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    Double Vision

    Im a 33 year old male who was diagnosed 5 years ago. I have been able to manage symptoms pretty well for the first 4 years, but the last year has been tough. My walking has gotten questionable, my stamina is bad and recently i've had double vision. About 3 weeks exactly.

    My question...Will this go away? I've had vision issues with blurriness, almost daily, but this one is seeming like it is sticking. Have any of you had any success with treatments for this, or do you just bare with it while it happens.

    Thanks in advance.

    #2
    Originally posted by TheDago25 View Post
    Im a 33 year old male who was diagnosed 5 years ago. I have been able to manage symptoms pretty well for the first 4 years, but the last year has been tough. My walking has gotten questionable, my stamina is bad and recently i've had double vision. About 3 weeks exactly.

    My question...Will this go away? I've had vision issues with blurriness, almost daily, but this one is seeming like it is sticking. Have any of you had any success with treatments for this, or do you just bare with it while it happens.

    Thanks in advance.
    Sorry to hear about your double vision. If it's part of a flare, it might resolve. Have you informed your neuro if it's a "new" symptom?

    I complained about my double vision for years, and my ophthalmologist would acknowledge it, but never offered any help. Maybe I wasn't explaining it's impact on my daily life, but she seemed to act as it was something I learned to live with.

    Then I decided to bypass the ophthalmologist and just went to a optometrist near to my home. I complained about the double vision to him and he said he could correct it. So he did a few extra tests, and said he'd put prisms in my glasses. He is not only an optometrist, but he also is an
    optician and the glasses he prescribes can be made by him if you choose. He added the prisms to
    my glasses, and at last, relief from the double vision.

    I wonder if doctor's understand the nuisance that double vision causes. My most embarrassing time would come when having to sign a document in front of someone, I couldn't figure out "which" line I needed to sign

    So all that to say, prisms can correct (if not completely, at least vastly improve) double vision.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by TheDago25 View Post
      I've had vision issues with blurriness, almost daily, but this one is seeming like it is sticking.
      By double vision, do you mean that one eye is noticeably blurry and one eye is relatively clear and you're very aware that each eye is seeing the same single image differently? Or do you mean that both eyes are about the same clarity and you see two distinct images of exactly the same thing separated in space?

      The distinction is important, because the first one isn't double vision; the second one is.

      Did you go to the ophthalmologist when your vision issue started 3 weeks ago to get a diagnosis of exactly what's happening?

      Originally posted by TheDago25 View Post
      My question...Will this go away?
      Like every other symptom caused by MS, double vision might go away or it might not. The general trend with relapsing-remitting MS is that, at least in the early years, symptoms get somewhat to completely better as part of remission.

      But the amount of recovery is individual to each person. And "early" isn't always easy to define, because onset of disease activity and date of diagnosis can vary greatly.

      Originally posted by TheDago25 View Post
      Have any of you had any success with treatments for this, or do you just bare with it while it happens.
      As with every other symptom caused by MS, there is no treatment that affects the ultimate outcome of a flare, so there is no treatment that affects the ultimate outcome of double vision. However, as with every other symptom caused by MS, it's possible that high-dose steroids might help to relieve symptoms and shorten the duration of the flare and its symptoms.

      The window for opportunity for steroids to be effective in shortening the length of a flare is about 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, the damage is done and steroids loose their effectiveness (although, in some people, not completely). A lot of neurologists won't prescribe steroids for a flare after two weeks from onset.

      Did you see an ophthalmologist when your double vision started? Did you treat it with high-dose steroids? If you did, then you've already done everything you can do. If you didn't, you're past the optimal window of opportunity for treatment. A lot of flares resolve on their own within 3 to 6 weeks. So at 3 weeks out, your double vision might be at the point where it starts to resolve on its own.

      I've had two episodes of double vision. Even with high-dose steroids, improvement didn't start until about 3 weeks later, and both episodes lasted a couple of months.

      At 3 weeks out, it's too early to try any expensive optical interventions, because they won't be of any use in a few weeks if your double vision gets better on its own. Same question: did you go to the ophthalmologist and were you given an eye patch to wear periodically to eliminate one of the images to make it easier for you to concentrate when you're doing a critical task?

      If you wear glasses, were you able to try a temporary stick-on prism and did it help? A prism won't help if by double vision you mean you're seeing only one image but one eye is blurry and one eye is clear.

      Since you're past the window for steroid treatment (and even if you had steroids and haven't had any improvement), you just have to live with the double vision for a few more weeks until enough time has passed for it to decide whether it's going to get better on its own. After about 6 to 8 weeks, your eye doctor (ophthalmologist or optometrist) can evaluate you for prisms ground into eyeglass lenses. Prism glasses can be expensive, and if you get them too soon, you'll have spent a lot of money for no benefit if your double vision resolves on its own.

      Your ophthalmologist or optometrist can give you more information. I hope your vision issues clear up soon.

      Comment


        #4
        Thank you for the responses. I guess to get more specific, looking straight ahead I am fine with the vision. When I look out to the right I see two of everything. I had steroids a little over a week ago, so I am hoping this will clear things up. In the past with steroids things have always gotten worse right away and then they get better. I guess I am just panicking as my vision has never went like this and the double vision makes it tough to get around. Let's hope it clears up soon.

        Comment


          #5
          Hi TheDago25:

          What did your ophthalmologist tell you about your double vision? And more specifically, what did your ophthalmologist say about your double vision that made you come to the Internet looking for information and confirmation?

          Originally posted by TheDago25 View Post
          looking straight ahead I am fine with the vision. When I look out to the right I see two of everything.
          What you're describing sounds very typical of internuclear ophthalmoplegia (INO). Were you diagnosed with INO?

          INO has a reputation for being slow to resolve. While it's possible for INO to resolve in 3 to 6 weeks, it's also possible that it may take 3 to 6 months or longer. So it's important for you and your ophthalmologist to talk about what kind of double vision you have and what kind of recovery is typical so you have realistic expectations.

          Do you have a follow-up appointment with your ophthalmologist already scheduled? The general guideline is for people with a new onset of double vision due to MS to see the eye doctor again about 6 to 8 weeks after it starts. If the double vision hasn't cleared up by then, the doctor can get an idea of whether to try some kind of optical intervention to try to compensate for it. Sometimes optical interventions like prisms helps, sometimes it doesn't.

          In the meantime, here's something you can try. Since you don't have double vision when looking straight ahead, use straight-ahead vision whenever you can instead of using your eyes to look to the right.

          If you need to look to the right, instead of moving just your eyes, turn your whole head to the right and aim your eyes straight ahead. As soon as you notice the double vision starting, turn your head to the right and look straight ahead at whatever it is you want to see. It will take some practice, but you can develop the habit and it can make the double vision a little easier to live with.

          Even if you're looking at something straight ahead and your vision gets a little double, a variation on that can be helpful. If, say, you're reading and you get a little double vision, keep your eyes straight ahead and turn your head slightly to the right. Your eyes will be looking a little bit left relative to your head position, which puts them in a position where they stay lined up.

          So practice with your head position and see if it keeps your vision single a little bit better for certain things. Good luck!

          Comment


            #6
            Double Vision

            My double vision is permanent. My glasses have prisms in the lenses to keep me seeing one and not 2 of everything. The blurry vision is also ongoing for about 12 years for both. I had minor flares for a years before being diagnosed. Then in a months time I had a dozen things go wrong all at once. My neuro, who is not an easy person to deal with, called it possible MS. Possible???? Every other doc called it MS. He had to come on board with all of the other docs saying this was the real deal.

            Comment

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