Right eye pain and worsening problems

[diemyn]

I haven't been diagnosed with MS, but I have a lot of symptoms that make me think it's what I'm dealing with. Can you tell me if any of you, as diagnosed MS patients, experience anything similar?

I get pain on the right side of my face that is most intense in my right eye, but it's also in the bones of my cheek and my ear and head and neck. Sometimes wearing my glasses will bring on this eye pain, but not always. It hurts to move my eye ball and to focus my eyes on anything when this pain is present and I've taken to wearing an eyepatch beneath my glasses on the right side with tissues packed tightly against my closed eye. Putting pressure on my eye helps the pain and if I don't cover it I'll be digging the heel of my hand into my eye hard enough to bruise it without even realizing it. So, yesterday wasn't much different but for one thing; while I was wearing the patch my eye felt as if it was spasming in a hard wink. This was accompanied by the feeling that my eye was being electrocuted.  When I noticed it I couldn't stop it from doing that at first, but I managed to pull out of it and didn't think much of the experience until later. When I removed my eye patch I couldn't open my eye at all and I'd decided to take that off because it'd stopped hurting me, but now I had no feeling there at all. I tried to open both my eyes wide and after about 30 minutes I could see out of my right eye a little, but my vision got worse. I closed my left eye and found that my sight in my right eye had diminshed to the point I couldn't see my own hands clearly. I began trying to pry my eyelid up more so I could determine if the blurryness was from it being mostly shut or not. After I held it open with my fingers for a few minutes it stayed open all the way on it's own but my sight had improved just a tiny; I was still nearly blind. So I just kept pouring holistic eye drops in it til my sight came back.

I've been wearing this eyeptch in this fashion for two years now and have never had even reduced vision when taking it off after as much as 6 hours and I'd been wearing it for about 3 yesterday. Today my right eye feels like it's drooping or not open and my sight is worse than normal, but not as bad as last night. I've got tight pain in my shoulder and neck, but no eye pain today; not yet anyway. Is this a normal or somewhat normal aspect of MS. The symptoms I experience which relate to MS are the rarer ones according to research I've done, so I thought maybe one of you might have had this particular vision issue as well.

Thank you for any input

[diemyn]

Hello.
I am diagnosed with endometriosis as the reason for my crippling abdominal pain. I have not seen an ophthalmologist for eye pain. It was 2 years ago I saw an optometrist and got a new prescription for glasses. I asked her if she knew of any eye diseases that would cause it since eye disease runs in my family(cataract, glaucoma, MD) and whether I should go see an opthemologist or a neurologist as our funds at the time were limited. She said def see a neurologist. So I did and 5 dif doctors came in to do various tests(but I was having a particularly good day-go fig) and none of them could locate something in my right eye, but were rather dismissive about it after. I told the doc who said he would be my neurologist about some of my symptoms(at the time I'd been warned not to disclose all problems upon first meeting and this after being dismissed by doctor after doctor after doctor). Abdominal,lower back, and face and eye pain, and terrible headaches and dizziness without headache were what I mentioned. He wanted me to go immediately to get a cat scan, but the examination had lasted 5 hours and there was no time(I guess his shift was just up) so I went the very next day. That cat scan came back fine and the next appoitment I scheduled was 6 or 8(the other appt was for a urologist) months away. There was nothing sooner. By the time the appt came around my boyfriend had lost the job which had covered me on the insurance(as domestic partners-Whole Foods) and we were broke. That was the last doctor I saw.
I was treated very poorly and it was actually nightmarishly surreal how cold and uncaring doctors were to me,even ER docs. We can barely make ends meet and can't afford to see anyone. I went to a free clinic when I had pneumonia last October, but I was told they couldn't give me regular care. I was put on steroids for the pneumonia and while I was taking them I never felt better since this whole thing began. I was so turned off by the medical community after all my ordeals with them that I turned to natural and homeopathic treatments for all my medical concerns and began researching symptoms on the web. I stopped eating junk foods and HFCS, MSG, non-organic produce, dairy, gluten, red meat. I've got an arsenal of all the things I use and take, so let me know if you want a list of them.

