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Eye Care Archive  (Expert Forum)
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Lazy eye or optical neuritis?
Our Ask A Doctor Ophthalmology Forum is where you can post your question and receive a personal answer from physicians affiliated with the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Lazy eye or optical neuritis?

by Jenny Wren, Nov 25, 2006 12:00AM
This question has two parts, my son has recently failed a vision screening at school, I have to take him to an eye doctor, the nurse said that he has a lazy eye, reading 20/20 in left and 20/50 in right, he has never had this problem before this.  Is lazy eye inherited?  my mom, uncle and grandfather all have this.  What about optical neuritis?  I suffer from migraines and I think that my son is also starting with them also.  The other night I shut the lights out in the bathroom and usually I have a night lite lit, well it was burnt out, so I was in complete darkness, when I opened the door the light in my hallway was green, it was only like that for a few minutes, could this be ON or migraine equivalent?  I also at times see big black spots on things, like if I were to look at your face there would be a black, blurred spot where your nose was and I wouldn't be able to see your nose.  These only last a few minutes, sometimes I do get the migraine afterwards, but most of the time I don't.  I worry about ON in me and my son, my gram had MS and that really concerns me.  My son had a CT scan done last week and it was fine, Does ON show up on a CT scan?  I recently had a brain MRI w/ and w/o contrast after having migraines for 8 years, it was also normal, would the ON showed on that?  Thank you very much, and have a nice Thanksgiving weekend.  I also forgot my son and I both never had pain in our eye.  Does ON last longer than a few minutes?  Sorry, I'm just really concerned mostly about my son, being that he never had this problem before.  What eye tests should he have done?

by Forum-OD-MP, Nov 25, 2006 12:00AM
i dont know why everyone here is so obsessed with ON.  ON is a "zebra" diagnosis.  really, really really rare.  none of the stuff you just described even comes close to sounding like ON to me.  not even ballpark.  you do not have ON.  your son does not have ON.  in fact it is highly probable that you will live your entire life and never even meet anyone who has had ON, much less have it yourself.



i dont know what to tell you.  none of that is ON.  i dont even want to start explaining all about ON to you b/c its obvious that you dont have it and neither does your son.  sorry if that comes off as rude.  i'm not trying to be rude.  i just dont want to waste your time or mine.



the nurse cannot make a diagnosis of "lazy eye".  no nurse can.  *I* myself cannot even make that diagnosis w/o an eye exam.  no one can make your son read letters and announce that he has "lazy eye".  thats ludicrous.  if he has one eye thats 20/20 and one that is 20/50, all that means is that he has different acuities.    there could be 250+ different reasons for having different acuities, some serious and some not.  go to an eye doctor.











Member Comments (1)

by Jenny Wren, Nov 25, 2006 12:00AM
To: Forum OD
Sorry, I was just concerned.  I was wondering how the nurse could say this without an eye exam.  He has an eye doctor appointment next week.  Thank you for your time, sorry if I offended you, don't really want to waste your time!!!!!
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