Optic Neuritis and Driving

Hi everyone.

Hope you are all having one of our better days.

I am after a bit of advice and info.

I have applied for a paper driving license and DVLA are aware that I have MS. I have confirmed what my consultant has said to DVLA that I have Optic Neuritis and they have sent me a letter sating that they were unaware that I suffered from Optic Neuritis as well as the MS. Grrrrrr!! I have already explained to them that the Optic Neuritis is a symptom of MS and they jsut don’t seem to get it.

They have asked me to complete a secon questionnaire before they allow me to continue driving and one of the questions asks when I will be having surgery to improve the condition. They don’t seem to understand MS at all and how the symptoms vary from day to day.

Just wondered how many of us are still driving with Optic Neuritis. I don’t have any problems at all as the ON only affects one eye at the moment.

Thank you so much for your help with this. I am fuming.

Take care

Shazzie xx

I completely agree with you and I have never driven over the past 8 years when the ON is at it’s worst. Afterall we should all be aware of the dangers to ourselves and others.

Thank you for your reply.

Hi I stopped driving over 2mths ago, this was due to my thinking process just was not good.

Jan

My wife is an Optometrist - ideally, an appoitment with one should help?

Best Marcus.

I informed DVLA of my condition and after they contacted my Docs etc. I was given a 3 yrs licence and they took away groups C AND D. I was a bit concerend about the outcomeat the time . Iwill stop driving if and when my condition gets worse as safety is the most important thing. Hopefully that will be a long time away.

Hi,

I have ON at present and the first thing I asked my eye Dr was about driving. His answer was that legally I was fine to drive as only one eye was affected and under Australian law as long as you have one eye that is 100% OK and as long as the other eye has a certaine degree of functionality then you are legally allowed to drive. And my ON eye still meets the legal requirement in conjunction with my unaffected eye. I feel quite safe driving at present although I wouldn’t drive any long distance or at night.

Of course laws here may be different to over there but why don’t you se your eye Dr and ask?

Bootom line though, if you may be arisk to yourself or other road users don’t drive, regardless of what the laws say…

Cherrs,
Belinda

Just a further thpight on my comment above…

I have had ON in the past as well and VicRoads, which is the equivalent here of your DVLA, are aware of my having MS and of my history of ON. I have to do an eye test every 6 months and a general medical to test my eligibility to hold a licence every 12 months. So far I have passed each time. I have had reduced vision in my eye due to the ON and it came up on the eye test at one point but it wasn’t severe enough to take my licence off me.

And this bout of ON didn’t meet the trigger point to require reporting to VicRoads.

Cheers,

Belinda

Hiya

Thank you so much for replying. I really appreciate it.

Thanks for your advice and like you say we know when it is time to give up due to safety but hopefully that won’t be for a while as only one eye is affected and I hope it stays that way.

Take care and thanks again

xx

Hi Belinda

Thanks for your replies.

Like you, I asked my MS Dr and Optomtrist if I could continue to drive with ON in one eye which varies from day to day as to how the vision is in that eye and like you, they both said that it was legal to drive with one eye.

Thank you so much for your advice.

Shazzie xx

Your welcome Shazzie. It is such a dilema and a very fine line between keeping our independence and maintaining our safety. Glad you checked with your Drs and your OK to drive too :slight_smile:

B xx

My hospital eye specialist told me there would be advantages to registering as partially-sighted as I have no sight in one eye and less-than-perfect sight in the other. He produced a form to fill in, with indecent haste, and when I’d signed it and handed it back to him, he said “You realise you won’t be allowed to drive any more, don’t you?” Notice he didn’t mention that BEFORE I signed it, and he didn’t say I HAD to register. Luckily I had already given up driving as the ON caused lack of 3D and I didn’t feel safe on the roads, but it would have been a hell of a shock if I’d still been driving. Obviously a sneaky way of getting people with bad sight to give up driving. I’m still waiting for the “advantages”.