I had a bout if optic neuritis twice, once 3 months ago and one 2 weeks. The one 3 months was total loss of vision in my left eye only for a few hours and then healed itself. My question is… will any damage or lesion show after this length of time? I am due my MRI Saturday and am worried the On won’t show due to me leaving longer than I should of urgh, I could kick myself now!
I’m about as far from being an expert as it’s possible to get - but I do remember that my daughter had a short bout of ON (lasted only a few days). She was sent to the local eye hospital, who diagnosed it, and then sent for an MRI. By the time that MRI came about, several months later, there was no evidence of it on the scan. The paediatric neuro we then saw said that this really didn’t mean she hadn’t had ON or a demyelinating condition - it had just repaired itself. Good luck! V PS anyone know why I can’t start new paragraphs when i click the return button??
Yes, it is tricky because of waiting times for scans - sometimes by the time mri is done (months after the problem took place!) the damage can heal so that it doesn’t show on MRI.
But additional tests (Visual evoked potentials ) can be done to help show whether damage occurred .
I was told that if ON is not evident on MRI and the VEP also come back clear, it is very unlikely that ON took place - and they are therefore able to say with greater certainty that you did not have an ON.
But on the flip side, if you did have ON, the damage will most likely show up on VEP tests, even if the tests are done months after the event. So if your MRI comes doesnt show anything, but you feel sure you did have ON, could you request VEP tests to try and find evidence that way? x
Hi Melnic.
Am in the same situation as you. All of a sudden, July 2 years ago, I noticed blurryness in my right eye and a massive colour difference and had eye ache. My optician said it was query retrobulbar Optic Neuritis. I say query, because despite my optician saying it was, by the time I got my referral to the eye clinic (October) and then the subsequent MRI (Jan the following year - as the opthamologists also thought it was retrobulbar ON), the MRI showed “No sign of inflamation or demylination” and they told me to go away and stop bothering them (much more nicely than that though). Ever since then, I have been confused as I had all the signs of ON, Fuzzy vision, problems with the colour red, uhtoffs phenomenon etc but they said because the MRI was clear it was not ON.
Fast forward to this year. Having had a few bothersome symptoms, my GP referred me to a neuro and the neuro sent me for Visual Evoked Potentials which I had today. I am now waiting to see if there are any abnormalities on the test. I guess this will tell once and for all if I did have ON. At least it will put that part to bed anyway.
I agree with anon 2. Try to get VEPs done. It should tell you once and for all.
HTH
Angela xx
PS Anon 1, this forum does not like internet explorer. I have to use firefox or chrome to get the return button to work.
I read somewhere it has to be done within 2 weeks to show up on mri not sure how accurate that is though Ax
I can believe that Arwen, as they say ON rarely lasts longer than 2 weeks (or at least at that point is getting much better) so for it to show inflamation, they would need to do it whilst you are currently suffering.
Ax
hi I had On 18 months ago and a brain MRI 2 weeks after…which showed a small area on the optic nerve…vision took a while to improve and pupil reaction was ok after 4 months but colour fading still there…but better than was…blurred vision at distance still there but that’s anew symptom but I developed wobbly vision too at same time as on…that’s still there …I had vep done 7 months after on which was slow but they said normal considering I had had on…the other eye was slow too but that eye has been lazy since childhood but my vision in that eye was really bad 5 months after on in left eye but et ye neuro had discharged me …so it’s hard to know if right was slow due to lazy eye or that I did have on in the right eye too…they wanted to vep on my twin sister to compare as she has a lazy eye too…but she couldn’t make it on the day…lol healing of the optic nerve can vary and Imthink as others say the vep is a good test to have done so do push for this… em