My Eyes

Last time I posted was shortly after my last checkup where I had my eye exam and got a lot of visual side effects along with a headache I was told was a migraine.

A few days after this event I had to take my mom to see her eye doctor.

It seems every time we go to see him the conversation inevitably turns to my clinical trial. This visit was no different. When I saw him putting the dilation drops in my mother's eyes it made me blurt out right then and there:

"Hey doc, that reminds me... have you ever heard of someone getting a migraine caused by using those drops?"

To which he replied "It can happen, but it's not a common side effect. Why do you ask?"

I proceeded to tell him about how I got this centralized headache over my brow area and my eyesight got really blurry, light hurt my eyes, and anything bright was surrounded by a halo and had a "star filter" effect ( where all lights looked like star bursts).

His curiosity piqued, he rolled across the room toward me on his little round stool. Peering into my eyes, he brought his light in from the side and shone it into my vision starting from the peripheral edge.

He said he thought I should have been checked right then and there at my visit in question for having a Closed Angle Glaucoma Attack.

He said I had all the classic symptoms and that it would be more likely than a migraine especially since my *migraine* was on both sides of my head.

Being the hypochondriac that I am, I wouldn't have done my self-proclaimed title justice if I didn't worry myself into being totally convinced I was on the verge of going blind (<-- I had to edit that because I have a typo that said "blonde" heh an even SCARIER proposition).

Naturally, I went home and googled it to death.

He said there were tests that can be done right in the eye doctor's office and the cure for it is poking holes in your iris (the colors part) with a laser (eeek!). Like I want to be the freak with 3 pupils. But better I can see than not.

So I called my clinical trial coordinator and she was not concerned at all. She said my eye doctor for the trial would have checked for that (I thought the same thing) upon hearing of my headache. In fact, I told the doctor about the headache when she was looking into my eye with what looked for all the world to be one gargantuan eyeball of her own, but turned out later to be just a large magnifier (much to my relief).

The trial nurse said that this doctor was SOOOOOOOOOO good (everybody: "HOW GOOD WAS SHE??") she was so good that she actually caught early stages of glaucoma in ANOTHER trial patient (I could have sworn she meant this very SAME trial) and the patient didn't even exhibit any symptoms.

While this might seem a comforting fact to my clinical trial nurse, she obviously is NOT versed in the workings of a hypochondriac's mind. For I immediately jumped to the conclusion that Fingolimod must cause Glaucoma. Otherwise, if I had a suspicious episode AND another patient was actually diagnosed, it stands to reason it's the drug (in my mind, warped by hypochodria).

For now, I'm letting it slide. She said she'd run it by the doctor and see if she wanted to reevaluate me. I haven't gotten any return call asking me to drive up there, so a) she forgot to say anything or b) she didn't think it was necessary.

I go back for another eye exam in either 3 or 6 months and you can bet I will keep an EYE on the situation until then. Much as I plan on keeping ABREAST of the situation with the mammary cysts.

If anything new happens, I'll be sure to post it. I can't remember ever having quite that spectacular a change in my vision from dilation drops before, but I may have now worked myself up in to false memories of just how bad it really was. For one thing, I DID drive myself home so it's not like I could have been having that bad of a time, could I?

I know one thing I am sure of. I have a new reason for a panic attack at my next clinical trial checkup. I never would have guessed I'd be terrified of eye drops.