It started this past Saturday.
I was at my great-grandma’s house, which is on a lake. It was really sunny out, and I started seeing spots and I felt that my right eye was unfocused. On the way home, I noticed that I couldn’t look out of the window because I was so uncomfortable with said eye. The next day, I couldn’t move my eye without pain, and I also couldn’t touch it without any form of pain.
Monday, before I went to school, I told my mom that my vision had been bad since Saturday, and was steadily getting worse. It seemed like a fog was rolling into my eye, or like what happens when you yawn and your eyes aren’t focused totally. She told me not to read or play on my computer – no problem, because my eye was bothering me way too much. The fog was worse – I couldn’t make out shapes, only colors (barely). When I got home from school, it was even worse. I couldn’t see through the fog because it covered half of my eye.
I made an appointment at Lenscrafters for seven o’clock that night. The consult didn’t seem to understand that I didn’t want glasses or contacts – I was there for an appointment to get my eye checked out. While having the color-blindness test, I realized that I couldn’t make out the different colors – I knew that they were there, and I could tell that they weren’t the same colors, but I couldn’t tell the difference between orange and pink or green and blue, but with the other eye, I was fine. A scan was taken from my eye, and she saw nothing abnormal about my eye, except a stranger feathering. From there, I was referred to an ophthalmologist, who then performed a few tests on me, and then held up a bottle with a bright red top. He asked me to cover my right eye, and I did. The bottle top was fire–engine red. He then asked me to cover my good eye, and to tell me, if the other one was one hundred perfect red, to tell him about how red it was with my right eye. The color was significantly dimmer.
He believes that I have something called optic neuritis. Basically, the optic nerve is swollen. This can be caused by a lot of things, included swollen veins in my eye, or multiple sclerosis. I should regain my vision within six to ten weeks – if I regain it (there’s a good chance that I will, but there’s always that other chance).
I have an MRI at a quarter to two tonight, and an appointment with the neurologist (to check for MS) on Friday. Yeah, I’m nervous, but I’m hoping for the best. It’s bad that all of this has to happen around the best time ever… I’m upset that I’m going to have this when I graduate, and when I go off to college… But hey, this is life.
Yeah, this is recurring. There’s a good chance that I’ll have this for the rest of my life. About the only thing that they can do is inject me with steroids to try to ward off any future occurrences (if I take the oral ones, I actually have an increase of them happening).
It’s very sad for me right now, because I did expect for everything after Prom/AP tests to basically be hassle-free, and now I’m going to be missing school constantly and I’ll have to do alternate assignments (my eye bothers me too much to do computer-related activities, which I might have to make aware to my teachers)… And it’s kind of scary, because I don’t want to go to the neurologist and find out that I have MS… I’m afraid that I’d be too frightened to try to live without my parents if I am diagnosed with it.
(If anyone has any advice/personal stories about optic neuritis, I’d really like to know. Really.)
OH wow that has got to be horrible, i had a weird thing with my left eye two years ago, i got my eyebrows waxed, and then went to a photo shoot which required me to get int he ocean, well the next day my eye was so swollen i could not open it, it hurt really bad, and kept swelling in size, well i went to work and my boss would not let me take off my sunglasses, i eventually got sent home when a little girl started screaming because i looked like a "monster".
the dr's never found out what caused the swelling but it took a month to go away.
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Eep, that'd scare me... I'm glad that no one thought I was nuts after the eye scan came back and my eye was absolutely normal. Not trying to be mean, but at least with yours, people KNEW there was something wrong with you.
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http://progressiveu.org/062647-ohmigawd-did-you-hear
(Latest blog. )
I have a friend who recently began experiencing some neurological symptoms...little ones, like thinking her phone was vibrating when it wasn't even in her pocket. She was diagnosed with MS and she was terrified. Is terrified, actually. But in the past year since the diagnosis, she has had no increase in symptoms and no change in her MRI. MS can be extremely debilitating, but for some people, it is a mild annoyance that slows them down for a couple of days here and there. I think the fear that it will start to get worse is more than a mild annoyance, but my friend has decided to live her life like she might wake up unable to do the things she loves. The experience has taught her to slow down a little (which she could NOT do a year ago) and to have more fun.
I have known two other people who had MS in such a mild way that no one would have known they had it had they not be outspoken advocates for finding a cure. If you do in fact have MS, it does not mean your life is over, okay? It is scary, though. I understand that. Let us know how it all comes out?
