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How common is it for optic neuritis to come back or turn into MS?

I recently had optic neuritis. My MRI was clean, but my eye doctor seemed concerned. How common is it for this to come back or turn into MS?

I am a white female in my late 20s. I went to the eye doctor with vision loss and pain in my right eye. She could not see any inflammation but to be safe she sent me to get an MRI. No lesions or signs of inflammation were found. I've had chronic pain for a long time, pins and needles, numbness, and fatigue. I haven't been sick or had any infections. My vision was back to normal a couple weeks after my MRI. My eye doctor said there was a chance the ON could reoccur and we need to keep MS in mind but for now I just have to go about my life as normal.

Does this seem like an isolated case or should I be worried this will come back worse? What is your experience with optic neuritis?

  1. Hi , while you're waiting for feedback from the community I thought you might like to browe the articles on the site relating to optic neuritis. I hope you find answers to some of your questions. Thanks for being here. -Warmly, Donna (MultipleSclerosis.net team)

    1. Hi ,

      This sounds very similar to my situation before I was diagnosed. I had pain and vision loss in my right eye for a month. I also had numbness, tingling and fatigue. I saw one neurologist who said it was nothing. Come to find out, it was MS. I went to several other doctors (eye drs., rheumatologists, neurologists) and was finally diagnosed by an MS specialist.
      I would advise to seek a 2nd opinion. You know if something doesn’t feel right in your body, so get the answers you need. I was given so many wrong answers before I got diagnosed and am lucky to have found a good dr. who put me on a treatment right away. Good luck and hope you are doing better.

      1. Thank you for your input it really helps. Can I ask how you were diagnosed? Did you push for more imaging and found lesions or did they diagnose you with symptoms alone? Like I said I had one brain MRI in January but I wonder if its worth requesting another of the spine? My doctor so far has been understanding and orders basically whatever tests I feel I need but sometimes I wonder if he's starting to think I'm a hypochondriac because the tests never tell me anything.

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