A woman came up and sat beside me in the hallway. Making small talk she asked "Do you have Optic Neuritis?" I replied "No, Multiple Sclerosis." Well, she began to laugh and couldn't stop. I had no idea what was so funny and thought briefly, maybe M.S. makes you crazy too. Great.
It turns out that Optic Neuritis is a symptom of M.S. that affects approximately 30-40% of patients. I had been showing signs of it for about 3 years before I was actually diagnosed and thought it was the old 'aging process' explanation again. I was experiencing blurry vision that would clear on its own, flashes and spots and one day, I lost the bottom half of my vision in one eye. It eventually came back right before I went to see an opthamologist on my own and I didn't think of it again until the whole M.S. thing.
During this time, I also noticed that my normally blue eyes were turning grey and kind of a steely colour. I brought this 'phenomenon' up with my doctor very recently and now it was my turn for someone to look at me like I was crazy. He chuckled and said "you've been diagnosed with Optic Neuritis right?" I replied that I had indeed and then....duh, light bulb moment. A symptom is loss of colour vision. Textbook. Ughh. My eyes weren't turning colour - I just couldn't see what colour they were any more.
I'll bet that a ton of you out there had no idea that this was a symptom of M.S. I sure didn't. I'm happy to report that I have almost all of my normal vision back and my eyes are blue again - well, at least to me.
So, now you know. If you see an M.S.er out there with horribly mismatched clothes or perhaps studying paint swatches or eye shadows with an utterly lost look on their face; have pity. We probably won't be out of style for too much longer... :)
3 comments:
One of the best Al, even though I knew the story, I still laughed out loud. Mom
I was actually the other way around. Had sudden vision loss in my right eye and went to the ophtalmologist and they told me it was optic neuritis. Luckily for me though, I had the MRI and they cleared me for MS. Let me tell you, those 3 weeks before I got the tests/waiting for results were the longest weeks ever! Although we now know its not MS that caused my optic neuritis, doctors are at a loss. It's been 5 months and my vision still hasen't completely come back.
Hi Anon, I'm sorry to hear that you're having vision problems. It's so scary right?! I hope that your vision comes back lickety-split and that you're showing M.S.-free forever! Ali.
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