Hi Diana. Thank you for sharing your story. My sincere condolences on the death of your son. How terribly sad. I am also sorry that you have now had to endure this new challenge. I had my attach back in 2020 in my only good functioning eye. I was born with a dragged retina in my left eye which eventually cancelled at least 80 per cent of my vision in that eye and then, my optic nerve was damaged in 2020l. My cause was untreated sleep apnea. My fault. I know I had the condition but didn¡¯t want to use a machine to help me at night. My oxygen levels dropped at night and starved my optic nerve of it. I had to stop work as I was a teacher and I am now being told I cannot drive. I have good days sight wise and I have bad ones too. I can still see, but my central vision is blurry. Seeing detail is also difficult and I struggle to read a book without a magnifier. If you would like a friend to talk to, I am here. I am also on FB. There are days I still cry but we move on?
On Mon, 9 Sep 2024 at 1:54?AM, Diana Patrick via <patrickdiana513=
[email protected]> wrote:
Hi everyone, my name is Diana Patrick. Ive been married for 20 yrs to my husband Matt we have 2 children our daughter Gabby(22), and our son Malichi (we lost at 16 yrs old).
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I suffered my NAION event in my left eye at 39 yrs old in Nov of 2023. Nearly total OS vision loss (80-85% loss), loss of color vision OS, loss of peripheral vision bilaterally, & developed dry eye syndrome.
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My Neuro-Ophthalmologist labeled my diagnosis as "atypical" due to my age and lack of risk factors. However, I'm inclined to think the grief from the loss of our son somehow contributed to me experiencing NAION.
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Neuro-Op ordered many vision tests, 4 MRIs, and lots of blood work. The original referring optometrist initially indicated that I had a "growth" or "mass" behind my eye and put us through a scare for the first couple weeks while waiting for an appt at Barnes Jewish Hospital. Thankfully my neuro-op immediately knew this was incorrect and what he was seeing was inflammation behind my eye.
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Finally in April of 2024, NO clinically diagnosed my vision loss as NAION "atypical" related event. I am still adjusting to everyday life with monocular vision and some days I don't even notice the loss anymore. Then there are days when my brain just doesn't cooperate and the blurry, dark vision comes back again.
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Thank you for accepting me into this group and I look forward to learning about everyone's experiences and gaining new wisdom!
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Thanks again!
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