hi rinkpa.

I'm sorry to hear about the optic neuritis. It is a scary thing, especially when they start talking about MS along with it.

Optic Neuritis was the presenting symptom for MS for me, though I didn't get the MS diagnosis for a few more months. My ophthalmologist said it was maybe MS and sent me to a neurologist.

sometimes the drs don't make the diagnosis after the first symptom. Drs are slow to diagnose MS unless they are very sure.

I hope with all my heart that it is just some kind of fluke and you don't have MS.

On was my presenting symptom also almost 25 years ago. The opthamalogist treated it with oral predisone, told me this might be MS, and I was finally diagnosed 19 years later-having no idea there was anything wrong with me for 19 years.

Back then the MRI wasn't around for easy diagnosis, the internet wasn't available to the general population either-so I didn't look up what MS was, there was no meds for it so it - so doc's were not really ethusiastic to diagnose what they couldn't treat, some had to be diagnosed but ON clears up it can be ignored.

Imagine my surprise when 19 years later the MRI existed I was told that ON I had had 19 years before was a significant symptom & now meds existed so I could start treatment for it.

It made me research really hard, is this really happening, how did I miss it for so long and do the doc's really know what they are talking about?

You can kind of get the idea I know a lot MS diagnosis. On a test, its always the answers I got wrong that I remember the longest!

If you have any questions about diagnosis and stuff please feel free to ask-send a message if you want to.

I'll get you started on some stuff to read.

This ON---first I read that 30% of ON will be caused by MS and 70% will be caused by something else or it will be from am "idiopathic origin" unknown origin like a fever of unknown origin-and a cause will never be found for it. Some time the bodies nervous system has a "glitch" it never happens again and finding a cause is not necessary....That(idiopathic & something else is found) is 70% of all ON. 30% of ON is caused by MS.

MS is most frequent onset symptom diagnosing MS. Because other symptoms of MS can often be blamed on other things-played to hard at softball, not enough sleep, ect and people don't go to the doc for other symptoms. But a loss of vision cannot be blamed on other things and a person does go to a doc top get it checked out and it is often what causes MS to be diagnosed.

Statistic are a funny thing like tat depending on how a person looks at them. 30% of ON will be caused by MS. 60 % won't and people with MS were most frequently had ON as their diagnosing symptom.

BTW if 30% of ON is from MS, 60% of difficulty in walking is from MS.

Now is a good time to read about MS---this is a good site.

http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/howms.html

and onone of the pages of this site it lists famous people with MS and if you scroll to the bottom...it has a few that had "MS Scares". They were tested for MS but it did not turn out to be MS. It was just one of those "glitches" that tne nervous system can have.

http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/famous.html

So this ON may happen once and never again. To be diagnose with MS both TIME and SPACE has to be proven for it to be MS. Time in that more than one episode has had to have happened in more than 1 area on the CNS.

So two episodes of ON alone won't do it and ione episode a lone won't do it either. An MRI can help determine if there were some "silent" asymptomatic episdodes besides the one that started the MS testing-----.


Uncertainty with this disease is the WORT and you in the most uncertain place---if we (or I) can answer any question that you have we(&I) would like to.

MS is a diagnosis of exclusion, after everything else it could be is excluded an all that is left is MS then it is MS. Sometimes MS diagnosis take a lot of time because of this.

And there are many different paths a doc can use to prove time and space.

I'm guessing you have been treated with IV steroids and you are going for a cranial (brain) MRI with and without contrast. Am I close? The diagnosis really tends to be unique for everyone.
Prepare for a longh wait until you get a conclusion. The conclusion could be idiopathic too,

Good Luck, and I hope to see more of you around.

30% of ON will be caused by MS, 70% of ON will be caused from something else. 60% of people who present with difficulty walking will be found to be from MS. And the largest % of people with MS had ON as an onset symptom.

Have you been referred to a neurologist or is the ophthalmologist doing the testing?

I'm so sorry you're feeling scared. I know just how you feel. Two years ago I lost vision in my right eye - not completely, just like a big smear across my field of vision. I went to the doctor and an opthamologist, who couldn't find anything wrong with my eyes. It cleared up all by itself, so no worries, until this year when it happened again with tingling in my face. Now I'm diagnosed with MS, which is a mixed blessing. The vision problems can usually by fixed with steroids - that's what they did for me. Hope things go well for you. :)

I'm sorry you are having vision troubles :( It was the first symptom that caused me to begin my string of doctors and tests that ended in an MS diagnosis. For me, diagnosis only took 2 months. From my eye dr, i went to general physician so they could order an MRI and refer me to a neurologist. He ordered a lumbar puncture and a B12 test ( my neuro likes to make sure symptoms aren't just a B12 deficiency which is similar to most MS symptoms) If you have any questions along the way to a diagnosis, please don't hesitate to post! My blind spot got better after about a year. Now it just comes and goes depending on heat and stress.

Statistic being funny things again...30% of ON is from MS, maybe 25% is from A, 20% from B, 15 % from C, 5% from D, 5% from E then MS becomes the most likely cause.
MS becomes the most likely cause.

You really have to get through the testing to find out what it is. Don't jump to conclusions prematurely.

thank you for all of the info everybody I don't feel like reading about ms too much right now because it brings me down I don't know if it is the steroids making me feel this way. I do feel my vision has improved a little but I have a whole host of other problems I think are from steroids but not sure. I will be seeing a neuro-opthamologist in about three weeks. thanks again, I do appreciate it.