I had optic neuritis in Jan 2019. My vision has greatly improved since, however it’s not the same as it used to be. I know it can take a while for things to settle down and it could still need a few more months. My vision in my affected eye is no longer blurry but it feels like it’s slow to focus and overall it seems altered. I can’t really explain it very well but I guess it feels a bit like when you don’t have the right Perscription in one eye but the other is fine. They just don’t feel like they work together as well anymore! For a while now, I seem to be getting mild headaches / aching behind my affected eye and only on that side of my head. It’s not the same pain I had with the ON. My guess is it’s because of the strain from my eye not quite being right?
I just wondered if anyone had experienced the same thing after ON? I’ve not had a VEP. I should be back at the hospital eye clinic in a couple of months for a check up and see the neurologist around the same time too.
So far my diagnosis is just ON but am waiting further scan results
HI an episode of ON can take upto a year to recover from. I have same when i get it. I had a VEP in 2008 (i think around then anyway) POSITIVE bilaterally. I had another in 2015 which showed an increase from the first one, which gave me my diagnosis as i had lesions in my MRI in 3 places over time. You could see if you can get a VEP test. Having ON doesnt mean you have MS but you have 50 percent more chance of developing it. If you have any odd altered vision and more pain i would see your GP. What does the VEP detect? The VEP measures the time that it takes for a visual stimulus to travel from the eye to the occipital cortex. It can give the doctor an idea of whether the nerve pathways are abnormal in any way. For example, in multiple sclerosis, the insulating layer around nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord (known as the myelin sheath) can be affected. This means that it takes a longer time for electrical signals to be conducted from the eyes, resulting in an abnormal VEP. A normal VEP can be fairly sensitive in excluding a lesion of the optic nerve, along its pathways in the anterior part of the brain.
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Hi CC
Your explanation of the VEP is brilliant. I’ve never exactly known what it does, I got the idea that it related to the nerve stimulus between the eye and the brain, but beyond that was clueless.
(I had one 22 years ago and never did understand what they were doing! I was generally ignorant of all the tests and what they were testing for then.)
Thanks for that.
Sue
Befuddled it sounds to me as if you need to go to the optician for a check up Vision E have been fabulous with me and do not charge for change of lenses due to it being an ongoing issue.
Have a look very carefully at some writing and also something distant like a lamp post and see if you have slight double vision as well.
What you are describing is exactly how my eyes went so you have my full sympathy.
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Thanks everyone. I’ll give the opticians a call and see what they suggest. I guess I might just need to be a bit more patient as my other symptoms haven’t returned to ‘normal’ yet either. Numb legs and spasms is starting to feel like the new normal