Confused

[Momma60]

Daughter went to her neuro, she is coming out of a relapse that started in Dec. and hit her hard in Jan. He said something odd and I just wanted you thoughts on it. First, she keeps a slight headache almost all the time, just about a month before her first symptom in Dec. it went full blown, then in Jan. it was taking the top of her head off. Hurting down back of head, neck and shoulders.She told him yesterday the headache was almost gone, he said it had nothing to do with the Ms. Didn't know what to think about that. Then she went to eye doctor for exam and they found pressure of 21 in left eye and 25 in right eye.This relapse affected her vision more. When she told him he said you have glaucoma. She is 26 and never needed glasses before this Ms and pressure has always been okay. Have any of you heard if Ms is affecting you optic nerve that the pressure will be affected in your eyes?

[SNOOPY]

Hello Momma60,

This is a question best answered by Redwings but I will give it a try and Redwings can correct me.

Optic Neurits (ON) is common for many with MS. I don't *think* ON causes low pressure.

You did not say if your daughter used steroids to treat her relapse. Steroids, although helpful in many cases, have some serious side effects. One of those side effects can be steroid induced glaucoma

[birdshutterbug]

Optic Nerve

That is so frustrating & infuriating when the docs tell you "that has nothing to do with the MS"! It is directly caused by the MS whether they believe it or not. I just heard from one other person today that said they had migraines for years before being diagnosed with MS. I have been told repeatedly that my migraines have nothing to do with my MS. I have a lesion on my optic nerve but still aren't all of your nerves subject to symptoms with this Neurological disease? Just because "they don't know" does not make them the expert on your body.

[SNOOPY]

Optic Neurits (ON) is common for many with MS. I don't *think* ON causes low pressure.

I would like to correct my statement.

You did not state high or low pressure, that was my mistake.

With Glaucoma the eye pressure is high not low. Eye pressure in the right eye (25) is high.

Just to clarify: MS does not cause glaucoma but steroids can.

There are other causes for glaucoma, one being hereditary but my first thought was steroid induced since steroids are commonly used with MS and relapses.

[quietposter]

I've had this pain. It was the pain that drove me back into the neurologists office 4 years ago, after 10 years of pretending my symptoms weren't progressing. It starts at the top/back of my head and if it's really aggressive will move around my face, down the back of my shoulder and down my arm. It will regress in the same manner. At its worst, it takes about 4-6 months to recede. I feel for your daughter, the pain is agonizing. When I feel a hint of it, it almost sends me into a panic. Muscle relaxants help me with this pain when it presents, although as I work full time I only take them at night, so recovery takes a bit longer. I'm so sorry she's feeling this, it's a pain that literally takes your breath away.

[garrysgirl]

What you describe of your daughters headaches is exactly how I feel. My head, neck shoulders and arms are agony every day now. I would not know what to do if I didn't have a headache. Of course my family doctor said it's tension but no one could possibly be tense like this all the time.

I went to the eye doctor because my one eye would randomly turn in towards my nose - this was before my diagnosis but my only experience so far with eye problems.

I hope your daughter gets some answers and starts to feel better.

[rdmc]

I have no input on the headaches, but on the eye pressure.

My husband went to one eye doc, I think just an optometrist and he had very high eye pressure. So he sought a second opinion with an opthamologist.

The first doc was sure he had glaucoma, the second doc, wasn't so sure. He said some people just have ocular hypertension. So he devised an experiment where he had my husband use glaucoma drops in one eye, but not the other for a month, then come back for a check.

The assumption was that if it was glaucoma, the eye getting the treatment would have substantially lower pressure than the other eye, when in fact the drops barely lowered the pressure in the treated eye. So they came to the conclusion it wasn't glaucoma. He has his eyes checked regularly, and over the years, there's been no change in his vision and he still has high pressure.

So just get a second opinion before you assume it's glaucoma.

[Des]

I went to the eye doctor because my one eye would randomly turn in towards my nose - this was before my diagnosis but my only experience so far with eye problems.
.

I have nystagmus, another MS vision problem which is not as common as ON. It makes my eyeballs move around, literally. Everything I'm looking at jumps around, too. Sometimes I'm looking at different things that are completely apart with one eye on one thing, and the other eye on the other. It's strange. It doesn't hurt, but the eye with the most nystagmus is turning into a lazy eye, probably because I close it so much.