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
You don't know me but I was searching optical neuritis on the internet and found this post. I am not diagnosed with it, but I am very worried that I have it, because of these flashes of light I have been having in my eye. Your post struck me as interesting because I am in the same boat as you-graduating high school on Thursday, really thought that after AP tests and prom and all of that, everything would be simple. And now I am worried sick constantly and I don't know what to do. So if you would like to talk I would really appreciate it. :)
I guess the major symptoms are loss of color vision (not totally, but significantly), and a fog-like film. The flashes of light are sort-of normal, if there's no other symptoms and depending on the severity - I've had random flashes for almost my entire life, and they just said it's something to do with the impulses my nerves are sending/receiving.
My stuff went something like this: Lenscrafters, ophthalmologist, MRI of the head (contrast), neurologist, blood drawn, three days of IV steroids (methylprednisolone; withdrawal symptoms include mood swings and aching body, almost too painful to pick up a purse/small animal), MRI of the neck (to make sure that there's no neck injuries to cause the ON; again, contrast), and ingested steroids (no clue about those, we haven't started them yet). Hope that helps! :)
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http://progressiveu.org/062647-ohmigawd-did-you-hear
(Latest blog. )
Don't flip out about it. Honestly, if there is something wrong with you, it's already there, you can't do anything about it, just concentrate on not letting it get any worse. You won't lose your eye, and I actually regained vision from the usage of the IV (but it's slowly going downhill again; the IVs are supposed to help ward off another attack, and the added perk of getting back my vision is temporary-ish). Don't sweat it - what's done is done. It plateaus, though, so it won't forever get worse. Don't let it bog you down... I was still able to walk in a parade, and I still intend on going on the senior trips and funs. You only get one life, so why let a little speck ruin fun times?
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http://progressiveu.org/062647-ohmigawd-did-you-hear
(Latest blog. )
It started this past Saturday.
I was at my great-grandma’s house, which is on a lake. It was really sunny out, and I started seeing spots and I felt that my right eye was unfocused. On the way home, I noticed that I couldn’t look out of the window because I was so uncomfortable with said eye. The next day, I couldn’t move my eye without pain, and I also couldn’t touch it without any form of pain.
Monday, before I went to school, I told my mom that my vision had been bad since Saturday, and was steadily getting worse. It seemed like a fog was rolling into my eye, or like what happens when you yawn and your eyes aren’t focused totally. She told me not to read or play on my computer – no problem, because my eye was bothering me way too much. The fog was worse – I couldn’t make out shapes, only colors (barely). When I got home from school, it was even worse. I couldn’t see through the fog because it covered half of my eye.
I made an appointment at Lenscrafters for seven o’clock that night. The consult didn’t seem to understand that I didn’t want glasses or contacts – I was there for an appointment to get my eye checked out. While having the color-blindness test, I realized that I couldn’t make out the different colors – I knew that they were there, and I could tell that they weren’t the same colors, but I couldn’t tell the difference between orange and pink or green and blue, but with the other eye, I was fine. A scan was taken from my eye, and she saw nothing abnormal about my eye, except a stranger feathering. From there, I was referred to an ophthalmologist, who then performed a few tests on me, and then held up a bottle with a bright red top. He asked me to cover my right eye, and I did. The bottle top was fire–engine red. He then asked me to cover my good eye, and to tell me, if the other one was one hundred perfect red, to tell him about how red it was with my right eye. The color was significantly dimmer.
He believes that I have something called optic neuritis. Basically, the optic nerve is swollen. This can be caused by a lot of things, included swollen veins in my eye, or multiple sclerosis. I should regain my vision within six to ten weeks – if I regain it (there’s a good chance that I will, but there’s always that other chance).
I have an MRI at a quarter to two tonight, and an appointment with the neurologist (to check for MS) on Friday. Yeah, I’m nervous, but I’m hoping for the best. It’s bad that all of this has to happen around the best time ever… I’m upset that I’m going to have this when I graduate, and when I go off to college… But hey, this is life.
Yeah, this is recurring. There’s a good chance that I’ll have this for the rest of my life. About the only thing that they can do is inject me with steroids to try to ward off any future occurrences (if I take the oral ones, I actually have an increase of them happening).
It’s very sad for me right now, because I did expect for everything after Prom/AP tests to basically be hassle-free, and now I’m going to be missing school constantly and I’ll have to do alternate assignments (my eye bothers me too much to do computer-related activities, which I might have to make aware to my teachers)… And it’s kind of scary, because I don’t want to go to the neurologist and find out that I have MS… I’m afraid that I’d be too frightened to try to live without my parents if I am diagnosed with it.
(If anyone has any advice/personal stories about optic neuritis, I’d really like to know. Really.)