Chronic Sunshine

I am a huge fan of the TV show, “Mystery Diagnosis.” It always amazes me that there are so many people out there, like me, who go through years of being misdiagnosed before finally getting a concrete answer. My family and friends always joke around that I’m going to be on that show one day. I keep telling them, “Yeah, but I need to find an answer first!”

Enter in my new Opthamologist. I’ll call him Dr. Tom. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.

A few weeks ago, I was at a friend’s house for dinner. A group of us were sitting around the dining room table, playing games and having fun. All of a sudden, my friend looks at me and says: “Oh my God, what is wrong with your eyes?” I look around at everyone else at the table and their hands go flying to their mouths with a gasp.

Of course, I freaked out.

“What? What’s wrong? Did an eyeball pop out and I didn’t notice?”

I ran into the bathroom and peered into the mirror. I swear, my pupils had taken over both eyes. If you hadn’t met me before then, you would have no idea what color my eyes were, they were completely black.

Now, I had been sitting in the same light setting for hours, had not taken any crystal meth and hadn’t been poisoned by any foreign mushrooms.

So what was the deal?

My friend’s father is a firefighter/EMT so he gave me a neuro exam. My eyes were reacting to light and I could see perfectly fine, so he told me not to worry about it. My mother, who is a nurse, agreed. I was still freaked out but I decided to let it go.

About an hour later, Mike and I were driving home and I noticed that I had a blind spot in my left eye. I blinked. It was still there. I rubbed my eyes. It was still there. I REALLY freaked out then! Was I having an aneurism? Was I going blind? What was happening to me??

Now maybe you are reading this and thinking, “Wow, she is dramatic!” And you would be correct, I can be very dramatic. However, I have never had any problems with my eyes. I have never worn glasses or contacts and I’ve never had any reason to see an eye doctor. And I do NOT like the idea of anyone touching my eyes! Hence, the hysteria.

I called my Mom and she suggested I talk to my physician’s assistant the next day at work. So I did. And she immediately sent me to the opthamologist. She wasn’t sure if it was a partially detached retina or yet another symptom of my neuro issues, but she wanted to be safe. So off I went to see Dr. Tom.

Mike came with me because they would be dilating my (already dilated) eyes and they didn’t want me driving home. The office was huge! Dr. Tom works for a very reputable, multi-physician practice. I filled out a bunch of paperwork about my health history, my lifestyle, what my firstborn child’s name will be, where I want to retire…I’m joking, but there were alot of questions on the forms.

A very nice male nurse brought me into the first exam room to get the low-down on what was going on with me. He asked me a bunch of questions, checked the pressure of my eyes (which felt SO weird) and put the dilating drops in. After about 15 minutes, Dr. Tom came in. A very nice, middle-aged man, very Greek (if you knew his last name, you’d know what I mean), and very knowledgable; he put me at ease immediately. What was interesting and confusing, however, was the beginning of our conversation:

“Hello Shanon, nice to meet you. I’m Dr. Tom.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“So you have numbness in your arms and legs?”

“Yes.”

“Do you ever have trouble walking?”

“Yes.”

“Do you ever have trouble sleeping?”

“Yes.” (What the heck does this have to do with my eyes??”)

“Do you ever drop things, have balance issues, memory issues, things like that?”

“Yes.” (How the heck does he know all my symptoms from the last couple years? I didn’t put those on the forms!)

“Shanon, you have Celiac disease.”

“Huh?” Now I was completely baffled! So was Mike. Where did this come from? “What do you mean I have Celiac disease?”

“I’ve seen it in my patients time after time and I know it when I see it.”

“I had the blood test for it and it came back negative.”

According to Dr. Tom, the blood test is not always accurate. He suggested I have a stool sample tested and possibly get an intestinal biopsy. He is convinced it is causing my issues. He said if he was right, and I came completely off gluten, my symptoms could all be gone within a year.

Are you kidding me????!?!?!?!?!?!?!!

Can you imagine if ALL this time, I had Celiac disease and I could have been symptom free YEARS ago??

He had the disease himself, along with members of his family and many of his patients, and they all were doing 100% better. It was worth a shot, right?? He gave me a slew of information and told me to let him know how the tests came out.

My eyes were fine, by the way. Just some side effects from a new medication I had started that would resolve on their own.

On the way to the check-out counter, Dr. Tom’s nurse turned around to me and said:

“Listen to him, he knows his stuff. I’ve worked with him for 11 years and I’m not exaggerating, he has helped diagnose hudreds of patients with this. He’s a great doctor who truly cares about people and wants to see them feel better.”

I was floored. Here is an eye doctor who went above and beyond to try to help me find some answers. He didn’t get anything out of it except the possibility of helping another human being. Now THAT is a good doctor.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Cutting out gluten would be difficult and life-changing but it would be one of the better answers I could get. The tests are next week and I should get the results a few weeks after that, so I will keep you all posted!

If those tests come back positive, I have my Mystery Diagnosis episode! And you’ll all get to know Dr. Tom for yourselves!!