hi my name is francesca
last month i developed optical neuritis, i am totally blind in my right eye. but that is not the issue. this morning my baby sister was dx with Optic Nerve Head Drusen. the web sites that i have looked at about this are so technical i cannot understand what this is. is what she going through similar to me? she doesnt say much on it, and has asked me to find out for her as she is only 11.

do you think certain circles of families could be predispositioned to have such degenerative optic problems? what are the odds of these things happening to the same family within a month?

thanks for any direction given
francesca

Francesca:

"ONHD: The condition occurs primarily in Caucasians and is believed to demonstrate an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern with incomplete penetrance."

Your sister's condition is genetic, which makes your problem a little more suspicious. "Autosomal dominant" means the gene(s) is carried on one of the 44 chromosomes other than the X or Y. When the gene is dominant, only one has to be inherited (from one parent). Theoretically, one of your parents should have the problem as well; however, "incomplete penetrance" means that the gene may not express itself (no symptoms), or it may not express itself fully.

Hope you regain your vision soon.

Torre

Thank you so much Torre
you put it so much simpliar than the site i was trying to read up on

Optic nerve head drusen is pretty much asymptomatic!

well i guess it must be as it is genetic and neither of my parents show remotely any symptoms.

my little sisters vision has greatly deteriorated over the years. they first thought she had pseudo tumor cerebri, but then last week changed their minds and settled on onhd. Which from what i understand is onhd is not nearly as bad as ptc, is that correct?

trying to stay current with that and my own testing is driving my crazy as i have had optical neuritis for the last month.