Optic neuritis....is it a first symptom?!

Hi I had optic neuritis mid feb, I lost a lot of vision but It has come back now. My colour isn’t perfect but it’s definitely better than it was!

but since the hospital telling me It’s ON, I’m reading all about MS symptoms and it’s like a checklist.
I’m going back end of April to see the eye dr again but im Wondering what will happen. Will my eye just be back to

Normal or will I have to go for tests?

I hate not knowing and Iv seen diagnosis can take years!

It can be. I remember many years ago the neurologist remarking that, ‘MS finds the optic nerve particularly tasty.’ Another thing he said to me around the same time - I had had my first attack (not ON, by the way) - was to remember that there was no such disease as single sclerosis. In my case, time revealed that it was the start of RRMS, but many people get one clinically isolated incident of something that might by MS-related, but never have any further trouble. LEt’s hope you’re one of them.

Alison

Hi, I’ve had spinal PPMS for 23 years but never had any eye or vision problems at all.

Maybe that’s due to me not having any lesions on my brain.

As you’ve not been diagnosed with MS, there is a chance it could be something else. Try not to get too focussed on MS chick.

Let the docs do their job and hope for the best.

Boudsx

A question please… Can MS related optic neuritis be caused by spinal lesions or is it always brain lesions?

I had 2 episodes of ON which ultimately led to my RRMS diagnosis. My vision returned but not as good as it was before, probably due to scarring. My colour vision is shot too.

As I understand it, lesions are actually confined to the optic nerve, for optic neuritis. Those with optic neuritis as the presenting symptom may also have lesions elsewhere - brain, spine, but those don’t cause the optic neuritis.

I had optic neuritis when I was 19. complete loss of sight in one eye and partially in the other. MS was never mentioned then. I led an active life for the next 25 years with no health problems at all. I was diagnosed when I was 46 and they then said it was probably MS then.

Turns out that ON was my first recorded symptom although probably not my first. I suffered bad migraines in the early 2000’s which could possibly be attributed to MS but my Neurologist is a bit dismissive of them.
In 2007 following a bad migraine I had ON whereby my right eye just wouldn’t move and this left me with double vision. I had an MRI at that time but nothing came from it. It took about 12 months to get back to normal.
A few years later I had another bout of ON and I ended up going for another MRI. Following delays and some other unfortunate missed opportunities I was diagnosed with MS in 2016. Just after DX I went for a lumbar puncture which confirmed it.
Since then I’ve not had any ON but I do have other sensory issues which is down to the MS.
Now I’m just living with it all day to day.

So for me it was over 10 years from first symptoms to DX and in fact it was at DX that MS was first mentioned. It hit me like a speeding truck.