i usually have pain sort of behind my eyes (right worse than left) coupled with floaters, flashing lights, and or afterimages. do you normally have allergies this time of year or have you recently moved to a new environment? i developed allergies after moving.

if nothing else, i suggest you see an opthamologist if you haven't recently

cheers

Have you had an VEP or visual evoked potential test? If you haven't . it is basically a painless test where cords are attached to the scalp and you look at a flashing checker board for about thirty minutes. It will tell how the speed of your eyes reacts to your central nervous system. It is a test used to diagnose MS. Between my MRI and abnormal VEP, I got my dx without the spinal tap...TG..which I feared. I guess I am a big chicken. Anyway, it will rule in or out, optic neuritis, which may be causing the eye pain.. If it is ON, don't be too frightened, I have it too, sometimes eye pain, and some floaters, which are common with people without MS,, and I have never suffered vision loss.. Good luck and I hope you come to a resolution soon!! Hugs Kat

By the way, Optic Neuritis is a fairly common symptom of MS..so what you are experiencing is an MS thing..Katf

I mean may be an MS thing...stuck my foot in my mouth because I certainly am not a doctor...LOL

The last time I had an eye exam was in 2005. And when I went on my last neurologist vist i did have trouble with one part of the eye exam. And she did mention an eye exam. Whatever it is, hope its not too bad, I think I will be ok. just scary to think of losing eye sight as some MS'ers have. But I think the vision comes back doesn't it? About 6 weeks ago, I did go through a period where my yes burned alot and were watery, but I think that was allergy in nature. Who knows, with this crazy MS stuff. Thanks for the replies. :)

I lost vision in my eye completely twice, once in my right and once in my left. Optic neuritis attributed to MS. Both times the vision returned but it took about 3 months. I was lucky. My right eye still has a little bit of blurriness when I get tired or stressed out, but essentially my eyesight is quite good following both episodes.

I had headache followed by eye pain followed by color loss followed by steroids. i found the online color vision test helpful for determining.

http://colorvisiontesting.com/ishihara.htm#plate%20with%2010%20answer

Pain in my eye is led me to be diagnosed in the first place. I had a stabbing pain in one eye-a typical symptom of MS. and that wa why my doctor sent me to neuro. Now I sometimes feel like I have sand in my eye, they are very sore, or the right one will keep closing on its own. This may very well be an MS thing for you. I would my neuro and ask.

This is all so new for me and I don't know from one day to the next if what I am experiencing is from MS or something else.

Unfortunately it's almost always the MS. Like this morning for example. I woke up and was unable to open my left eye because the pain was so bad. It felt like someone had punched me in the eye except there is no swelling and no redness. Just pain. I had to hold a cold compress on it for 2 hours before I could even open it. It still hurts a lot and is painful to the touch but what confuses me is that I had an MRI done in February and my Neuro said that there was no sign of ON so what is this! It's been sore and watering all day and nothing I do or take makes it go away.

Also I experienced the weird sunburned skin feeling in the back of my left arm for weeks. No where else just my arm. Now it's dulled to the point that I actually can't really feel that area anymore.

It's so ridiculous and I feel like I am going crazy with all this. I hope that being able to talk to some people who know what I am going through will help. Here's hoping that tomorrow is better and I can open my eyes without pain.

Thanks =)

I feel like I have the same thing. Not quite pain, but my eyes get so tired at the end of the day. It also cold be from being on the computer. i figured it was from my fatigue. Now I am wondering if it is MS related....

I had my eyes examined last week. I told the doctor about the pain especially in my right eye. He did a thorough check and could not find anything wrong that would be related to MS. Soooo, what is it, I still dont know. It stopped hurting for several days but began again yesterday and last night was horrible, i tried the cold rag too, but didnt do a thing. :(

I had the same thing going and I blew it off, now my left eye is blurry all the time with numerous floaters and the flashing lights. Now my right eye is hurting. The left eye gets a big dark(blind) spot in the line of vision. The right eye now has a faint spot in the line of vision and is getting blurry. I have an occipital lobe lesion along with two in each of the frontal lobes however the LP was negative. I have slowed motorskills on the right side that get worse with episodes. I see the doctor tomorrow to discuss the LP and blood work up (shingles), he was hoping for positive for the diagnosis not sure what his plans are? Sorry for the laundry list but he thinks I have ms but is being conservstive. Don't put it off like I did and get your eyes checked.
Good luck!
Kj

An ophthalmologist can see damage from current or past ON, an optometrist cannot. I presented through severe ON, same pattern as ladywise. (High-five, ladywise!.....naw, not really...=8^D) While Optic Neuritis is the easiest incidence of onset to diagnose, it only accounts for 17% or so of initial attacks. After diagnosis through other systems-i.e. numbness in legs etc-it is VERY common in some form of severity, be it double or blurry/spotty vision or all the way to complete loss. Just like when someone loses the loss of limb(s), it most often doesn't fully recover to 100%. The remission is not usually completely back to baseline. Just like say, numbness of hands that goes away but there is residual tingling forever. But with your eyesight. I personally have had full recovery and am wicked lucky. There is still slight residual damage to the optic nerve (mostly right as I was past steroid help by the time I was dx'd) but no loss of visual acuity. I got off real lucky considering all I could decipher was light or dark.

By the way: my attacks were preceded by a couple of days of eye pain. Mostly behind the eyes, but the eyeballs too: referred pain.

Call your Neuro and only your Neuro. Every other doctor is just delaying time. I assure you he/she will want to see you. Especially if you're on Gilenya(fingolimod), as one of it's rarer sides is retinal edema, or swelling.

Losing your sight sucks, I can attest. The optic nerve is very tender, and the sooner you can hit an ON attack with steroids, the lesser the damaging effects. At least rule it out, a doc visit is not the wrong answer here I think. Good luck, keep us updated!!

Hi carolinagirl!
It could be optical neuritis. I've had several bouts with this and it can be permanent but I do not know how common it is for it to be permanent.
I have lost the sight in both eyes at different times. The first time it happened I experienced a partial recovery only. The second time it happened it was to the other eye and it has pretty much recovered.
I still have pain behind my eyes at times. This is the optic nerve no doubt. The pain can be horrific, I know that much (especially during an attack!).
There is nothing much they can do for this problem, that much I do know.
Please see an ophthalmologist to find out if you have problems.
I've had evoked potentials done by a neurologist. He did not believe I was blind in the eye I lost full sight in (the idiot!). He came back into the room after getting the sad results and began screaming at me, "My God! Your are BLIND! Do something about it now!". I remember I was sitting there and said to him what do you recommend? He said, well, try and herbalist or SOMETHING!
I have not gone back to this fool since losing the sight in my right eye and he did not even know who I was.
God help us!