Arrive on optic nerve swelling in 7 year old.

[initfortheginwin]

I went to Specsavers last week and my daughter has swelling in her optic nerve. I was told if she has any headaches, sickness or vision problems to take her to a&e straight away. She seems fine in herself besides a bad headache the week before going to Specsavers and has an urgent appointment to the eye hospital this week. Has anyone been through anything similar? She also have a problem with a valve in her heart so we've done a fair amount of hospital trips in the past. Thank you

The heading was suppose to say advice sorry

Hello

My daughter had the same, she had also been suffering with regular migraines too.
Our optician was brilliant, he sent us straight to the children’s assessment ward for an mri.
She was thoroughly checked and had a scan and everything was fine, we got the results the same day.
She has been closely monitored ever since, even though we were assured there is nothing to worry about.

Fingers crossed you have a similar outcome, if you need a chat please feel free to message me x

It may not be as bad as it sounds.
We went through this 2 years ago with our then 10 year old daughter. She asked to get her glasses checked as she had some blurred vision and whilst at the opticians he looked in the back of her eyes and said both her optic nerves were swollen and that she needed to be seen by a doctor straight away. Our GP referred her to eye dept where both a junior and an opthomology consultant looked and then said that this was not her eyes but could be due to swelling on her brain. She was otherwise well with no headaches .
We were then admitted to the children's ward where she had bloods, neuro exams , CT scans of her brain which were all normal so they then did a lumbar puncture ( where they put a needle into the spinal canal and measure the pressure in her brain/ spinal canal)- all normal.
Our hospital then sent us to a neurologist in the Evelina children's hospital in London who checked her and found nothing neuro wrong so they asked at Thomas's eye dept to look at her and they did an ultrasound of her eyes which showed up deep Dryden's ( little deposits that are buried deep in her optic nerve and push them forward making them look swollen when they aren't). They are harmless and even our neurologist said he had Dryden's as well and in adults they are less deep so show up easier when looking at the optic nerve.
End of story is that she got new glasses and all is well but we have to always let opticians/ doctors know each time incase they panic each time they look in her eyes.
Ask your at your eye appointment if your daughter has Dryden's as it could save a lot of frightening tests .
Good luck and let us know what happens.

Sorry was meant to say drusens in last paragraph not Dryden's

My daughters swollen optic nerve was picked up by optical. Cue immediate referral to the hospital and she's been diagnosed with optic nerve drusens. She's totally fine.

My dd also had Drusens after an urgent referral for an mri and the other billion tests. She's absolutely fine too. Optician picked it up on an eye test for severe migraines.

Thanks so much for all your replies. It's in her eye that turns in (it turned in over night at 6) so we've had a lot of appointments at eye hospital but this is totally new and after moving towns at the end of last year and having to go back to opticians for referral to hospital again where this was picked up. We were suppose to go to the opticians the week lockdown happened, so I'm hoping it's nothing serious.

If she still has swelling on the day should I expect to be in hospital for a few tests that day. Is it treated as an emergency?

Yes init we had a whole day at the hospital of tests. Lots of different scans and pictures of the eye done over several hours.

Thank you so much

@Foxysnumberonefan

It may not be as bad as it sounds. We went through this 2 years ago with our then 10 year old daughter. She asked to get her glasses checked as she had some blurred vision and whilst at the opticians he looked in the back of her eyes and said both her optic nerves were swollen and that she needed to be seen by a doctor straight away. Our GP referred her to eye dept where both a junior and an opthomology consultant looked and then said that this was not her eyes but could be due to swelling on her brain. She was otherwise well with no headaches . We were then admitted to the children's ward where she had bloods, neuro exams , CT scans of her brain which were all normal so they then did a lumbar puncture ( where they put a needle into the spinal canal and measure the pressure in her brain/ spinal canal)- all normal. Our hospital then sent us to a neurologist in the Evelina children's hospital in London who checked her and found nothing neuro wrong so they asked at Thomas's eye dept to look at her and they did an ultrasound of her eyes which showed up deep Dryden's ( little deposits that are buried deep in her optic nerve and push them forward making them look swollen when they aren't). They are harmless and even our neurologist said he had Dryden's as well and in adults they are less deep so show up easier when looking at the optic nerve. End of story is that she got new glasses and all is well but we have to always let opticians/ doctors know each time incase they panic each time they look in her eyes. Ask your at your eye appointment if your daughter has Dryden's as it could save a lot of frightening tests . Good luck and let us know what happens.

She's been diagnosed with Drusens and has another checkup in a month. They are still deciding if she needs an MRI. Will she require follow ups going forward with the Drusens?

@TheMumblesofMumbledom

My dd also had Drusens after an urgent referral for an mri and the other billion tests. She's absolutely fine too. Optician picked it up on an eye test for severe migraines.

We are still waiting to see if she needs an MRI. She does have Drusens.

My daughter has had a few follow up apptointments but nothing in the last year as she has had no problems. She now just has routine optician follow up for her glasses.
We were lucky as she had her brain scan in the couple of days after the initial problem was identified. It must be awful for you waiting? Fingers crossed they will do her MRI and it will be normal so you can relax a bit.
I must admit the first couple of days of tests etc I turned to Google and frightened myself silly. I convinced myself she had a brain tumor so the final diagnosis of drusens was a relief.
I just hope in one way they do decide to do an MRI scan on your daughter as that is the only way that you will be completely reassured that they aren't missing anything. Was the drusens just diagnosed today?

Hi, just wondering what happened with your daughter in the end? Did they do a scan or where they happy putting it down to drusens? Hope everything is ok.