Swollen Optic Nerves in Friend Son's Eyes

Hi P.,

There are so many things that could be wrong. The one thing I will suggest is to take a holistic approach. It could be anything from a bacterial infection, to something genetic, to Vitamin B deficiency. One of the biggest problems in our country today is that our doctors don't take the time to truly investigate all the options. The steriods may be helping him now but it's just a bandaid to the problem. (Bandaids have their place, but they are not meant to be long-term.)Make sure your friend forces the hand of the doctor to look at all options.

I'll be praying!

M.

I'm not a doctor so I don't know all the technical terms but I have personal experience. When I was 13 I woke up with blurry vision in one eye and as the day went on could see nothing but black. I had gone blind in one day. My parents took me to the doctor and he also treated me with steroids for the swelling. No cause was ever found but many tests were done to rule out many things I am glad it was not. However, a month or so went by and finally the drugs worked and I regained my sight. No cause, no repeats, just miraculous healing. Strange but true. Sometimes, things just happen in your body but trust me, the parents are way more freaked by this than the little boy is. I wasn't so much concerned as I was annoyed and I hated going to the doctor. My parents had a hard time with it though.
Anyway, encourage your friend to seek medical help but to just relax about it. It's probably nothing but if it is something the doctors will find it in short time and he'll be back to normal. Good luck!

M.

I have Intracranial Hypertension also known as PTC (Psuedotumor Cerebri). Here is a website with more info: http://www.ihrfoundation.org/.

To be diagnosed, a doctor does a lumbar puncture and MRI typically. Then courses of treatment vary from there. I belong to a support group online that has more info, too (groups.msn.com/pseudotumorcerebri). Some doctors think it is only a problem for overweight women in child bearing years, but it's not. I'm not saying this is what the little boy has but I've been through the vision loss and optic nerve swelling thing. I interviewed a pediatrician last year who has a few PTC patients.

Dr. Amador at Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine www.pampapediatrics.com
2155 Post Oak Tritt Rd # 100, Marietta - ###-###-####

I hope this helps and they find out what's wrong with him soon.