Recently I have been experiencing strange sudden vision loss that will last for up to 40 minutes at a time. Pretty friggin scary, just saying! It starts out as a tiny spot of vision that I can't see out of, sort of like if you looked at a bright light too long and you see a spot afterwards. Then it starts to spread and I lose all of my peripheral vision. This has happened 3 times and was followed by a headache. This past time that it happened I also had double vision. If I looked at my face in the mirror I couldn't focus on it at all. So scary!!
So, I did what any normal person would do (once their vision decided to come back) and google search what the possible reason could be....yeah, that's normal, right? Google had it narrowed down to two possibilities: glaucoma or a brain tumor. This is the part where I started crying and freaking out.
When it happened last week for the third time, my husband forced me to go to the hospital. They dilated my eyes and after 5 hours of people shining light in my eyes and shrugging (and one doctor rolling his eyes at me) they decided that it must just be an early onset symptom of an upcoming migraine... really?? So, I freaked out and imaged my "new life" as a blind person, never being able to see my daughter's face again or never being able to create my art ever again for no reason at all?! I'm not saying that I'm not THRILLED that it may be just a stupid migraine, but come on Google! Way to give a girl a heart attack!
(this is my dilated pupil grumpy face)
I still have to follow up with a Retina Specialist and a Neurologist/Headache Specialist, and get a possible scan so I guess I'm not completely out of the woods yet, but the ophthalmologist confirmed that I definitely don't have glaucoma, so that's a definite plus! Keep your fingers crossed for me anyway though, please! I'm a big sissy when it comes to going to the doctors.
Am I the only one that does this? Have you ever Google searched a medical issue, and had a mini freakout?
I was trying to explain my tumor in my wrist in a blog post/layout I did once ...so I Googled it to make sure I got all the spellings right ... BIG MISTAKE ... my tumor (which btw, I have had now for ALMOST 43 years since i was born with it) ...is NOT malignant .. but according to EVERYTHING in Google about my tumor, it IS MALIGNANT and I will die anytime now from it .... *wink* :)
ReplyDeleteLOL, See so you know what I mean then. I should seriously just learn to curb my curiosity until I see a real doctor, but I can't help it. Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment?? lol
DeleteI've probably googled once or twice and it scared the sh*t out of me. When I had a lump on my eye, I thought they had to some big surgery to remove it. Turns out, it just needed some hot compress. Major fail. lol but sometimes you can't help it. haha, you'll want to know the possibilities. I think I've experienced that but when I was probably in my teens. I still had no idea what it was but it was scary, having your vision blur. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine :)
ReplyDeleteIt's horrible, isn't it?? It makes you think the absolute worst case scenario, meanwhile it's just something silly. I'm seeing a retina specialist today so I guess we will see whats going on...
DeleteThat sounds frightening!! I too use Google to self-diagnose, my boyfriend is actually very good at it and has been right every time he looks up strange symptoms! I'm glad to hear that you won't be losing your vision!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it definitely scared me when it happened. I just saw the retina specialist and she confirmed that there is nothing wrong with my eyes so that's good
DeleteOh no that sounds awful, but yeah, the first thing I thought of when you said your symptoms was a migraine! I had a friend who had the same symptom in elementary school and they thought she had some awful thing too and rushed her to the hospital... nope, just a migraine!
ReplyDeleteThat's horrible!! And it is really scary when it happens because I can't see anything at all. I am seeing a neurologist/headache specialist next week so hopefully we can get it all figured out.
DeleteOh my gosh--dealing with lots of health issues myself, I know the above feelings all too well. I'm so sorry you're dealing with this! That does sound like the onset of a severe migraine. I hope you get some answers, honey!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!! And I really hope all your health problems get resolved soon. Hopefully I will be getting some definite answers really soon
DeleteThat's just terrifying! But as I was reading through it, I was like she must be getting migraines-my mom has the same reaction.
ReplyDeleteReally?! That's reassuring that so many people have heard of this happening. Geez, I thought something was seriously wrong with me. It really sucks, but I'm glad it's just migraine symptoms.
Delete