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View Full Version : ON: Blurry or Double vision - is one worse damage?


 

 

 
Wayne Virgil
12-01-2004, 05:05 PM
I have had blurry vision in one eye for 3 weeks. It is getting better, slowly, and I hope it goes away completely, it almost has.

2 years ago I had double visionn, that is, both eyes pointed straight ahead, but one saw things off to one side. To me this sounds like less lesion damage since I could see clearly with either eye but not both at the same time.

It sounds to me like whatever lesion is responsible is more damaged. Am I on the right track or is it just a random thing?

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Jewel2
12-01-2004, 06:32 PM
Hi Wayne,
Have you been to your opthalmologist to check for optic neuritis? Your visual symptoms could be due to inflammation of the optic nerve, or lesions along the nerve pathways that control eye movements and coordination.

I have read that studies are showing that it is better to treat ON early on with steroids. When ON is the presenting symptom of MS and it is knocked down by steroids, the chances increase that you can fend off the MS for a long time. If you haven't been to your eye doc for this, you really should see him.

My daughter has gone totally blind a few times and has bounced back quite well. She has some lingering vision problems, but fortunately ON is one symptom that seems to remit pretty nicely.

Best wishes,
Julie

Wayne Virgil
12-01-2004, 06:42 PM
I havent seen an opthamologist, but have been hammering it with prednisone since it started. I got the prednisone 4 years ago, so it's probably not as effective as before, but was up to 30mg/day (original strength), and started tapering... then went back up since it wasn't going away. It's almost gone now, hopefully, since this stuff makes me crazy. I know I was under tremendous stress days before this started, so I am not surprised it happened.

Jewel2
12-01-2004, 08:44 PM
Hi Wayne,
I'm glad it is going away, but I would strongly recommend that the next time this happens you see the opthalmologist and get a current Rx for the steroids. By the way, 30 mg is a really, really low dose. But I know what you mean about them making you crazy - I don't tolerate them very well either.

Best wishes,
Julie

Wayne Virgil
12-02-2004, 02:38 PM
Good advice... I also was looking for a different question too... is the kind of ON symptom depending on the level of nerve damage? SOunds like it could be.

Jewel2
12-02-2004, 05:55 PM
Hi again. I hope somebody else jumps in here to give their ideas.

It really is hard to know by just the symptoms what kind of activity is going on in your body and which might be worse. It is my understanding that vision problems in MS can be either a result of inflammation of the optic nerve, or lesions along the cranial nerve pathway that control eye movement and coordination.

If it is inflammation, an opthalmologist can usually see that by looking into your eye (but not always). Optic neuritis usually causes a graying or blurring of the vision and can be physically painful. Fortunately, ON often resolves quite well after the inflammation is gone.

Vision problems cause by uncontrolled eye movements are sometimes caused by lesions on the optic nerve, a lot like uncontrolled hand tremors or leg spasticity are caused by lesions in the spine. As the nerve remyelinates and the lesion diminishes the eye coordination returns. Muscle weakness can also cause double vision.

In my very unprofessional and quite possibly incorrect opinion, I think that vision problems caused by lesions would be more concerning as the body can never remyelinate as well as the original thing, whereas the inflamed optic nerve does heal pretty well. Having said that, I think that both are really rotten and I'm sorry you've been through any of it.

I would love to hear other people's opinions about this.

Take care,
Julie





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