Optic Neuritis?

[ManinVA]

Hi all,

It's my first post. Basically, starting last Friday, I've twice had the following: Brief (30-45 seconds) greying/fading out of colors in my direct line of sight. I noticed it as I was reading a monitor. I could tell that the words above and below my direct line of sight were normal, and would fade as I focused on them. It appeared to be both eyes, but I can't guarantee that. I did close each today, when it happened, and believe it was that way for both. The words were not blurry at all. I have no other visual issues (no pain, no blurry spots, no vision loss, etc). It happened on black font today and a blue font and black font on Friday. Can optic neuritis be this brief? Unfortunately, the descriptions online aren't very helpful in that regard. They seem to say that just a greying a vision is not optic neuritis, and that it has to last for at least a couple of hours, usually lasting much longer.

I've been tested in the past for MS (have twitches (benign apparently), shakiness, tingling/numbness in feet, and some other symptoms), with my last MRI (on a 7tev machine I believe??) 3 years ago completely clean. I currently have new symptoms, which while scare me very much (tingling in hands, some perceived weakness in hand/forearm/twitching in index finger), I realize are most likely something like an ulnar nerve issue rather than MS/ALS. But add them to the vision issues and I'm more worried.

Further, it's possible I've had these vision issues before. I clearly remember staring at my monitor in the past and wondering why some text was greyer than others. For some, it actually was, and I had to the change font, but I seem to recall that that approach didn't work all the time. But because of my other fears, I'm more sensitive to this now, so I noticed it right away this time.

Thanks!!

[ElliotB]

Do you possibly have floaters?

[ManinVA]

No, I don't think so. I'm not sure what a "floater" is, but I don't have any visual impediments. When I close an eye, everything looks fine; same with the other eye. I just took the Hue test, and got a 20, so my color discrimination appears to be fine. The greying seriously only lasted about 30 seconds, but it also happened Friday (and who knows how frequently it happens when I'm not staring at a screen or otherwise reading as I didn't notice any difference for anything else, just the letters that I was reading).

[DougL]

wondering why some text was greyer than others.

on the drive thru the streets of Brooklyn immediately following CCSVI surgery, my wife commented about how colorful the store front doors were. a few days later, on the drive back to Canada, she commented about how the fields were so bright and green.

to me, the store doors were the same color and the bright green fields were no different than they were any other year. i attibute the improved "color" to the CCSVI surgery (i think others have had the same results).

perhaps this is something for you to look into. greying colors may be one of the signs of CCSVI.

[THX1138]

Interestingly enough, during a strong niacin flush, colors become far more vivid and the letters on my computer screen look dark inky black, instead of dark grey.

[ElliotB]

Floaters are small moving (I believe protein) spots that appear in your field of vision. Do a bit of research on floaters on the internet. Perhaps that is all it is. Large ones can cause issues like the ones you are describing and may or may not move. Perhaps you should see an ophthalmologist.