eye pain

[suzyq122]

I get severe eyeball pain intermittently, thank goodness it only lasts about 15 minutes, have to close my eye and keep it very still until it passes. no change in my vision though. I have used Restasis for years for dry eyes with good results. normal annual eye exam except for had to repeat the visual field testing. also have intermittent limping/thigh weakness. one time had numb and tingly feet for several weeks. nerve studies were normal but they did note left thigh weakness. I'm worried about MS but my doctor has not mentioned this or recommended any further testing. any help is appreciated. maybe it's all due to stress.thank you

[nikki_dash]

Hi Suzyq122:

I hope you feel better today!  They can do a million eye exams and say nothing's wrong, but once an ophthalmologist does a thorough eye exam and maybe even an MRI of your optic nerves, they may be able to find the cause of the stabbing pain.  Most people with optic nerve inflammation can be treated with medication to help ease the pain.  

I suggest you bring this to the attention of your optometrist and demand an appointment with a neuro-ophthalmologist who will try to find what's wrong.  They use special instruments to find out if it's optic neuritis (inflamed optic nerve common with those with MS).  It may also be something called retrobulbar Optic Neuritis which will appear as a "normal" optic nerve until someone checks behind the eye, and usually a neuro-opthalmologist can see this.

Other causes of this kind of pain might be sinuses too, so that's something you might want to check out too, although the severity of the pain you're describing does not sound like sinus pain at all.

As for your other symptoms, you definitely should tell your doctor to send you to a neurologist and have her/him run more tests to rule out MS.  If they don't take you seriously or say they don't think its MS without running any tests, find a new doctor.

Best wishes suzyq122! Hugs :)

[COBOB]

Keep in mind. that most cases (something like 60%) of ON are retrobulbar ON and can not be detected by a visual exam of the optic disk.  There is a lot of brain real estate from where the optic nerve enters the brain to the optic cortex (including the Optic Chiasm and Optic tracts.)  

The only real ways to determine if the optical wiring is damaged is by VEP and/or MRI.  My damage shows up on both, but I have a normal ophthalmologic examination (with the exception of refractive errors.)  That includes slit lamp, OCT,  direct and indirect ophthalmoscope, etc.  I do have two scotomas that show up in the visual test of my right eye.

Bob

[supermum_ms]

I was thinking the same as Bob, but was also wondering about the dry eye part of this because one of the MS mimics has dry eye as a sx, i think it is sorjens (sp) though i'm not 100% sure of that.

When i experience eyeball pain it is literally like someone has stuck an icepick through the centre, only the right eyeball. A lot of times it feels like the eyeball from the back is being squeezed in a vice, when the icepick pain isn't happening but it lasts for days on end. I haven't been dx with optic neuritis, the optometrist was saying the slight lightening of the optic nerve is possibly early signs of glaucoma and needs monitoring but ON and glaucoma can apparently be confused with one an other so who knows lol

If you feel that there is even a remote possiblity that stress plays any part in your sx, then it would be in your best interest to destress your life, find things that help you in that regard but please dont settle for stress as an explanation if it really isn't one of your problems, stress sometimes makes things worse but isn't necessarily the cause, be sure!

Cheers........JJ  

[drsdonthelp]

Hello, I am a limbo lander and do not have a good answer for you but I can relate.  I have been having severe eye pain in my left eye for about a week now, maybe even longer, just can't wrap my head around timing lately. Anyway, this pain in my eye hurts when I move my eyes. I even feel pain in the back of the left side of my head.
I do have optic nerve damage to my right eye, my opththalmologist dx'd me with ischemic optic neuropathy in 2007 . Just recently I had a VEP done, and the test came back abnormal in my right eye. Findings were consistent with demyelinating process.  Not sure if my actual dx, is optic neuritis.
I do not experience any blurriness out of my left eye, just the pain. I truly hope I do not have problems with the left eye. I have a hard enough time focusing. LOL

Hopefully someone can explain better and you get some answers.
Pam