After ON, how long till lesions showed on MRI?

[cz1970]

Just curious from those of you that ON was your first sign, how long did it take for MRI to show MS? Is there a "general" timeline?  Thanks

cz

[Heather3418]

You are abosulely cracking me up today.  Thank you for the laughter....I needed it..

Heather

[cz1970]

Cute story Santana. I think I want to use that as my excuse when I miss something on a test. "My two sides of my brain weren't agreeing! Thats why I got it wrong."  I know this isn't a funny subject but finding something to giggle at helps a little.  

cz

[santana8]

just wanted to jump in here with  you all!  I am almost sure I had ON because I had every single symptom of it. The opthalmologist could not see anything on my optic nerve and thought I didn't have it. The MRI did show multiple lesions on my brain, but none were on the optic nerve that showed up. I did have lesions  on the parietal and occti lobe junction. My neuro said that if I had it that it was farther back in the visual pathway. My lesions were right over the part of the brain where the main visual system is and also all it's pathways. My VEP was abnormal in one eye and showed slowing.THe wierd thing about mine is that my left eye is the one that showed the visual field defect as they test them separately, but the vision loss shows up on the right. Somewhere in the visual pathway the nerve fibers from each eye cross. This means the left side of the brain controls the right visual field and vise versa. I also had lesions in the corpus collosum . This is the part of the brain that holds the wiring that sends information from one side of the brain to the other. Now I know why I couldn't tell my left from right or the front  from back or up from down. You should have seen me trying to put the lid on a sandwitch, turning that top piece of bread around and around trying to figure out which way was straight. But my point is that it depends on which part of the optic nerve is affected as to where the lesion is. They still don't know where mine is, but because of the wedge shaped field defect I have almost got it narrowed down to the left side of the nerve fibers extending from my optic nerve back toward the brain.  I actually found a website that had a simulator of visual field defects and it had a little video to show what each visual field defect looked like in a real life scene. You could switch it from normal field to all the different field defects to match it to your own. Thats how I figured out where my lesion was, along with studing the visual pathway system in the brain. I kept telling my neuro- opthalmologist that my two eyes are not seeing together. He said no its not your two eyes its your two halves of your brain that are not seeing together!

[MCBCON]

right away.  Given mri because of the ON. Already had lesions.

[cz1970]

Thanks you two.  I dont think I can get into see the MS specialist because MRI's are negative so far and thats "the only thing he will consider."  OMG how stupid is that!  Oh well, my neuro is a nut and I probly wont get into the MS guy either till my brain looks like cheese.  I sure hope my PCP is willing to take care of me when these stupid flares occur.  Im quite frustrated if you cant tell.... oh well "just move on with life" right?
cz

[young at heart]

I HAD MRI'S DONE IN NOV.2007 AND THE OPTICAL NERVES SHOWED NO LESIONS.

I HAD THE VEP DONE IN DEC.2007 AND THE VEP CAME BACK ABNORMAL FOR BOTH EYES.

QUESTION IS WHAT COMES FIRST THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG.

NOT ALL MRI'S PICK UP ON EVERY LESION.

I DON'T KNOW IF ANY OF THIS HELPS.THIS DISEASE MANIFESTS ITSELF INDIVIDUALLY

T

[tanky]

I don't think there is a general timeline, but I could be wrong.  Finding MS lesions could depend on where lesions are located and the quality of the MRI machine.  I had my first bout of ON in June 2006 and did not have an MRI of the brain until October 2007.  I had 9 lesions at that time.  I hope your ON does not turn out to be a symptom of MS.  Best wishes and good luck!