I believe that my brain has been helping me cope with a vision issue , caused by MS, for some time now. For years now, I have felt like I am not seeing things as clearly as I once did. It’s been a while since my last eye exam but this seems to be less of a focus thing and more double vision. But it’s not so “double” that I can’t function. That’s where my brain seems to be doing its job. Until, that is, Thursday early in the morning when I got up to let the dog out for a pee. It was about an hour after the brilliant quarter moon had risen and was just above the trees of our back garden on the clear slate of morning sky. The plush, velvet black of deep night was giving way to a more one-dimensional Stygian hue but the moon hung; a pearl among a web of stars. As Sadie sniffed at whatever pee mail had been left by local cats, foxes and other creatures of the night, I tried to focus on the beautiful moon in the cold morning. I just couldn’t get it to be one moon. I often look at a straight line and know that I’m seeing more than on line, but I’ve learned to look “past” that. Stars in a dark night sky are not pinpoints of twinkling light, but rather areas of multiple dots of light that I have come to know as singular. A tree, or post or just about any single object looks more like a stereoscope slightly askew to me these days… but I think it’s been that way for a while. There are many types of eye disorders with MS. I didn’t realize until I began researching them a little bit more to answer my own questions (and write this blog) that I came to understand that Diplopia (double vision), is a condition of the muscles and not of the optic nerve. I guess that would explain why my MS docs never see any damage to my optic nerve in examination or on MRI scans. It seems the likely culprit of my double vision is a lesion sustained in an attack early in my MS diagnosis. I haven’t had any “active” lesions in a while - as my prognosis has changed to a secondary progressive course – but I feel like this has been a problem for a number of years. Double vision usually goes away or can be helped with a course of corticosteroids, if caught during the inflammatory stage of an exacerbation. Being as I’m no longer “inflammatory”, I think I’m beyond the time that this treatment would likely help. It’s not bad enough for me to consider prism glasses - the likes that got former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton a lot of attention in recent months. I guess I’ll have to schedule an appointment at my local eye doctor and see what can be done. It was time for new glasses anyway, but the underlying cause of my seeing double isn’t an “eye” issue, it’s an MS issue… but my brain has been trying to help. Have you ever experienced double-vision? Did it go away (with our without steroids)? Have you had to resort to any other corrective measures? Wishing you and your family the best of health. Cheers Trevis You can also follow me via our Life With MS Facebook page, on Twitter, and in our group on MS Connection.org. Also, check out our bi-monthly MS blog for the United Kingdom, look for our very special new monthly blog for the National MS Society, and don’t forget to check out TrevisLGleason.com.
