Can Someone Please Explain to Me the Symptoms of Optic Neuritis?

[roseRH]

I'm having an issue with my right eye. First, let me say that I am 34 and work in front of a computer all day. So, this may be simple eye strain with the need of glasses.

Ok, that being said - it feels like a weird film/slight pressure on my eye. If I shut my Left eye everything is completely blurry. I don't think I would describe this as "pain" , just annoying for now.

This fun disease drives me insane. It's so hard not to become paranoid. I'm always scared the smallest thing could be a relapse or MS related.

Thanks for your help!

[Redwings]

Hi rose:
A sudden loss of vision is NEVER normal. Eyestrain doesn't make "everything completely blurry" in one eye. While you're concerned that this could be a relapse or MS related, you should also be worried that it might not be and might be something else. Not everything is MS.

While ON is a major suspect in a person with ON, there isn't any way for you to tell by yourself what the cause of your blurry vision is. The only way to know is for you to be evaluated by an eye doctor, preferably an ophthalmologist -- not your GP and not your neurologist. Only eye doctors are trained and equipped to properly evaluate eyes and vision.

The primary symptom of ON is the loss of visual acuity an/or visual field that develops over the course of hours to days. But loss of vision isn't exclusive to ON.

The next symptom of ON is pain on eye movement. The pain can range from intense to mild, and some episodes are painless (I've had several painless episodes of ON myself). But pain isn't exclusive to ON. So pain can't be used to determine what the cause of blurry vision is or how serious the cause is.

The next symptom of ON is loss of perception of the color red in the affected eye. But that's not exclusive to ON, either.

What you're describing isn't normal and should be checked by your eye doctor ASAP.

[cosake]

I second RedWings great advice - loss of vision, particularly in one eye, is not normal. You need to be seen by an eye doctor, preferrably an opthmalogist (sp?).

Since being diagnosed with MS, I have had two other issues that we originally thought were MS-related, but turned out to be completely UNrelated. Don't blame it on the MS.

My episode of ON is how I got my MS diagnosis by surprise. I happened to be pain-free during the ON. The central vision in my right eye completely disappeared.

Please see an eye doctor as soon as possible.

[Sir-Voor]

Optic neuritis is the inflammation of the optic nerve that may cause a complete or partial loss of vision.
And MS in a inflammatory disease, and an area of the body it can cause inflammation is the optic nerve.

I have found diet can really effect my ON, when I stay on a anti-inflammatory diet my ON is 99.9% gone. But is few sodas or other inflammatory foods and my ON kids in.

I think heat, stress and lack of exercise also plays a big role.

NutritionData.com has helped me learn what foods and spices help and hurt, I highly recommend it. Also Penzeys.com is good place for getting spices.

[Mel222]

Can ON last a few hours?

I lost vision in my right eye (best explanation is eating lunch - all of a sudden things got really bright, pixelated - couldn't see anything clearing for 2+ hours) gradually came back. Took 3+ hours to get into opthamalogist office - he said not ON but vision loss for a couple hours accompanied by eyelid drop was probably MS...went to see new neurologist claimed probably migraine - he said ON lasts days - weeks - permanently...not a few hours...??? Eyelid stayed dropped for 5+ hours, eye ached took 2+ hours to return to mediocre vision - feel like I am being "blown off" and treated like I'm over-reacting. I feel like this is an exacerbation and being told migraine...?

[rpdwifey2819]

Everything Redwings said is spot on.

ON is how I got my MS dx. Pain was actually my first symptom followed by vision loss in only my left eye. My understanding is that ON most often presents with pain but can occur without it.

I saw a Neuro-Opthamologist for diagnosis.

[CatMom0001]

I'm adding a question about ON

I was dx'd in Feb. 2003, I've never been told I have ON. I do get "eye aches." Actually, I normally describe this as having a headache in my eyeballs; my head doesn't hurt, just my eyes. It's definitely pain and some pressure.

Is this the kind of pain that you all are talking about associated with ON?

I saw an ophthalmologist for this eye pain and they told me it wasn't ON because there is no pain with ON. But they couldn't dx what it was, either.

Thanks for your input on my added question.

[Redwings]

Hi RobbieSue:
For something as simple as ON, there are an awful lot of misconceptions about it. It's shocking how many ophthalmologists don't even understand it. Most episodes of ON are painful to some degree. Pain is one of the trilogy of identifiers in ON. It isn't correct that ON never causes pain.

However, not all eye pain is ON, and folks win MS have to be careful not to assume that just because they have some kind of eye pain that it must be ON. The kind of pain that accompanies ON has it's on characteristics. It's usually pain behind the eye that occurs with eye movement. It tends not to be a general ache behind the eye or above or between the eyes, although that can also happen.

Even with that variability, the pain of ON is generally not a generalized headache nor an ache in one or both eyes. That kind of achiness is more typical of other conditions.

In addition, ON isn't a chronic condition, with long-term or transient achiness. (Neither is the vision loss transient.) Like any other type of relapse, ON is considered to be an episode. The pain comes on over the course of hours to days, the inflammation does its thing, the inflammation -- and the accompanying pain -- subside and then the event is over. In that sense, ON is like a car wreck -- it happens and it's over. The wreck isn't an ongoing thing.

And that's one of the misconceptions about ON. It might leave lingering problems with vision or transient neuropathic pain, but the event that caused the problems is long finished. A lot of folks continually refer to ON in the present tense, as in "This or that makes my ON better or worse," or "I've had ON for 6 months," as if it's everpresent and ongoing. But that's like saying, "I've been in a car wreck for 6 months." And that isn't the case. So one of the clues that your eye pain isn't ON is that it's chronic and recurrent.

Now, there is chronic, underlying inflammation that can occur in MS (and other autoimmune conditions) that can contribute to generalized pain, but that's different than ON. And if you should later have an episode of ON, it shouldn't be taken to mean that the eye aches were a sign that you had ON all along. They're two different things. And that's a whole other topic in itself.

What that comes down to, RobbieSue, is that the kind of eye aches you're describing aren't typical of ON. And the other thing that doesn't add up to ON is that you haven't had the other key symptoms of ON, which are vision loss and a color deficit. So although your ophthalmologist was wrong about the pain part of ON, you apparently didn't have any other sign or symptoms of ON or the ophthalmologist would have found it at the time of your exam.

[Redwings]

Oops! Typo alert!

Oops -- I hit send before I proofread.
That second paragraph of my last post is supposed to say:
However, not all eye pain is ON, and folks with MS have to be careful not to assume that just because they have some kind of eye pain that it must be ON. The kind of pain that accompanies ON has its own characteristics.

And since I'm here again , I'll add that not all cases of ON are painful. But the question was about pain and ON, not no pain and ON.