from October to April. It came on slowly and reversed itself just as slowly. My Neuro never mentioned a brain tumor but all my research on the Internet had me believing that's what I had.

My regular doctor just called back, he said he needs to ask my neuro a question or two and then he's going to call me back about where and when I'll be getting the steroids.

If they dont do it in their offices (I just dont think my regular doctor would tie up an exam room for several hours just for a person to get an infusion) I hope they get me into the place I read about that's open on the weekends.

I'm just hoping that the IV steroids dont make me all wacky and make me pee every 2 1/2 minutes like the oral steroids I had a couple of years ago did. That got old really quick. I can also do without the funky infections that I got from being on the oral steroids last time.

edited to add:

Got a call back from my regular doctor. Neuro is making me wait till MONDAY to get my steroids. (grrrr!) He told my regular doctor that he wanted me to wait till monday. Not sure why that is... The order for the steroids is for me to have them monday, tuesday, and wednesday. Not sure if I get the taper after that. Probably do.

They picked a different infusion center. One that's further west of my house, but I think I can probably drive that by myself without a ton of problems. (I'll take a cab if I think I'll have a problem) It's at the hospital that I drove myself to 3yrs ago when I had my very first episode of optic neuritis. I drove there half blind once, I think I can do it again. (I'll be patching my eye first tho) If it's morning, I wont have to drive facing the sun.

I'm just waiting for the infusion center people to call me to tell me what time and where in the building that I go to get my steroids.

was yours optic n?
 

mine was 6th cranial nerve palsy or something like that so steroids were not an option...i still get the dbl vision occasionally when tired/overheated/stressed! i'm on avonex...ms sucks but i'm glad it wasn't a brain tumor! :winky:

I know! I was happy to get the dx of MS when I thought it was a brain tumor! Just goes to show....there's always something worse.

I took two rounds of oral steroids but they didn't really help the double vision. Just made me hyper and hungry! :rolleyes: I did have a case of bells palsy immediately following the double vision. It affected my face and to this day I can still see the weakness in one side of my face. Others say they don't notice it but I do.

Why were steroids not an option?? (I remember my eye doctor saying something about a CN VI palsy the other day)

I feel sick this morning. The double vision changed again overnight. It's making the vertigo a lot worse.

It is horrible and earned me my dx also, sigh. I cut out and taped a piece of black paper the size of one lens to my glasses and that was much better for me than the patch.

I did maybe a 5 day taper pack of oral methylprednisolone and whether or not it helped I don't know but within a week I was in much better shape and I'd say in a couple of weeks back to almost normal, knock wood.

Hang in there.

Aww Erin (((HUGS))) to you :hug: I can completely sympathize with what you are going through. I hope you feel better soon. The eye patch was irritating, but better than going without it for me. I had the luxury of just going to bed. :hug:

I'm sitting in bed right now. Havent ventured away from it this morning except to use the potty. I may just go back to bed...get caught up on my sleep bankruptcy that the insomnia had been building.

I just dont like having vertigo from this, I really really really hate the spinnies. I usually dont get super nauseous, but this is starting to make me queasy.

I really really hope that my 3 days of IV steroids is going to stop this and make me mostly normal again. (not sure I was ever normal before all this MS crap started) I have to go tell my boyfriend that I dont know if I'm going shopping with him tomorrow. Hopefully he understands if I dont. I just dont know if I'm up to walking around a big store with lots of people.