Headache help

[barelracer]

eyes checked

Yes you should let them check your eyes....sometimes you can have a migraine with aura...which affects your vision, or scotomas...very disconcerting to have parts of your vision missing!

they have a test called OCT which checks your optic, or RNFL nerve..if there is lesion(s) present there, it will affect your color vision, as well as contrast and feild of vision..

I have lesions on both sides, and have permanent damage from it...it stinks, but i am glad to know why these problems exist for me...

hopefully you have no lesions, but if it is migraine with aura, it is better to know, right?

[Heather1987]

Thanks, Redwings, for you reply. It is all very confusing for me and just hope they can give me some answers as to why my eye sight has deteriorated so much in a year. Funny how you just get used to what you see or can't see and you don't realize how bad your sight has been until you get the new glasses. I have thought my vision has not been so good recently,but not that much of a change. I'm looking forward to getting these new glasses and hope they help.


I'm hoping the headaches could be caused by unintentionally straining my eyes. Lisa, my BP is fine, that was one thing I have been checking at home since the headaches started as I have been having balance issues too.
Someone suggested that the methylprednisolone can worsen your vision over time, I'm wondering if there is anything in this? the only medication I'm on right now is Copaxone and I don't believe there is anything linked with this.
For now I will try and take it easy and will let you know what the outcome is when I eventually get the appointment through.

Thanks again for your replies, best wishes Heather

[Shashi]

Have you checked your blood pressure recently? I was having really bad headaches for a couple of days and it was because my B/P was 174/92! I had run out of one of my B/P meds and had forgotten to refill it.

I hope you get some relief soon.

Big hugs and prayers,

Lisa

[Redwings]

Hi Heather:
As a starter, I'd like to point out to anyone else following this thread that different professionals in the eye care industry are called different things in different countries. Where do you live, Heather? In the UK, "ophthalmic opticians" are similar to optometrists in the United States. They have medical and optical training. In the US, optometrists are doctors but opticians aren't. Opticians are the folks who measure for, dispense and adjust eyeglasses. In different places, opticians can also fit contact lenses. But they don't have any medical training (many of them don't even have optical training!) and don't examine eyes in any way. I just wanted to clear that up for anyone in the US who might have been wondering why an eyeglass-fitter would have been examining eyes. (Unless, Heather, you live in the States... then it was an optometrist who examined your eyes, not an optician.)

Second, your question brings up another issue that's often confused, and that's the difference between refractive error and neurological function. The optic nerve isn't a refractive (light-bending) element and plays no part in a person's refractive error or eyeglass prescription (for simplicity, I'm leaving out the esoteric details). So, in your case, going from a -8.00 to -11.50 isn't related to your optic nerves (or MS). The change in refractive error was caused by other structures of your eyes. If someone isn't familiar with the differences between the two, it's easy for them erroneously think there's a cause-and-effect relationship between neurological function and refractive error when there isn't.

Because the optic nerves have no part in refractive error, whatever happens with them won't return your refractive error to -8.00. Likewise, if your refractive heads back toward -8.00, it won't be because of your optic nerves.

As an aside, -8.00 to -11.50 is a significant change in refractive error. Had your vision gotten much blurrier since your last eye exam? You asked whether a problem with an optic nerve could change your vision "ever so slightly." The answer to that is yes. But that much of a change in refractive error would cause a significant blurring of your vision. For you to have not noticed a significant change doesn't add up with those numbers.

The optic nerves relay visual signals to the brain, so they do affect the quality of the visual signal that your brain processes. In that respect, they can affect color vision, visual field and best-corrected visual acuity. It sounds like the doctors at the eye hospital will examine your eyes and run more tests to determine, among other things, why your color vision is off, if your best-corrected acuity or visual field is abnormal, and why your refractive error changed so much. Part of it might be MS, but there are also other things going on that need to be investigated.

[Heather1987]

Hi all

After a number of days suffering from this terrible headache, things started to settled down after day 4. My GP thinks it is a virus and MS nurse isn't so sure and says may need steroids.
I decided to go to the optician just to get my eyes checked as you often hear about optic neuritis and MS.

The optician did all sorts of tests and said from what she could see the optic nerve looked healthy, but she can only see so far. She also did a check for colour and noted that there were abnormalities as I could not differentiate the green and blue.

I was not due for an eye test for another year but she informed me my eye sight had deteriorated a lot. Now for the past 10 years I have pretty much remained -8.0 in both eyes, but this test showed my eye test at -11.50 now!

She did say she was wanting to refer me to the eye hospital seeing I've had headache for number of days, abnormal colour test and deterioration in my eye prescription.

Now what Im now wondering is, if the optic nerve has been affected by a lesion, can it affect my sight ever so slightly and colour in such a way? i've always read about double vision, extreme vision loss but never a slow vision deterioration.

If so, could it return to normal ie back to my -8.0? Its just Ive spent money on new glasses now!

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Heather

[Heather1987]

Thanks everyone for your advice and support. Today by mid day my headache subsided but I am so so tired and feel shaky inside. I ended up back in bed until early evening . Now , headache starting to come back, ahhhh!!!. Never before have I had a headache last so long.I am going to speak to MS nurse tomorrow and see what she thinks about all of this. Will keep you all posted.

[nappy]

Hormonal Migraine vs MS migraine

I had had migraines that I could almost chart with my cycle.

But, my migraines from MS are completely different.

If yours are determined to me MS related, ask for a rx for Axert. It is the second rx that we tried and i would never ever let my script expire. It works wonders for me and doesn't knock me out for the next 8 hours.

Hope you find relief soon.

[Shiela]

Heather, could be not necessarily. Everybody's different. I've had a headache for two years. Hope you mentioned it to your neuro. He may want to do an EEG.

[maitrimama]

I Hate Headaches

I had classic hormonal (along with barometric pressure) migraines from when I was 12 until I went through menopause at 42. They never lasted more than 3 days and they responded Sumitriptans.

The headaches I have had over the last 2 years are a horse of a different color. They sound a lot likes yours, they are always there to differing degrees during the day and night and I can barely keep them in line with a combination of Excedrin and Alleve. The bad news is that the the one I have now I have had for 6 weeks (past headaches last 4 wks and 8wks).

I agree totally that you should see the doctor. A migraine is not a headache but a neurological disorder, headaches are but a symptom of a migraine. Hopefully you will have better luck than me because the Neuro I saw feels mine are caused by anxiety and stress eventhough my Psych says my symptoms are not anxiety related.

Personally I don't care what they call it, I just want my vision fixed.

[Kraheera]

If you have a migraine for 48 hours, you should contact your Dr, because chances are it's a migraine. if you aren't prone to migraines, that is kind of a big deal.

Migraines are how I found out about my MS in the first place. So in a way, I guess my horrid migraines were a blessing?

Anyways, all I meant to say is I would call the doc!

[Heather1987]

Hi all , I dont normally get headaches and if I do they normally go away after a dose of pain medicine. I developed a headache 2 days ago and have not been able to shake it. It is there during the day and at night and just when I think it is subsiding the pain returns. I am also feeling very tired. What im wondering is could this be a relaspse? I dont have a fever and Im not stressed, just feel awful! Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks Heather