The pain in my right neck and shoulder is not new at all; two years off and on, but the off is maybe 3 days a month. Some days I will wake up it's so bad and not be able to move my head or right arm as doing so caused such terrible shooting pains. The was I describe the pains in my body; as if my muscles were contracting so hard they were tearing off my body. The leg pains I experience make me want to tear off my own legs and it's a battle to keep them still and straight, but I have to stay still or it just hurts worse. If I over exert myself or try to push through the pain I have what feel like conscious seizures. I can't speak, but I can see, my toes and fingers on the right contort and my mouth twists grotesquely (I'm told) and I just alternate from a tight fetal position to involuntary arching of my back for the duration of the "experience."

In reading about ON that was what stood out to me as well; pressure relieving the pain rather than exacerbating it. MS just makes so much sense with all I'm going through I don't think I even need to see a doctor to be certain I have it. If it's not then I just have so many diagnoses to collect I'll never get anywhere anyway. I do so wish I could see an eye doctor and pain specialist. At that free clinic a doc told me that they make a medicine you take before pain relievers so that your stomach won't bleed. Three years ago when I was still working I took so much advil, tylenol, naproxen, midol, pamprim, alleive, that I was passing massive amounts of blood and now I can't handle anything.
I realize that it sounds crazy to not be seeing doctors with all I'm going through, but my condition has really improved since changing my eating habits. To everyone I know it seems like my life is miserable(and it is) but it's so much better than it used to be that I just appreciate everything. I am incredibly blessed to have my boyfriend; he's my caretaker and my best friend. Without him I'd be screwed, cuz my mother is convinced I'm just a hypochondriac, since I have relapses and remissions. Thank you guys, for replying. Much love to you <3 =]

Diemyn

[essdipity]

Have you been doing this for 2 years without getting an evaluation by an ophthalmologist? Please say that's not true. It's impossible for anyone here to know what's happening with you, but regardless of the cause, you need medical intervention. You don't want to mess with your vision, ever.

ess

[doublevision1]

What you are describing sounds like it might be trigeminal neuralgia and optic neuritis, which are both commonly seen in MS.  However I'm not sure if your symptoms fit with the typical presentation of these particular conditions.

You don't mention anything about what medical treatment you may have sought.  Your vision issues have been going on for a while.  Have you undergone any diagnostic testing?  Have you seen an ophthalmogist for the eye problem, ever had your optic nerves looked at?  Ever seen a neurologist?  What medical opinion have you been given thus far?  What do they think about regularly patching the affected eye?

I am dx'ed with MS and have not had any facial pain, but recently had a bout of optic neuritis - or at least, what they are pretty sure was ON.  However mine came and went very quickly:  one day I noticed my vision was cloudy in my left eye, and by the middle of the night I was in excruciating pain, esp when looking at light or with any slight movement of my eyeball.  I started treatment on IV steroids within about 18 hours of onset; 12 hours later the pain was gone, and within a couple days the blurriness/ cloudiness was gone.  

You mentioned that putting pressure on your eye gives you some relief.  When I tried doing this during my episode, it was like sending a knife blade right through my eye, due to the swelling of the optic nerve.  The fact that applying pressure gives you relief makes me think it's not ON, but I really don't know, everyone's experience can be so different with these kinds of symptoms.

You also mention tight pain in your shoulder and neck, is this new or has it been going on for a while as well?  This could be due to so many different things.  I did experience severe tightness around my neck and ribcage last year, which were among the symptoms that led to more testing which ultimately confirmed my MS dx.  In MS this is neurological pain, as opposed to muscular pain due to strains and sprains.  For this particular symptom I responded fairly quickly to IV steroids.

It sounds to me like you really ought to seek a medical opinion promptly; you have a number of things going on which may turn out to be isolated and not serious, on the other hand, they made be indicative of something more serious and possibly be resulting from the same underlying cause.  Also, you may benefit from some symptomatic treatment which in the meantime could at least provide you some relief.

Let us know how you make out with all of this.