Have just had my first relapse for about 6 years. Had been relativaly fortunate with my MS living quite a normal life and then suddenly wham!! I am hit with a major relapse. I can just stagger around now as my left leg has completely gone. Unfortunately I now cannot go to see `The Book Of Morman’ tomorrow with my partner and teenage son. (Why wasn’t the relapse a week earlier?!)
Anyway the true subject of this post is “Double Vision” or it’s proper name Diplopia. This has come as a surprise to me as a symptom of this relapse, as well as extremely annoying especially when watching the telly.
Just interested in others who have hd this sympton.
How did you cope?
Do you have any ideas for coping with this?
How long did it last?
What therapies have been useful?
Thanks,
Geoff.
(P.S anyone want a ticket for ‘The Book Of Morman’?)
In my case I have had double vision that started to get gradually worse over eight years.
The easiest thing for me is to use my pirates eye patch. I suppose it will only work if you get double vision when using both eyes. The patch always works well for me.
Then I finally got to see an Ophthalmologist a couple of months ago, who I cannot recommend enough. They give you several options and ideas - even a couple for a case like me! Botox in the eye muscle improved my vision - wow! You do need top ups every 8 weeks, though.
I suffer badly with this but it is helped a lot with a prism in my spectacles (Just from the optician, nowhere specialist)
I also have trouble with my left eyeball that floats upwards when I am tired (dissociated vertical deviation to give it a posh name) When this happens I revert to a pirate patch because it’s the only thing that helps.
I think, as Geoff suggests, that an opthamologist is in my future
My double vision episode came and went over a small number of weeks and resolved completely. I hope yours does too, and that you make a good recovery from this relapse with all its difficulties.
I too am experiencing double vision as part of my latest relapse. That and blurred vision, affecting one eye. I was given a 5 day course of oral steroids. A week after finishing them, I can start to see a small improvement. Fingers crossed it will continue. Not sure what the next step will be but some good advice I received from the forum folks would be to see an ophthalmologist. I’ll contact my MS nurse on Monday.
In the meantime, I have found the use of a patch over the affected eye to be a lifesaver when moving about at home. Too disoriented to manage outside so haven’t been out in over a week.
Good luck with your recovery and shame about your show!
My diplopia appeared between the first and second relapses.
To be more accurate, I became aware of it about that time when a new pair of glasses arrived and I immediately started to see two images. Maybe the fact that the old pair were a bit out had masked the problem.
The second image was displaced up, and to the right, and this led to an interesting session in the high street opticians (no, their name does not begin with S or V), finally resolved when I agreed to a retest by a senior optometrist.
This established that the problem was with the left eye, and could be resolved by making a prism lens for that eye. Since they had missed that on the original test, the new lens(es) were done for free, and the problem was solved.
Other people are not so lucky. My wife has since developed diplopia, but in her case it is the right eye, with the second image displaced to the right. The local orthoptic service are using different strengths of stick-on Fresnel prisms to determine the exact prescription required.
Diplopia is usually the result of the muscled that focus and aim the eyeballs getting slightly out of sync, so that one eye is ok, but the second is incorrectly aligned with the retina. Often the optometrist can resolve the problem, sometimes it has to be the orthoptic people, but it can be dealt with. Start with the optometrist - tell them that you are seeing a second image (double vision can have certain legal implications), and if they cannot sort the problem they should give you a letter to your GP to ask for a referral to Orthoptics.