optical nerve swelling and hemmoraging

[beverlyj]

I went in to my optomologist today for a check up and he told me that I have severe swelling and hemmoraging in both eyes and immediatly set up an appt for a MRI. I have MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Type 2 Diabetes, and chronic allergies. Could any of these or the meds cause this problem?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

Yes, MS could (optic neuritis). Keep your appointments and get this worked up.

See your OPHTHALMOLOGIST.

jch iii md

[beverlyj]

What is the usual treatment for this? Does it lead to blindness or decreased vision? Is it reversible?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

You don't have a diagnosis yet so I can't be specific.

JCH III MD

[beverlyj]

I received the test results  today, they have ruled out all major issues, the only thing  showing up is MS. Guess I'll make an appt with my neuro tomorrow.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

Good luck

JCH II MD

[beverlyj]

grrr I now have "floaters" and it seems that my vision keeps "whiting out" if that makes sense? I see my ophthalmologist tomorrow. Hope he can give me some answers...

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

-

[beverlyj]

saw the optho today and he has ruled out cancer, tumors, lukemia, any association with my ms and diabetes, brain annurisum (sp??) and a host of different things. In his words, he can't tell me what it is, but he can tell me what it isn't. Since the swelling and bleeding has gotten worse in the last 3 weeks, he is sending me to a retinal specialist. The area he seems to be heading is perhaps this is a result of my blood pressure dropping and then spiking. He also couldn't tell me what was causing the floaters, or if they were connected to the other issue. He is the best optho in this area,  but I'm beginning to worry that they will never find out what the deal is and that i may begin to loose my sight.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

Glad for what the Eye MD didn't find. Keep your appointment with the retina Eye MD.  Quite often things are very difficult to diagnose.

JCH III MD

[beverlyj]

I went to a retina specialist and found that I have leaking in the optic disk of both eyes. This caused both the hemorrhaging and the migraine symptoms.My right eye was injected with med (quite painful still) and will have the left done in 2 weeks. Although I now know what is wrong, it seems that despite some of the best docs in NC, we still can't find a cause. The doc is requesting all my med records and MRI's but so far doesn't want to say it may be caused from my other illnesses.
What causes this usually, and am I at risk for loosing my sight in the future?  What are the chances this will happen again? Dr Kurup said that if we hadn't caught it, I would have went blind.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

I suspect that the medicine injected into your eyes was Avastin or Lucentis and that you have choroidal neovasculization. You can confirm that with your Eye MD. The most common causes are: age deterioration, ocular histoplasmosis, myopic wet degeneration, "idiopathic" (that means we don't know or find a cause".  These are serious conditions that can lead to serious damage to central vision (legal blindness) but rarely cause complete and total blindness.

JCH II MD