Recurring Optic Neurtitis?

I was diagnosed with Optic Neuritis the 6th of July and on the 10th of July I started the 3 day IV steroid treatment followed by steroids.  I never had the eye pain before treatment.  A few days after finishing up all the medicines I started to get a pain in my eye that had the ON.  Pain is worse and I awoke this morning to find that the eyelid is puffy.  Vision was actually better on the 28th but noticed it seemed to be bothered some today.  Could the ON come back so quickly?  When I saw the Optic Neurologist I mentioned the eye pain but didn't have the puffiness on the 28th. He just said that it would take time for it to get better.  A little irrated because he acted like he didn't even know why I had come back(he was the one that told me to come back on the 28th for a follow-up)and he didn't seem to even know who I was.  I know that he has lots of patients but this wasn't too comforting.  They were supposed to have my MRI's but didn't even know about them, just that they were fine.  Should I wait to see if the swelling continues to try to get back into to see the doctor?

[Forum-OD-MP]

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[Ag-i-doc]

the swelling of your eyelid is not related to your optic neuritis.  they are unrelated.  you probably need to see someone about the eyelid swelling and pain.  optic neuritis never, ever causes swelling of the eyelid.

[young at heart]

I would get the MRI report and read it yourself.I have optical neuritis and it can take a while for it to go away.ON is caused by imflamation in the optical nerve.I had it bilateral in 1998 and recently in left eye.I could not take steroids do to alergic (allergic) reaction to them.

[Ag-i-doc]

an mri isnt that "easy" to "read"...

[zinger627]

Hello kinsale,

I'm from Singapore and new to this forum.  Chance upon this place as I am trying to find out why my daughter occassionally looks sideway, instead of straight when watching TV.

Anyway, I had ON in 1992.  It felt like a headache on the side of the eye that had ON.  At first, the General Practictioner thought it was migraine and gave me some headache pills but it didn't go away.  He referred me to the opthamologist and I was immediately sent for a CT scan to check my brain for any problem.  The scan was ok (whew!) and the Doc said he just wanted to eliminate the worst case.  I'm wondering how come you didn't have any pain until after you took the medication.  What was your symptom that make you see the Doc and subsequently got diagnosed to have ON?

If ON was your problem, the steriods that you took (in may case was prednisone) works pretty fast. I remembered having to undergo many many tests by the neurologist.  I was given ponstan to kill the pain and they didn't give me steriod until they were quite sure it was ON.  The steriod worked pretty fast and 3 days later, the pain tapered off and I was out of the hospital.  About 2 or 3 weeks after that, I was totally off the steriod and Thank God, it's been 14 yrs and it's fine so far.

I suggest you see a different doctor to get a second opinion whether you really have ON.  You should have a headache-like pain and the steriod should work because it reduces the inflammation of your optic nerves.  Regarding the swollen eye, I wonder if that could be a drug allergy.

Anyway, I'll pray for you and hope you can find the real cause of your eye problem soon.  I hope sharing my experience helps.  
    

[zinger627]

Hello kinsale,

It's me again.  I forgot to tell you I had double vision on the problem eye when I had ON.  That was what trigger the general practitioner to send me for specialist check up knowing that it was not a normal migraine anymore.