Eye See

Every morning when I wake up, I’m temporarily half-blind in one eye for around a minute until it clears. It’s not painful, just annoying and tricky when I’m already slightly unbalanced on my feet when I first get out of bed. This has been going on for a while now and I’m starting to get worried.

I’ve avoided asking for advice about this as I don’t think I want to know, if that makes sense. Is it another symptom of MS or something completely unrelated? Unlike a lot of people with MS, I have never had optic neuritis or other eye problems and have always prided myself on having near-perfect sight.

I also don’t want to look like a hypochondriac and unfortunately MS can make us feel that way. There are just so many endless symptoms and odd things that can happen. I don’t think I have ever analysed my health in quite so much detail before. I bore my friends and I bore myself and it makes me feel old before my time.

To be honest, since the Alemtuzumab treatment, I have been lucky not to have had another relapse, so all the health problems I have at the moment are minor. The big problem happens when I have several of them on one day. Unsteady balance is fine on its own, but throw in fatigue, twitching and a numb arm and it can be pretty grim.

Anyway, enough of the boring stuff. I am off on a work field-trip tomorrow,so a nice easy day for me. We’re driving 40 miles out to a site where the boss might be contracted to do a lot of the building work with a team of labourers. Obviously if he gets the job, I won’t be commuting there every day, so I will be nice and warm at home, sourcing materials online and perhaps popping down once a week to check everything is running to schedule.

I’ve also got my monthly Alemtuzumab blood test this week, so maybe I will bring up my wonky eye. And pray they don’t think I’m just another hypochondriac….

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20 thoughts on “Eye See

  1. Tony Cardis says:

    So true how we put everything in our life down to MS, I don’t want to but you always end up with the what if question
    I’ve just had a rough week which prior to MS would have been man flu, stop feeling sorry for yourself and old age.
    I’ve sat and discussed this with my Basset Hound Bert and we have come to the conclusion that MS don’t help but we have to get on with our life, I accept things will get harder to cope with but I will adapt and will carry on just at a slightly slower pace
    P.S. Bert doesn’t contribute much to the conversation but nods in all the right places 🙂

    • stumbling in flats says:

      Hi Tony!
      Great to hear from you again. Thank you for your comment – am still worrying myself silly – waiting to hear back from MS nurse. Have a stonking headache too, but that probably is hypochondria, lol.
      Sorry to hear you’ve had a rough week. Man flu is terrible! Glad you’ve been able to discuss with Bert. I talk to my cat and still laugh when she falls off the window sill. Twice today so far. Simple things, eh?
      X

  2. Scot says:

    Hi, I just wanted to say , GET IT CHECKED !!!! I didn’t have any eye issue’s for the first 14yrs of MS but about 6mo ago I started having that same issue & it reacently became optic nuero ,& I am almoat totally blind now in 1 eye , Dr said I should have told her as soon as it started , I waited too long , but anyways as always I love ur blog & good luck w/ the , I hope it’s nothing – or maybe just old age !!! Lol !!! 🙂 Scot

    • stumbling in flats says:

      Hi Scot!
      Blimey, pretty scary? Am working myself up into a nice state of fear right now. Never, ever had issues with my eyes before, so it’s a new one on me. Does this mean it’s a relapse as it’s a new symptom or is it completely unrelated?! Trying to get it seen to, just waiting to hear.
      Thank you so much for your kind comment about my blog. Definitely good discipline to write every day to get all the nonsense out my head!
      X
      p.s. probably got a LOT to do with my age. Am finding myself squinting at the shampoo bottle in the shower to check it’s not conditioner. Help.

