# Flu and Optic Nuritus

Category: Health and Wellness

## Post 1 by Smiling Sunshine (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Wednesday, 23-Mar-2011 20:59:12

Ok, so first of all, I'm sure I'm spelling Nuritis wrong but such is life.
Has anyone ever experienced Optic Nuritus after having the flu.
I did 11 years ago after having a horrid case of influensa with a fever of 103.7 at one point during the illness. I took Tamiflu that time and it worked well. About a week later, I started getting a hellatious head ache that nothing would touch. Then I started noticing changes in my vision and was totally blind in about 4 days. Thank God I was already legally blind so had good braille, cane, adaptive tech, and other skills so I was able to continue working etc. After visiting several doctors, they finally figured out what was wrong. Apparently something in the flu virus caused my body to begin attacking itself in the form of Optic Nuritis. They treated that with IV steroids which left cataracts on my eyes. My vision went from an uncorrected 20/1400 with 3 degree visual field to total blindness in about 5 days. After 6 weeks of total blindness, my vision started to come back with the reduction of swelling of the optic nerves. The cataracts kept my vision at hand motion only. I finally had those removed about 3 and a half years ago and lense implans put in which has given me 20/400 and a 1 degree field.
As far as the flu, I was told by my doctors not to take flu shots and to do everything possible to avoid getting the flu again simply because there was no explanation they could find as to why the flu causes O.N. in people sometimes.
Well, that all worked out great for the past 11 years until this past week. I got the flu although it wasn't nearly as bad as it was the last time. I had 5 straight days of fever but not as high as the last time. I went to the urgent care center because I was traveling and couldn't get to my regular doc. The doc I saw didn't recomend Tamiflu because he said the risk of it having been what caused the o.n. wasn't worth the possible benefits of the drug. So now that I'm about 80 percent back to normal, I'm just wondering if I'll experience the Optic Nuritis again. At least if I do, I'll recognise the symptoms right away and can get it treated within hours rather than having to wait days while they figure out what's going on like last time.
Has anyone else on here ever had this sort of complication from the flu?

## Post 2 by Eleni21 (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 23-Mar-2011 21:17:19

I've been totally blind since I was two-months-old so can't imagine having any kind of vision. Still, that sounds incredibly scary! I never heard of such a thing happening in modern times. I really hope that it doesn't occur again and that, eventually, they can do more to correct your vision. It seems like you had somepermenant loss fromit, even after having the cataracts removed.

## Post 3 by Smiling Sunshine (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Wednesday, 23-Mar-2011 22:08:10

It was scary but I really learned allot. I was a rehab teacher at the time and really struggled to understand the fear my clients were feeling as they lost their vision. Because I had always had some sort of visual impairment, I just couldn't truly understand what it was like to lose it. The things that freaked me out were not being able to just look outside to see if it was cloudy or sunny, or waking up in the middle of the night and not opening my eyes and seeing the glow from my stereo or clock. Also, I sort of felt like there was a wall between myself and others. I felt sort of physically disconnected. I felt like I was either yelling or speaking too softly. O&M was really different. I could certainly funtion although it was much more challenging.
I did make the decision to get a guide dog while having this experience because they weren't sure if my vision would return. I had a perfect experience with my first guide dog so it was worth it.
I know for a fact I developed a whole new level of empathy with my clients too.
Now it would just be annoying because of the expense of the test and treatments but it won't be nearly as tramatic as before.

## Post 4 by squidwardqtentacles (I just keep on posting!) on Thursday, 24-Mar-2011 16:52:03

DG may I ask why your doctor said not to get flu shots? If he or she says not to then don't but optic neuritis sounds painful the way you describe it. I was scared of flu shots as I knew my dad experienced respiratory trouble with 'em, but I got stuck with pneumonia last year, and folks with asthma really aren't supposed to go without these vaccines. Even the elderly father reconsidered his abstaining from the shots & got one following a heart attack, with no complications from the shot, but like I said if your DO or MD says no, then no. Tamiflu didn't work for me so it sounds like you have to make other efforts to avoid the flu, as this virus seem to set off other worse complications.

## Post 5 by Smiling Sunshine (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Saturday, 26-Mar-2011 20:02:50

I think the reason they didn't want me getting the flu shot is because there was just so little known about why I had this reaction and if introducing any sort of flu, fake or not, would cause the same reaction.