Optic Neuritis?? Or something else

[Nurseypoo]

Hello, I have been diagnosed for a year with MS, and have been on Rebif since diagnosis. I recently had to stop while we moved and a bunch of life changes, including losing my 4th job since my diagnosis due to frequent relapses. I am in the process of getting some assistance to get back on Rebif ASAP, and have been off of it for well over a month. The past couple weeks I've noticed my symptoms acting up a little, more spasms in my legs and arms, some worsening of depression, and worse fatigue, but this makes sense where I'm off of my meds and under a lot of stress (my husband is end stage kidney failure too). So the past week I've had a constant pressure in my head, its gets worse then a little better, then worse, then a little better and so on. It's almost constant, worse with bright light.

Yesterday I woke up with my R eye feeling like it was swollen and it's pretty sore. It hurts to blink and to move my eye. I've had stye's before but I don't feel a bump. I have taken my migraine medication and it doesn't help my headache, I take Vicodin to get by a few hours. I've never had an issue with my eyes in past relapses (I've had 4 relapses in the last year). I was curious as to what symptoms people had with optic neuritis and if this sounds like it could be. I am a nurse and normally I would recommend someone to go see their neuro, but I have no health insurance and if it's not the MS then I'd rather not go and have another bill on my plate. I'm looking more to see if I should see my neuro, my PCP, or an eye doc.. Any suggestions?? Thanks.

**Post broken into paragraphs by Moderator for easier reading. Many people with MS have visual difficulties that prevent them from reading large blocks of print.**

[Redwings]

Eye and vision problems should always go to an eye doctor, never to a neurologist or PCP or anyone else unless there's no other choice. Only eye doctors are trained and equipped to do the proper evaluation.

The classic characteristics of optic neuritis (ON) are:

1) Pain on eye movement. The pain is typically behind the eye, not in front or inside it. The eye itself is not red or sore. There may be a frontal headache, maybe not. Occasionally ON in painless.

2) Loss of visual acuity and/or visual field.

3) Dilution or loss of the color red. This must be an obvious loss, not just maybe.

Those are the three symptoms a person may notice. You can do an Internet search for optic neuritis to get more information. Also pay attention to the signs and symptoms that are not listed for ON, as many misconceptions about ON abound.

The eye doctor will also look for signs that a person can't see for him or herself.

If you have a sore, red eye and a headache and don't have loss of vision, you might not have ON, or you might have ON along with something else. If your signs and symptoms aren't on the lists you find when you do your Internet research about ON, the greater the chance that you have something other than ON. But you do have something going on and it should be checked by an eye doctor (not neuro or PCP). If you think something's wrong, then something's wrong and it needs to be checked out very soon.

[JoeB]

That is what finally got me diagnosed with ms was optic Neuritis. It felt like someone was pulling on the back of my eye. It hurt so bad. Then I started to loose my vision in my eye. Everything went dark in the eye like I was going blind. My pcp sent me to an Opthamologist who sent me immediately to the er to start steroid treatments to reduce the swelling in my eye and to get my vision back. It did come back. I waited a few weeks before I went to see the doctor. I probably wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't wait so long. If the pain starts to affect your vision, then you should go to an opthamologist. Hope this helps.

[MrsBones]

Pain on movement is an ON thing, however, many things can cause pain in the eye. Other than the awful headache and eye pain, do you have any visual issues? Blurriness, loss of vision, colors seem off, esp. red?

An eye doc is the best person to see for any eye problem, MS related or not. Your neuro could surely consult with the ophthalmologist as a case of ON (if that's what it is) would be a relapse, but the optho or even better, a neuro-op is the one to see. A neuro just isn't trained or qualified to dx ON.

As far as what symptoms I had, each time was slightly different. Three were in one eye, one bilateral. The first gave me a clear, but large scotoma. The second was more a general blurriness. Third, left me color blind. 4th was the bilateral one, leaving me very impaired. I never recovered any of the vision from any of them. The visual loss just kinda accumulated.

Each had pain to some degree. Twice, I had severe nausea, as if I was constantly seasick. The neuro-op said this was because I wasn't able to mesh the two images you get from your eyes. Covering the eye helped when it would get its worst, just as a temporary measure to function at work. I eventually got used to it, but on very bad days, it crops up again and I get seasick.

Hope you get some relief from all of it soon.