Optic Neuritis - how long to recover?

[MrWrigleys]

Hey guys.

Im new to this board so I just wanted to share this information. I recently had my second attack of optic neuritis - my first one was nine years ago.

I recovered fully from the first one. I was pretty young back then so I dont fully remember how long it took and also it was quite a while ago.

So now I had my second attack on the same eye. Luckily I dont have any other lesions in my nerve system. My attack was pretty major - I went completely blind for like 20 minutes but it slowly got better.

I am back at 100% visual capability (what do you call it 20/20) and the eye doctors also couldnt find any blind spots in my visual field. However - I do see a difference. It is kind of really hard to explain to the eye doctors really :/

Despite the exact center of my view - everything is a lot more sparkly I would say. When I look at text it kind of seems to flash. I can read everything just fine but it does not appear very still. :/. Other than that - when I look at the power supply line of a bus in the air - the line is not really drawn through it misses little pieces and those pieces are also moving around. Kind of a flickering really. I also got movement phosphenes although I kind of think that they have gotten better.

My attack was around 6 weeks ago. Has anyone has similar symptoms? Because most of the symptoms I read was blurred vision and that was not really the case with me. Do you think it can still get better? How long did yours take to recover? I would be glad if you shared your symptoms with me

[marcopolo]

Had an attack at the start of my MS back in 1986. Gradually got better over a couple of weeks with the help of
prednisone....

Hasn't bothered me since despite many other symptoms over the years including trigeminal neuralgia which was horrible...

[singleprego]

My first attack was ON. My ON experience: That day I had played call of duty - all day. Haven't played it in almost a year so when my left eyeball started to get sore, I thought it I had strained it playing video games. It started to hurt more. My eyeball itself hurt, touching around it didn't. Then I lost vision in half of that eye. Eventually full range of sight came back but every thing looked as if a small piece of was Kleenex covering my eye. My red contrast lessened. It took about 8 weeks to recover everything but red contrast. That got better after about 3 months. Its not 100% perfect, but like 95% better and I am grateful for that!

I wish you a quick recovery!

[singleprego]

I forgot to add that I too got sparklies and the bright flashes. It reminded me of what you see when your pupils dilate after ingesting blotter (that was almost 20 yrs ago, but I still remember). I think its an indication that your eye wiring is getting better.

[MrWrigleys]

I dont know. it doesnt really seem to get better. I got an mri and the doctors said the inflammation was gone. So I doubt it will get better at this point.

The Vision seems more niosy, and I think there is like a field over the center of my vision that is specially noisey. It makes black things start to glow somehow. Obviously I cant look at it because then it is at the center of my vision, when it is cleaner.

[Youarethecure]

^ That is not true. It could take a very long time for the damage to hopefully be repaired. The damage from the inflammation has already happened so it shouldn't get worse.

I have gone months even close to a year for my eye to get back to "normal" each time I had optic neuritis. To be honest, my right eye is still grayed out a little bit. My left eye over years has gotten back to 20/20 and normal. I had it optic neuritis in my left eye over 6 years ago, and about 1 year ago it hit my right eye.

Just be patient and hopefully it gets back to close to normal at some point. Don't be discouraged if it hasn't starting getting better already.

Did anything show up in your MRI?

hopefully you have a full recovery,

Chris

[Luongo]

I'm not sure if it's the same, but my eyes are best described by this:

http://eyeonvision.org/visual-snow.html
http://neuronresearch.net/vision/clinic ... vision.htm

My eyes have been like this for about 5 years. Not expecting them to suddenly magically be normal again... this is pretty much it. I wasn't diagnosed with optic neuritis specifically but it was part of some kind of neurological episode. From other people who have this, it doesn't seem to go away, but it doesn't seem to get worse. Just another mystery for the pile.

[NHE]

My optic neuritis led to my diagnosis with MS. I lost much of my vision in my left eye. It was looking through glasses when they get steamed over when you open the dishwasher only it didn't go away. A round of IV solumedrol cleared up my vision in about a week or so. However, colors viewed through my left eye appeared less intense and a little grayed out. In addition, my vision was sensitive to heat for about 9-12 months following the optic neuritis, either a hot shower or being out too long on a hot day would cause it to haze over. The sensitivity to heat finally went away after about a year after the initial symptoms. The noticeable differences in color intensity took much longer to go away, maybe 3-5 years.

[MrWrigleys]

@Chris: Thx for the answer

Yesterday I was out walking on grass lawn full of daisies. And the daisies Immediately started glowing like crazy. It kind of looks like I was on a trip (or like I imagine being on a trip looks like I have never taken drugs). The whites kind of started burning in the vision. Kind of funny, really - I still wish it went away. though.

What was a bit of a relief that it isnt that way on the exact center of my vision. It is perfectly fine at the center of my vision. I was googling and the closest I could describe it is a scintillating scotoma. Something like this - except not as severe.



No the MRI- was fine - except the nervus optic of course. It also seems like I dont have 'real' MS but some kind of subtype that lies somewhere between MS and NMO. They did find anti-mog antibody - but they told me it was not really clear yet how the antibody is connected to MS or NMO. And on a positive note the process on the disease is rather benign. I had a follow-up MRI and the inflammation is gone.

After this I kind of wish I had done a plasmapheresis instead of steroids, I heard it worked better.

Btw. Good news: my phosphenes went away. The ones you see in the dark.

[NLGal]

I've never experienced ON, just some swimming in my right eye for 15 minutes a few months ago. I am only commenting because I had nerve damage nearly 30 years ago, and I was told it could take up to 18 months for final regeneration of the nerve and 18 months later all was healed - but it took the full 18 months. This is probably not very comforting, and it may not even apply since the damage was due to an injury, but there may be hope of continued improvement. Good luck.

[Music]

Back in the 90's for about 3 years every September I had a SLIGHT blurring in my right eye for about a week or two. The eye specialist couldn't find anything. Moved to another city and was diagnosed with optic neuritis by a hospital. After the diagnosis have never had it again. To this day, the eye doctors can't find any trace of ON. So don't despair MrWrigleys, I guess it can go away. Otherwise, my major symptoms have always been weakness and some stiffness.

Take care.

[jerrygallow]

Mine looks more like this. https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/ ... r2=piv-web

[MrWrigleys]

Yeah - my vision is kind of weird for an optic neuritis. It was never blurry and I didnt have problems with my central vision. Actually my vision never went under 20/20 - except for the 5 minutes it went completely blind ofcourse. But the distubances are what gets me.

Today my vision seems improved. It seems less snowy and it is the first time I could imagine myself reading on that eye only without getting disturbed by the glittering. There is stillt a difference obviously. I hope it is not only based on imagination.But yeah my phosphenes are gone too - I can only see them on the rarest ocasions. Also it seems like the brightness oversensitivity went down.