Me showing off my not glasses shaped face. The reason for the kooky angle is that I am taking the picture with my computer, and the screen makes a glare on my glasses. See, even typing that makes me feel like a geek...
So, many of you have wanted to know what's going on with my health lately, and I figure this is much better than individual emails, so here we go.
As you may or may not know, I have been having some eye trouble. About a year and a half ago I started noticing a dark spot in the line of vision on my right eye. At first it was just a little shadow and I only noticed it when I read and it would follow my eye across the page. I figured it was just eye strain. I was going through a fairly stressful time in my life, and I wasn't sleeping much. But it kept getting bigger and darker as time went by. Not enough to be a huge deal, it was just annoying. It was a little concerning too, but I have a lot on my plate, and just never found the time to get it checked out. (no lectures please, I know how lame that sounds...) Also about a year ago I started getting really bad headaches. It was mainly when I would read or look at the computer screen which doesn't sound that bad, but I'm a full time student and I work from the computer, so pretty much I had a headache all the time. My mom was convinced that the two problems were connected, and finally forced me to see an eye doctor. So I did. And he said I needed some glasses for reading and driving and that should relieve my headaches. He also said that it looked like I had a blood clot in my eye which was causing the dark spot. It was really small though, so I needed to go see a retina specialist to have it checked out and decide what to do. They are usually caused by surgery to the eye (which I didn't have) or a blow to the head, severe jolt, or high stress (Which I did have about the time the spot showed up). The worst part of all of that for me what the glasses thing. I do not have a face that is made for glasses. It doesn't matter the style of glasses, I just don't have a glasses shaped face. You don't have to flatter me by saying I look cute, it is a truth I have come to terms with. I accept that I look like a dork in glasses. It's fine.
As you may or may not know, I have been having some eye trouble. About a year and a half ago I started noticing a dark spot in the line of vision on my right eye. At first it was just a little shadow and I only noticed it when I read and it would follow my eye across the page. I figured it was just eye strain. I was going through a fairly stressful time in my life, and I wasn't sleeping much. But it kept getting bigger and darker as time went by. Not enough to be a huge deal, it was just annoying. It was a little concerning too, but I have a lot on my plate, and just never found the time to get it checked out. (no lectures please, I know how lame that sounds...) Also about a year ago I started getting really bad headaches. It was mainly when I would read or look at the computer screen which doesn't sound that bad, but I'm a full time student and I work from the computer, so pretty much I had a headache all the time. My mom was convinced that the two problems were connected, and finally forced me to see an eye doctor. So I did. And he said I needed some glasses for reading and driving and that should relieve my headaches. He also said that it looked like I had a blood clot in my eye which was causing the dark spot. It was really small though, so I needed to go see a retina specialist to have it checked out and decide what to do. They are usually caused by surgery to the eye (which I didn't have) or a blow to the head, severe jolt, or high stress (Which I did have about the time the spot showed up). The worst part of all of that for me what the glasses thing. I do not have a face that is made for glasses. It doesn't matter the style of glasses, I just don't have a glasses shaped face. You don't have to flatter me by saying I look cute, it is a truth I have come to terms with. I accept that I look like a dork in glasses. It's fine.
So a couple of weeks later I went up to Salt Lake to see the retina specialist. He did scans of my eyes, did all kinds of screenings and tests, put dye in my eyes, and dilated my pupils (which takes a while to take effect, so they left me alone in the exam room for about a half hour. While I was waiting I decided to send a text to a friend I was supposed to meet that evening. Well, you can't actually see print very well with your eyes dilated and so I ended up sending a slightly inappropriate text to someone who does NOT have a great sense of humor... Not my finest hour.) After a couple of hours of this the doctor started asking me some questions:
Do I have headaches? Yes, but I'm a single mom of two kids, one with special needs who never sleeps and I work and go to school, who wouldn't have headaches.
Do I tire easily or lack energy? Yes, but see above answer as to why...
Has my eyesight changed recently? Yes, but I have some handy dandy glasses to help that.
Have I lost my sense of smell? Yes, but remember the incident with the Netti pot? I haven't been able to smell normally since then, and only the last month or so has my sniffer totally stopped working. I thought I had just really ruined my nose. (No I didn't tell him that part, I just said "Yes":)
Have I had irregular periods? Yes, but I have for years, it has just gotten a little worse the last year and half or so, but I've been under a lot of stress, so that's normal, right?
Have you experienced any weight gain recently? Yes, this summer, I did, but I just thought it was because I wasn't working out as regularly.
Have you experienced nausea or dizziness? Yes, but I thought it was associated with my headaches.
Have you has sinus trouble? Yes, but that goes back to the Netti pot incident...
He asked several more questions, most of which I answered yes to, but also had an explanation for. Finally he said " I don't know what in the heck is causing that black spot, but all of these questions plus the fact that you have NO peripheral vision whatsoever leads me to believe you have a tumor in your pituitary gland. You should have an MRI.) And then it was like Thank you and have a nice day and he was scooting me out of there. Luckily after I refused to budge from my chair he explained a little more. He said that it is usually not cancerous but given that fact that I had so many symptoms I needed to get it checked out ASAP. We won't really know what we are dealing with until we get the MRI and find out how big and where and whatever it is. There are several ways to treat it from taking medication to surgery to radiation. But we won't know about that until we find out more about it. So now I'm just waiting for the MRI (Down here they don't fire up the MRI machine very often, so it takes a while to get in. Right now I'm scheduled for October 31 unless something sooner opens up.) In the meantime I am having more tests run at the local eye doctor and with our family doctor to see what else we can find out. But we STILL don't know what is causing the "black blob" as my friend Jenny calls it. The retina guy says if it doesn't clear up after we treat the tumor we will take another look at it, but right now it is insignificant in comparison.
He asked several more questions, most of which I answered yes to, but also had an explanation for. Finally he said " I don't know what in the heck is causing that black spot, but all of these questions plus the fact that you have NO peripheral vision whatsoever leads me to believe you have a tumor in your pituitary gland. You should have an MRI.) And then it was like Thank you and have a nice day and he was scooting me out of there. Luckily after I refused to budge from my chair he explained a little more. He said that it is usually not cancerous but given that fact that I had so many symptoms I needed to get it checked out ASAP. We won't really know what we are dealing with until we get the MRI and find out how big and where and whatever it is. There are several ways to treat it from taking medication to surgery to radiation. But we won't know about that until we find out more about it. So now I'm just waiting for the MRI (Down here they don't fire up the MRI machine very often, so it takes a while to get in. Right now I'm scheduled for October 31 unless something sooner opens up.) In the meantime I am having more tests run at the local eye doctor and with our family doctor to see what else we can find out. But we STILL don't know what is causing the "black blob" as my friend Jenny calls it. The retina guy says if it doesn't clear up after we treat the tumor we will take another look at it, but right now it is insignificant in comparison.
And that's the scoop. Oh, and I named the tumor Walter... I don't know why...
I love you! xoxo
ReplyDeleteI am already cooking up the cutest cut to go with your new specks.
I hope they fire up the MRI sooner. Until then you are in our prayers. :)
ReplyDelete