Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system).
In MS, the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between your brain and the rest of your body. Eventually, the disease can cause permanent damage or deterioration of the nerves.
Optic Neuritis
Optic neuritis occurs when swelling (inflammation) damages the optic nerve — a bundle of nerve fibers that transmits visual information from your eye to your brain. Common symptoms of optic neuritis include pain with eye movement and temporary vision loss in one eye.
IV Steroids
If your multiple sclerosis flares up, steroids can treat your symptoms quickly. An MS flare is caused by inflammation in your nerves and myelin, the sheath of tissue around your nerves. Steroids help relieve your MS flare because they reduce the nerve inflammation.
Steroids can shorten your MS flare. They ease your symptoms more quickly than if you just did nothing. But these medications don’t affect the long-term course of your MS.
Even if you take steroids, you’ll recover from your flare gradually. It may take up to 6 months to get back to how you normally feel.
Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis signs and symptoms may differ greatly from person to person and over the course of the disease depending on the location of affected nerve fibers.
Symptoms often affect movement, such as: Numbness or weakness in one or more limbs that typically occurs on one side of your body at a time, or your legs and trunk, Electric-shock sensations that occur with certain neck movements, especially bending the neck forward (Lhermitte sign), Tremor, lack of coordination or unsteady gait.
Vision problems are also common, including: Partial or complete loss of vision, usually in one eye at a time, often with pain during eye movement, Prolonged double vision, Blurry vision
Multiple sclerosis symptoms may also include: Slurred speech, Fatigue, Dizziness, Tingling or pain in parts of your body, Problems with sexual, bowel and bladder function