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A few weeks ago I had transient vision loss in one eye, not blindness, just severe blurring. It happened spontaneously and gradually improved over 10 hours. When it happened I was concerned about possibly having a stroke or a pre-cursor to one and I went to the E.R. They checked me out and said it wasn't a stroke and referred me to an ophthalmologist. The earliest I could see him was 2 days later and my eye was seemingly completely back to normal by then and the doctor decided that by exclusion of anything obvious he was forced diagnose the event as an optical migraine. And he told me not to worry about it and that I may never have another one again. Everything I've read suggests however that my symptoms didn't actually match those of an optical migraine, which last an hour or less. My symptoms lasted many times that. Upon further reading I came across articles about optic neuritis as a somewhat common symptom of MS. Then the gears in my head started spinning since I realized my mom was diagnosed with MS nearly 20 years ago and I remember her having a similar thing happen. Her vision loss was complete blindness in one eye and lasted for several days before returning. I'm not certain if there is an inheritable component to MS, but its got me wondering. It also described how it can be triggered by getting too hot and that the vision usually improves as you cool down. When it happened I was in my very hot car, driving to work. Again, maybe just a coincidence. At this point I'm not certain what to do. Do I tell my family physician about it? I doubt there is anything he can do except maybe refer me to some specialist but what specialist should I see? And since I currently don't have any symptoms is there anything a specialist could do at this point? Should I just wait, and only proceed if some other symptom appears? I'm actually kind of reluctant to tell my physician about it as I don't want to appear as a malingerer since I've already been having him chase down other vague symptoms for the past month which seemed to be related to a sinus infection. I had been on several antibiotics and corticosteroids trying to clear that up, but had ended those a few days before my vision loss event. So in short, should I see my doctor about this? When and what questions should I ask?

I had optic neuritis when I was diagnosed with MS in 1999. The doctor looked into my eye and could see the inflamed retina which is an extension of the optic nerve. One would hope that the ophthalmologist you went to could also make that observation if you indeed had optic neuritis.

I'm not an expert but I have had optic neuritis before. Based on my experience with optic neuritis I don't think that's what you had. It seems like it would have lasted longer, when I had it the progression from clear vision to vision loss took many days, then the progression back to clear vision was several weeks. Not to say this is every case but yours seems very fast to have been a MS relapse of optic neuritis. Was there pain when you moved your eye? Typically optic neuritis will cause fairly severe pain when the eye is moved away from center.

It seems like if you are fighting a sinus infection it would be very possible this could create short term inflammation in optic nerve area to cause vision problems that would resolve once the pressure was relieved.

There are some real experts on here that will hopefully be along soon.

DSFrey wrote:
Everything I've read suggests however that my symptoms didn't actually match those of an optical migraine, which last an hour or less. My symptoms lasted many times that. Upon further reading I came across articles about optic neuritis as a somewhat common symptom of MS.

Then the gears in my head started spinning since I realized my mom was diagnosed with MS nearly 20 years ago and I remember her having a similar thing happen. Her vision loss was complete blindness in one eye and lasted for several days before returning. I'm not certain if there is an inheritable component to MS, but its got me wondering.

Do I tell my family physician about it? I doubt there is anything he can do except maybe refer me to some specialist but what specialist should I see? And since I currently don't have any symptoms is there anything a specialist could do at this point? Should I just wait, and only proceed if some other symptom appears?

So in short, should I see my doctor about this? When and what questions should I ask?

Hi DSFrey, welcome to TiMS. I'm sorry about your vision problem! To answer the main question of your thread title, without a single definitive test for MS, none of us can ever be 100% "certain" of our diagnosis (sorry ) and it often takes quite a while & lots of tests to figure it out.

Optic Neuritis is very often the initial symptom of MS (although I never had it), but I would think that the ophthalmologist should have been able to observe that. To answer some of your other questions, yes, tell your doctor about your vision even, but you've already seen that particular eye specialist.

You may just have to wait and see what pops up next, but make sure your family physician is aware of your family history of MS. Your mother's dx does raise the odds very slightly that you could someday get MS also. You would be wise to monitor your own health and keep notes of any weird incidents.

Personally, I got a surprise, almost instant diagnosis of MS when I was almost 53, but looking back on my lifetime of medical maladies & weirdnesses, it was obvious I had had MS for at least 30 years before that, possibly since childhood.

This is what the NMSS says about the genetic probabilities of getting MS:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS/Who-Gets-MS

Genetics

Genetic factors are thought to play a significant role in determining who develops MS.
The average person in the United States has about one in 750 (.1%) chance of developing MS.

For first-degree relatives of a person with MS, such as children, siblings or non-identical twins, the risk rises to approximately 2.5-5%— with the risk being potentially higher in families that have several family members with the disease.

The identical twin of someone with MS (who shares all the same genes) has a 25% chance of developing the disease. If genes were solely responsible for determining who gets MS, an identical twin of someone with MS would have a 100% chance of developing the disease; the fact that the risk is only one in four demonstrates that other factors, including geography, ethnicity and the elusive infectious trigger, are likely involved as well.

Research has demonstrated that MS occurs in most ethnic groups, including African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics/Latinos, but is most common amongst Caucasians. Susceptibility rates vary among these groups, with recent findings suggesting that African American women have a higher than previously reported risk of developing MS.

Good luck and keep us posted!