My eyes

I have decided to keep a journal of what is going on with my eyes.

It probably started last year, unknown to me. At my yearly exam my eye Dr. noticed some white spots on my pictures of my eyes. I have had tons of floaters for as long as I can remember and I said that that was probably all they were.

This year when I went back the same spots were there in the exact same places so they obviously were not floaters plus I had a ton more. Also my vision could not be brought even to 20/25 with correction and I was refereed to Dr. Sung, an eye specialist in Tri cities. My Dr. was concerned enough to pull some strings to make this happen pretty quickly. My good friend Charlotte and her husband Chris drove us because my husband can no longer drive and I had to have my eyes super dilated. They also injected contrast dye and took tons of pictures. The process was pretty painful for me. My eyes have always been very light sensitive... to the point that my glasses have a permanent tint as well as the photo gray option.

I was asked to return to Dr. Sung's office 2 more times. On my second visit they repeated all of the tests from the first visit and on the 3rd they did a visual field test. For quite a while now I have been tripping over things but I have always been a bit (okay, more than a bit) clumsy and just assumed that clumsiness was getting worse with age. What I discovered was that I have lost quite a bit of visual acuity that we cannot seem to correct by upgrading my lenses anymore and my visual field is shrinking..... basically tunnel vision.... so if I don't remember to look differently I don't see things that should normally be within my frame of vision. My depth perception has also been affected and that makes even a simple task like going down a flight of stairs hard for me. The fact that my eyes are constantly trying to bring my world into focus but can't is also causing dizzy spells and severe head aches.

Rather than being diagnosed in Tri cities Dr. Sung sent me to the Casey Eye clinic which is part of the Oregon Health and Sciences University campus in Portland. I was already nervous because of the speed with which Dr. Sung's office tested me and knew I was in trouble when an eye specialist referred me to another eye specialist. I was told I was being sent to OHSU for confirmation of a diagnosis of "White Dot Syndrome". I, of course, did some research and was not thrilled with what I was reading but it did at least sound treatable. From what I read they probably could not return vision lost but maybe could slow the process.

A friend from church drove us to Portland where I underwent 3 hours of testing very similar to what Dr. Sung's office had done. The specialist I was assigned to see there also ordered some additional tests that were done immediately and then asked 2 other specialists to review the tests and examine my eyes. It was a bit unsettling to listen to these three specialists stand outside my room and talk about how weird I was. Finally all 3 came in to talk to me and said they did not concur with Dr. Sung's diagnosis but felt I was looking at a condition called Fundus Flavimaculatus which is a genetic condition. I was referred to yet another specialist within the Eye clinic on the OHSU campus and am now awaiting my appointments in November. I was very 
concerned about how far out these appointments are but then was told if this diagnosis is correct, there is no treatment...... nothing that can be done to correct or even slow the process. I was sent a rather extensive personal and family history form to fill out. I questioned all of this because there is no history of similar issues that I know of in my family but was told this is most often a recessive gene that is carried for several generations with no issues until it for some reason mutates in someone and  the symptoms I am dealing with then show up.