  3. Tony Cardis says:

    Reading what Scot said was a wake up call for me as well, makes sense go get it checked and get peace of mind
    Bert agrees 🙂

    • stumbling in flats says:

      Yup, am getting a wee bit worried, lol. Plus the headaches are doing me no favours, I’m like a bear with a, um, sore head.
      Glad Bert agrees! You’re sooo lucky having a dog. My cat is pretty useless much of the time, but don’t tell her I told you that, she’s quite sensitive, bless her.
      x

  4. Scot says:

    Hi again , hey I just wanted to say im sorry if I made the eye thing sound scary … Coz god knows , it could be 1 of a whole lot of diff things , but I know that feeling of ” I hate feelin like a whinner or wimp or …. ” but I have come to realize that i’ve become really good at talking myself into being to complaciant about not paying attention to all those wierd little things that tend to pop up on all of us MS’ers , I have to rell myself to remember that I have MS , & it comes w/ all of these little/big symptoms that though not always but more often then not r realated to my MS !!! So anytime ur in doubt tell someone , if not a Dr. then a friend who will tellu to call ur Dr. !!! So like I said im sure it’s nothing to worry to much about , & if it is MS there r some good treatments for optic neuropathy … Hang in there & let us know how it turns out !!! X 🙂

    • stumbling in flats says:

      Hey Scot,
      Don’t apologise!!! Always good to hear other people’s experiences, especially with MS when it’s so weird and wacky at times. Luckily enough, my MS nurse called an hour or so ago. She doesn’t think it’s directly related to MS, but I need to go to optician tomorrow to get it checked out. If he thinks it’s neurological then I have to be booked into the MS clinic. Fingers crossed it’s just age,stress, etc!
      Am feeling calmer now so am going to reward myself with some chocolate peanuts, lol.
      X

  5. Scot says:

    Hello again , I wanted to just say thanks to tony it’s great to hear that i’m not the only 1 in the world who has talks w/ his or her pet i’m always asking or telling Samsone (my cat , & good friend) something about a verity of things (LOL) !!! thank god for our animals , our pets , our good friends … Thanks , Scot 🙂

    • stumbling in flats says:

      I reckon Tony should get his Bert a Twitter account, bet he’d get loads of followers. You’re not alone in talking to your cat, don’t worry! x

  6. Tony Cardis says:

    Not a bad idea 🙂

  7. Tony Cardis says:

    Add Bert to 33 years in the prison service I may well be able to come up with some humorous anecdotes , will give it some serious thought

  8. Scot says:

    Hey Bert sounds like a great idea to me go for it start a Twitter account I know I will follow !!! X 🙂

    • stumbling in flats says:

      Hi Scot!
      That makes two of us, lol. No point doing one for my cat, it would read something like: Fell off windowsill. Slept. Yawn. Ate too much. Fell off windowsill – and repeat.
      X

  9. Scot says:

    LMAO !!! 😀 I luv it , & I can see it happening , my last cat ( Simon ) was alot like that too . Samsone though is totally opposite he truly is more dog like than cat , I walk him on a leash , he loves to play fetch , give kisses if you ask him for 1, he even sits, lays down & rolls over when I tell him to, and when I’m sick he becomes very protective of me . he’s definitely 1 of a kind as far as cats go !!!
    and let me say again how much I enjoy this blog it always leaves me feeling good and put a smile on my face when I get done reading it , and that’s really great things especially for someone like myself who ends up being stuck indoors so much. X X :-).

    • stumbling in flats says:

      Do you know what,that is SUCH a lovely comment about my blog – you should see the size of my head now!!
      x
      p.s can we swap cats? Mine is currently lying across the bottom stair, ready to put a paw out and trip me up.

  10. I hope I can spare you a massive freak out by sharing this: if one pupil ever is bigger than another, it’s very likely MS. I had that symptom and was avoiding asking anyone, so your comment above made perfect sense to me (as if *that’s* any consolation). A blogger w/ MS who is also a doctor (http://ms.about.com/b/) once wrote a post about unusual MS symptoms and said the pupil business was one of them. I literally wept (discreetly and tastefully) with relief in my office at work.

    • stumbling in flats says:

      Hi!
      They’re still not keen to link my eye symptoms to my MS.I’m not too unhappy about that,it just means I’m like a broken Mr Potato Head, with bits falling off, lol!
      Personally, i think it’s got everything to do with MS as have had absolutely no problems pre-MS,meh.
      X

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