anyone had a swollen optical nerve?
could just be diabetes, could be a brain problem. mri tomorrrow to diagnose.
Yes. They need to check out the swollen optic nerve because that nerve is technically part of the brain and a tumor COULD BE pressing on part of your brain. If that scan comes back clean, then they might want to do a spinal tap to check your brain pressure (spinal fluid pressure is same as brain pressure). Mine was high, even though my blood pressure runs too low.
Before they could get me in for the MRI, I lost the vision in my right eye. I had Non-arteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy (NAION). They say maybe because my optic nerve narrows at one end. It is a stroke in the optic nerve, and since there is no periferal blood supply to the optic nerve, if it is deprived of oxygen, it is dead. Most of my vision returned, so I am lucky. I believe what happened to me is uncommon. If you have questions about that, let me know. I don’t know much about anything else. = ) If you start to lose your vision, though, call your opthamologist immediately. Not sure they can do anything to reduce damage, but perhaps. I’d probably take an aspirin.
The best things to help with recovery if you get this (a stroke) is to keep physically active and eat fiber (oh yeah, and prayer). The doctors say to take aspirin and fish oil, but the studies I kept finding say activity and fiber (25 - 30 g/day) are the only things that help.
Well, I have what’s called optic nerve drusen in one eye. It’s an elevation of the optic nerve disc so it would appear swollen during a regular diabetic eye exam and I had some eye tests done to diagnose it. (no mri…just detailed pictures with iv dye) What I have is completely unrelated to diabetes. It’s just something that some people are born with. It seems it can be progressive and typically results in blind spots eventually, though mine hasn’t had any effect on my vision so far. (Hoping it stays that way…)
Please keep us updated and I hope it’s nothing serious.