Sudden change in vision?

[mjolnirtime]

I've had some subtle vision changes over the past year, such as spots, lines, and difficulties with contrast (some colors side by side make it hard to focus).

Suddenly yesterday, I found myself needing reading glasses. I am extremely near-sighted and depend on glasses or contacts. I can no longer see things close to my face. I had my contacts in today, and found that a lower prescription of reading glasses corrects this. No pain in the eyes at all.

Is a rapid change such as this "normal" with possible MS, or should I be getting in touch with my primary doctor? I see the neuro in a few weeks.

[VikingKitty]

My experience with MS vision changes have been optic neuritis which had a sudden onset...within a couple of days I lost my vision just about totally. It started with a pain behind my eye. I had ON twice and basically went through the same symptoms each time.

I also had double vision that started relatively suddenly a few days after a head cold. It got so bad that I had to be hospitalized.

I had vision changes where I would get fuzzy vision that I thought was due to too much computer usage. It was happening gradually over the course of a year or so. It wasn't until it was really bad that I noticed it. I went driving one night and realized how much I couldn't see. I then started to wonder if it was from MS also but found it to be vision changes due to middle age after being evaluated by my eye doctor.

From my personal experience, I would see your optometrist if it is just visual acuity issues. I may be wrong but just speaking from my own experience. If you have any major pains in your eye, sudden loss of vision, double vision or nystagmus, I would then see your neurologist asap.

btw, i like your screen name, someone must be a "Thor" fan Good luck!

[MSer102]

If your only problem is focusing up close, there's no reason to see your primary doctor or your neuro. Neither one of them can do anything about it.

Your optometrist can check it out for you.

If you are between 40 and 45, that's when presbyopia starts. That's when people lose the ability to change focus from far to near. It actually starts slowly and sometimes it becomes noticeable slowly. That's what happened for me - I was 41. But other times your eyes can keep compensating for presbyopia and force the focus at near right up until one day it just crosses the threshold of when your eyes can't do it anymore and you notice that things are blurry up close.

It's like when your hair and fingernails grow. They can go a whole month getting longer and longer everyday until one day they finally get long enough that they cross the line into annoyance and start bothering you. Yesterday you didn't even notice that your bangs are longer than they were 2 weeks ago and today they're poking you in the eyes.

Even though it might seem that it happened overnight, presbyopia doesn't really happen that fast.

It doesn't matter if you are nearsighted and can see just fine up close without your glasses or contacts. That's not the part that's changed. The part that's changed is that when you have your glasses or contacts on that correct you for distance vision, you aren't nearsighted anymore then. Your vision is focused for the distance and - in presbyopia - your eyes can't pull the focus from far away to up close.

So if you are between 40 and 45 that might be what's going on. It takes somebody who understands eyes and vision - an eye doctor NOT your GP or neuro - to examine you to tell what's going on.

Presbyopia doesn't have anything to do with MS. It's a normal aging change that happens to everybody eventually. It's a common misconception that this normal change of close up vision is caused by MS because so many people with MS assume that everything is MS. Presbyopia isn't.

If there's anything else going on, your eye doctor will be able to tell what it is. The good thing that says that this is probably not serious is that your vision is normal in every other way.

[mjolnirtime]

Thanks, my boyfriend and I are into Norse mythology and Vikings.

I'm 31, and it worried me because it came about suddenly, not gradual, as in Tuesday I could see normally for me, and Wednesday I could not. Things have to be at least 8-10 inches away to even try to focus now.

[MSer102]

8 inches away isn't too bad for 30. That's part of how the loss of ability to focus up close starts slowly.

Your optometrist can check it out for you.

Is it just your focus or are you also having some trouble crossing your eyes to get them both pointing in the same place at that 8 inches? My eye doctor said that if both eyes aren't pointing at exactly the same thing vision can be a little blurry.

[OhioKris]

sudden change in vision...me too!

I am 45. Diagnosed 10 years ago. First bout of ON this summer. Cleared up in 2 months. Dr said vision back to normal in Sept. I wear contacts at 3.75. Last week, I suddenly can't read computer screen, reports, etc. Go to eye dr who says now I test at 450 in left and 475 in rught. Still fuzzy and can't read well. Trykng all sortsof readers with contacts but can't get better vision. Now headache from straining. Optic nerve looks fine. What now??? I can't work like this.