Optic neuritis

[aussiepixie]

Could someone who has been diagnosed with ON please let me know what the symptoms are.  My ophthalmologist would not make the call but has referred me to an ophthalmic/neurologist. He said my eyes were fine and whatever happened had come from my brain.

Today I had a similar episode to one that happened back in May.  It started with a weird sensation on my right side of my head and it felt like cheek and ear was also involved.  I then had temporary loss of vision for about a minute and was then left with blurring of my vision and a strange sensation around the eye until now.   Almost the same thing happened again today but my eye was very painful afterwards and my neck stiff and sore.  My eye now feels as it as since the other episode n May. I also had a similar thing in 2006 and was investigated at that time by a neurologist.  I am currently awaiting several neurological tests over the next three weeks.

Does anyone think this sounds like ON?

[aussiepixie]

Thanks Bob,   My presentation is certainly different to what you are saying.   Mine is an visual obscuration which starts very shaky and then seems to cover the whole eye but only momentarily.   There is no sight in about half the eye only and the other half is very blurry.  It's also the discomfort afterwards and for so long  that is a concern.

It's a real worry that no-one has given me a diagnosis for it.  I'm concerned that I may be delaying any treatment that could be available.  Incidentally, from a very early age I suffered migraine and was really handicapped by them. They stopped as a got older, like in my forties.    Back in May when I I had this I initially thought it was a migraine aura but  that didn't eventuate.   The fact that my eye has been bad ever since then is what is concerning me.   I have trouble driving in the dark and the sunlight and glare  is extremely uncomfortable.  

I don't see the Ophth/neuro til about the 5th Sept.   I'm hanging out to see what he has to say about it.  I also have a range of other tests that same week.....EEG, audiometry and balance type tests, VEP, BERA etc.  When I get all these results together I might seek an opinion of another neurologist.  I think you commented on my other post re the pons question.  Part of the MRI reports stated that 'demyelination needs to be discounted',  I guess you can see that I'm a little disappointed in the neurologist that I have been seeing.

Regards and thanks for taking time to answer my post.  

As an after-thought........I have DDD with surgery to L5/S1 and problems from C3/4 down to C6/7 with C4/5 being affected the the most. I always feel that when they (the doctors) see my CT or MRI they are distracted by the images and then blame the DDD for  all my other symptoms......or am I just being neurotic!    
Thanks again.

[COBOB]

It sounds more like Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) to me.  I have both ON and TN.  My ON starts with 2-3 days of "ice pick" stabbing pain behind the eye and then moves to loss of visual acuity and changes in color perception.  Reds tend to become brown and the ability to detect changes in red color saturation is pretty non-existent. The vision changes tend to last from weeks to months.  ON can be confirmed by MRI and VEP.

The Trigeminal Nerve comes from the brain stem, over the top of each ear and then splits into three branches.  It provides sensory to the globe of the eye, the jaw, mandible, most of the face and ear.  TN doesn't normally cause vision changes, but has been set off migraine
disease is susceptible people that can cause short term visual changes.

Both conditions are pretty common with MS.

Bob