cloudy vision in left eye

[doublevision1]

First off, hello to eveyone, I haven't posted much in a while, what with being away in Calgary and Seattle this past month.  Thanks for the notes and messages, I owe responses to a few of you that I hope to get to in the next day or so.  There has been lots of good topics lately also, and I hope to get caught up soon.

Anyhow, this may be nothing, or may turn out to be something for concern.  I'm trying not to automatically assume that everything odd that occurs with my body is not necessarily MS-related.

This afternoon I noticed that the vision in my left eye suddenly went cloudy.  Not blurry, but like looking through a translucent film.  I thought I had something in my eye so I gently rubbed it a bit, then tried flushing with tap water, but this didn't relieve it.  It doesn't hurt, just is mildly tender when I rub it, like it's irritated.  There is no redness.  

The cloudiness seemed to come on very suddenly.  My vision was fine when I awoke today, I did a bit of computer work this morning, nothing excessive, and then have just been puttering around the house.  It was when I sat down to watch TV this afternoon that I noticed it, that when I close my left eye, my vision is clear, but when I close my right eye, it is filmy/cloudy.

I did develop a head cold a few days ago while travelling, but noticed no problem with my eye till today, so I don't think it's related.  I took a couple of Excedrin a few hours ago for a mild headache.  I've never had a reaction to this med.  The headache is gone.

My last vision check was in Sept with my neuro-ophtha and other than my residual double vision (never blurry or cloudy), my eyes were perfect at that time.

If this continues tomorrow, I'll call my MS nurse to let her know.  I was just wondering if this sounds familiar to anyone and whether this turned out to be a sign of optic neuritis for any of you.  I REALLY hope this is not the sign of another relapse....however, what will be, will be.

Thanks!!

[jensequitur]

For me, it's all about comfort.  If my symptoms keep me from going to work, or being able to drive, or are painful, then I call up the doc.

[Kristin1972]

I have had MS for almost 10 years. I'm 37 years old.  I've been noticing that my sight seems cloudy but it's subtle. I keep rubbing my eyes but it doesn't go away.  It's pretty annoying.  I did have an MRI on Tuesday of the full head, neck and full spine and I see my doctor in two weeks.  Is this something that can wait or should I see him sooner? it doesn't hurt thank god.
Kristin
Boston, MA

[doublevision1]

bump - please see my question about this in my new post

[doublevision1]

Thank you for your feedback and encouragement.  Since starting this post yesterday, I embarked on a downward spiral thoughout the evening, going from simply having clouded vision in my left eye, to excruciating pain.  The slightest movement of my eye, or even just trying to open that eye, or tearing up, felt like a knife stabbing through me.

I ended up at Emerg at 4am when I just couldn't bear it any longer.  I had to wake my husband to have him drive me to the hospital, and I never saw him hop out of bed so fast!  He is......wonderful.  And the best guy to have around in any kind of emergency, so steady and reassuring.  When we arrived at ther hospital, I was felieved to see the waiting room empty and I was seen immediately.  My husband had to help just to get me admitted, it was hard for me to even answer their questions, I was in such pain, and crying and shaking.  I have never had such pain before, it was frightening.  Guess I will have to stop bragging about my high pain threshold.

The hospital staff were very concerned and gentle and quick.  The doc saw me within 5 minutes, did a few quick tests to rule out other things.  I actually said the F word pretty loud out of sheer pain, when he had to hold my eyelid up to look at my eye and put some drops in it.  He was so nice about it, reassuring me that he has heard lots worse from other patients!

He seemed pretty knoweledgable about MS, asked good questions, and then started me on IV steroids immediately, which I will have for 5 days (third course in about one year. yikes).  He also gave me a morphine drip (twice, I'm not sure of dosage) and toradol, to try to ease the pain.  It didn't do a lot for me, I didn't think it would.  It just made my body feel stoned but seemed to take a very slight edge off the pain.  It did not put me out like they thought it might.  I was sent home once I felt I was ready to leave, around 7am., with prescriptions for Ativan and Tylenol.  I finally slept from about noon - 3pm, and still have a great deal of pain, but definitely more bearable.  My vision is still cloudy in that eye but I don't think it is any worse.  It's hard to keep my eye open.  I was told to just rest them as much as possible.  Which I'd better go do now so I guess it will be a few more days before I am able to get caught up here.  I'm typing with my left eye closed but I still get sharp jabs every time my eyeball moves.

I just wanted to let you know how things evolved so quickly, in case anyone is going through this or will go through something similar in future, and also to thank you your quick responses to my post yesterday.

I'll talk to ya'll soon.

d.

ps:  ms is a b.*.t.c.h.  But of course you already knew that.

[Sailorsong]

I have been having this problem for years. The last time I talked to my eye doctor about this she told me it could be either from MS or the increased pressure in my eye (left). My pressure is 26 which is high but not to the point of Glaucoma. I think she told me normal is around 13. I also think she said Glaucoma pressure is 45 but I'm not sure about this.

Dennis

[Wobbly]

welcome back... we missed you... and I have these types of eye problems too... but they haven't come up with anything yet... they thought dry eyes...but I had that checked and the Dr said...it's alittle dry, but not enough for the symptoms I have had.

keep record of everything OK...

take care
wobbly
undx

[Lulu54]

Hi DV,
I know little about ON and have not experienced that fun MS problem yet.  I just wanted to drop you a hello and hope you are doing better by the time you read this.  Please don't be a stranger - I miss your informed chats.  - Lulu

[jensequitur]

Sounds like optic neuritis to me.  I had a similar incident a few years back.  I was painting, and suddenly my right eye developed a gray cloud right in the center.  I couldn't see out of that eye, even after blinking several times.  I'm used to eye problems, because I wear contacts, but this was different from the usual gloop in the eye.

Usually when I'm having a flareup of ON, the colors out of one eye are much more vivid than in the other eye - almost gray in the right, and super-vivid in the left.

The gray cloud went away after a few minutes, but I've continued to have vision problems in both eyes.

Let's see if they'll let me post this html...  Take out the spaces, and it should work fine.

http:  //  www.mult-sclerosis.org/opticneuritis.html

[essdipity]

Hey, deebs, nice to see you.

I wish I knew whether this is something to be alarmed about. Recently I was looking through a book of museum pictures and was puzzled that the photography seemed fuzzy to me, as if it had been taken through gauze. My friend say it looked perfectly normal to her, and of course that's very likely.

I'm watching this to see if it continues, and that's the only recommendation I can think of for you. You're right that not everything that happens to us can be attributed to MS, and we probably are more vigilent than we'd be otherwise, so who knows?

Please keep us updated, and keep an optimistic outlook.

ess