Hello again, I am sorry for starting a new topic, I can’t fathum out this new format yet!!!,
Thanks for all of you who gave me advise regarding my recent double vision.
I went to my GP yesterday, and no mention of steroids was made. He took some bloods to rule out other things. He put me back on anti-depressants (which I had come off three months ago) saying that they would help me relax. I am to go to my optitian, and come back in two weeks if no better. He will then refer me back to nurology if it is’nt. Today I have had a phone call from them to say bloods all clear. I have had to come home from work early as I can’t squint any more, it’s so tiering. I am confused, is this really it - you have MS get on with it???
My optician referred me to the eye dept at the the hospital because of the problems I was/am having. I have a ‘probable’ MS diagnosis, I don’t know if it will be different for you with confirmed MS, but its worth seeing the optician just incase they can help.
I guess that you will have to sort out your symptoms yourself, and then put them into words that the “experts” can understand. To start with, you need some really expensive test equipment:
With a word-processor, take a short paragraph of text (like the third para of your post) and print it out several times on one page (different size fonts, and a wide margin). You want this in bold type and double spaced. Next - you do not have double vision - you see a second image! When you get this second image, take your sheet of paper, look at the text, and see where the second image is compared to the text on the page. It will probably be slightly more faint than the original (that’s why the bold type). It could be above or below (that’s why the double spacing), and displaced to the side as well (that’s why the wide margin). Now you can tell the experts where the second image is.
The next question is the time of day that it happens. Morning, mid-day, evening, all the time, only when you get tired? It sounds like it is as you start to get tired and then see the second image - that could come with the MS. If you get it most of the time, and it gets worse when you are tired, that is something that the optician should be able to sort out. Sometimes the images that the lenses in your eyes are not perfectly aligned, and spectacles with a slight degree of prism in their prescription can sort this out.
But, the really big but, is that you are not seeing double - that’s in your head!
You are seeing a second image - and you can now say where in relation to the main one - and that is an optical problem.
Start testing yourself now, so you know what to say.
I have been to the optician today, and had a test. She was very concerned that my previous prism was 3 and today was in excess of 15!! She wrote a letter for me to tke to my GP, which I have done, and he said he will write to my nurologist with the results. I have to say I am glad its not in my head,
I am not sure what I expect from all this, so I am going to retire, with my dark glasses on , yet again being reminded that I have MS
Hi Caz, Please don’t upset yourself. I have had MS for 12/13 years - one of the symptom’s has been double vision. My wife is an ‘Optometrist’. Apparently, any ‘Tom. Dick or Harry’ can call themselves an optician. No, I visited an Opthamologist (a Professor at that) and was given advice on what to do. That was 2/3 years ago and my double vision has not come back. Good Luck!
I got referred to an ophthalmologist a few years ago when I was getting double vision. She gave me some eye exercises to build up the strength of my eye muscles and they sorted it out for me.
The two main ones I did would be easy for you to try. The first one involved a strip of card about 9 inches long with a line down the middle and a dot on it every inch & a half or so. I had to hold the card horizontally under my nose so that it pointed away fromme, parallel to the ground. I would have to look at the dot furthest away and try and make it so that I saw just one dot. When I’d done that I’d look away for a few seconds and then do the same thing with the next nearest dot, I’d have to repeat this for each dot until I couldn’t do it any more.
The other exercise was very similar. I’d hold my my arm straight out in front of me and point my finger up. I’d look at my finger and try to make it so I only saw one finger. Then I’d look away for a few seconds, bring my finger a bit closer to me and then repeat. I’d keep doing this, bringing my finger a bit closer each time.
I’d do these a few times a day. I was warned that I might find the double vision would get worse at first, but that was perfectly normal. It’s just like starting going to the gym for the first time - because the muscles have never been exercised like this before, they’ll naturally be very tired at first. But they’ll start to build up their strength, and then you should start to see an improvement. I only needed to do them for a week or so and I found that I didn’t get the double vision any more.
Its day three of a four day course of steroids 500mg a day and as yet there is no change to my double vision. Can anyone tell me what their experiences of these are. Don’t feel I can go back to work this week feeling like this. I am having to have my family guide me around - I’d be grateful for your comments