While sitting in the lecture hall during my second year of medical school, I noticed colored lights flashed in the corner of my right eye. At first, I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I knew something wasn’t right. When I returned home to Miami for Christmas break, I told my family about my symptoms and visited an ophthalmologist.
He didn’t notice any problems, other than a small hemorrhage in the back of my eye and recommended I visit a retina specialist. The retina specialist’s tests did not reveal any problems with my retina, and the doctor sent me to see a neuro-ophthalmologist to examine the nerves of my eye. That doctor ordered more scans and a visual field test, where I was asked to press a button every time I saw a small flash of light.
After the test, the doctor informed me the test was abnormal. There were a whole series of flashing lights I had missed. He explained I had a visual field loss called an inferior arcuate defect in my right eye, which meant the vision in the bottom portion of my right was permanently gone.
Getting this news at the start of my medical career scared me and I feared the absolute worst. I asked what caused it, and he said it could be several things, including . Some women with MS experience optic neuritis, an inflammation of the optic nerve, and they lose some of their vision.
He recommended I undergo a brain and spine MRI and continue with annual brain MRIs for the next five years to see if any of the lesions associated with MS .