My Vision Problems and Sight Loss – My True Story

By: Shawn O’Brien

It was a regular day two months ago, I was having a cup of coffee watching sports center like any other day and something wasn’t right.  I told my girlfriend I was having vision problems.   She suggested, what I described as blurry vision with small black dots forming, might be a migraine.  I did some research and found a few different types of migraines, some of which cause headaches and some don’t.  There were certainly auras and distortions to my vision and wouldn’t you know it, the vision was worse the next day.

I called my eye doctor (who my Lasik surgery years ago) and made an appointment for a few days later.  Let’s remember it has only been a few days from my onset of symptoms to my appointment.  You shouldn’t mess around with your health.  The exam was going as usual, until the eye doctor paused, looked confused and then said he needed to confer with a specialist.  He came back immediately and scheduled an appointment with a retinal specialist later that afternoon. The undertone of this discussion were immediacy and emergency.

I came back to the retinal specialist and after taking a super magnified looked at my retina he asks, how am I feeling?, do i have a fever?, have I been sick?  Well the answer to all of those questions was NO.  He diagnoses my vision problem as Posterior Uveitis.  Uveitis is an inflammation of the inside of the eye, specifically the layer of the eye called the uvea.  Usually caused by some type of infection, but since I have been feeling fine, it would be the unusual or rare type (the kind on “House” the TV show).  The good news is, I don’t have any bacterial or viral infection, it is idiopathic, meaning I will never know what caused my retina to get inflamed.

By this time my vision is worse and the aura and spots are becoming more of a distortion.  I am very worried about this and so was everyone else.  Since there was no infection, TREATMENT: massive amounts of Prednisone.  This stuff made me crazy on some days and other days I was exhausted.

In conclusion, I have been to the doctor over 10 times in the last two months, chest x-rays, full blood panels, eye photos, Prednisone and some positive thinking and the eyes are getting better.  90% better, but may have some permanent scar tissue.  I only have one little blurry spot left in my vision and feel much better off the Prednisone.  Thinking back to the day I was noticing my vision not being 100% I never really put off the doctor.  I made an appointment and had it looked at almost immediately.  The healing to both eyes is going well as of the photos today, but imagine if I had waited.  I could have had some permanent vision loss.

The doctors were great, my family was helpful and supportive and my girlfriend was a rock.  Thank you all.

Be sure to visit your eye doctor and physician regularly and if you don’t feel well don’t put it off!!!