This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Hello all this is my first post but have beenn lurking for a while. I have RRMS since '97 and my original symtoms were numbness and issues with my eyes,floaters and my eyes working slow. Well that would come and go over the years and usually not stay to long. They have put me on copaxone in '05 and my first relapse was in oct. last year. Now since then my original symptoms are back and seem to be here to stay, very frustrating cause my eyes are extremely slow to react. I only have brain lesions and my doc just put had me do a 5day iv solu. that didnt seem to do anything! Its been about 5months sice the relapse and im hoping these symptoms will dissapear. My doc is suggesting tysabri since the roids arent doing anything. Any suggs. for u all? Could the copaxone be finished working?

just curious if anyone has any answers?

Brian...
There are no conclusive answers, except it's MS. I'm so sorry, this must be a scary time for you. Sometimes the steroids take awhile to relieve the inflammation, and sometimes after the lesion area calms down, you regain function, especially if you are relapsing/remitting. My husband recently had a slight flare, lost sensation in his foot, but now it's back again. It's so hard to say if the copaxone is "working" or not. It's sounds as if it is, because you've been relapse free for awhile. Copaxone was created to slow the time between relapses. MS is progressive...the speed of progression is unknown. Talk with your neuro if you want to try another pharma route.

Some of us have tried to put the brakes on MS with nutrition, exercise and supplements. The program my husband is on is in blue below.

My thoughts are with you today...
AC

Brian,

I have that occasionally when tired. What happens is if I look up or down with just my eyes, the left one takes longer to get back home. It only happens when I'm very worn out, but like everything with MS, I expect it will come back again later. There really isn't anything I've ever done for it except to get some rest.

Brianm,

Are you experiencing any double vision when your eyes feel like they are acting slowly? For example if you look quickly side to side and then bring your eyes back to straight ahead, do you see double?

Do you have any pain in the eyes?

Lastly, what do you mean by floaters? Floaters, as I know of them, do not have any correlation to MS.

no double vision ever...did get blurry vision a few times but it went away..no pain ever and the floaters i have had since early twenties. My eyes and brain seem to be working slower and slower together, for instance typing and writing i am making a LOT more mistakes and eyes just cant seem to process fast enough. Maybe this would be cognitive? The increase in sensation in my hands is also one of my original symptoms that has came back to stay since oct.

brian sorry to hear about your eye trouble.
ms-ers are statistically low in zinc in spite of the ms zinc level being within the 'normal range'.
zinc is also very important for eye health in cooperation with vitamin a (part of which is the eye-famous lutein)
have you ever had your zinc tested?
basic recommended zinc for patients: 25-50mg per day
normal range: 11.5-18.5
optimal in healthy controls = a tight average around 18
excess symptoms can begin (one case study) around 22.
perhaps eyedoc can chime in here...
FYI, HTH
JL

never checked the zinc Maybe i should? My brain and eyes are having a hard time right now....very frustrating

yea i had brain-eye issues in summer and fall 2007. got my zinc measured and it was 8.6. topped up the zinc and the problem resolved.
might be good to see how close or far your zinc level is from 18, just so you know.
let us know how you do
JL

where do i get my zinc tested at?

i just went to my family doc and asked for a lab requisition. they actually will do lab work in her office but my veins are too small for her staff so i go to a separate lab. where i live, that kind of testing is covered by health care.

Jimmylegs...

I don't know if there is a coorelation between zinc and Brian's problem. Essentially, there are two pathways at work in eye movements. First, the optic nerve sends stimulus to the brain when an object to be looked at is seen. Then the brain sends signals to the extraocular muscles that control eye movement to fixate on the object. We take for granted that we can coordinate these fine eye movements almost instantaneously, but if we have nerve damage (and we certainly do!) it makes sense to me that the nerve conduction would slow an may not reach the eyes at exactly the same time. Therefore we would have slighlty uncoordinated movements.

To my thinking it is more of a nerve damage probem than a nutritional one.

For anyone out there that knows ocular and brain anatomy I apologize for my oversimplification of how the eye works!

EyeDoc -- I am looking for EXACTLY an "oversimplification of how the eye works" as you wrote.

You also wrote: "Then the brain sends signals to the extraocular muscles that control eye movement to fixate on the object."

Can you tell me if the extraocular muscles are smooth muscles?

but u cant fix nerve damage so basically im screwed??