double vision
in early may 2025, my "baby" sister got engaged and i was fortunate enough to be invited to partake in the surprise engagement. i flew out to nyc and drove my sister, future brother-in-law, and myself up to the catskills for a relaxing and very joyous weekend.
on the drive back to the city, i realized i was seeing double. i've never experienced double vision before, so it took me a bit to name what i was experiencing.
most people think double vision means you see two of everything, but it's not so straightforward. sometimes there are two of everything, and sometimes there is only one. sometimes the "second" object moves around and goes in and out of focus. it's all very confusing and dizzying.
fortunately, i was able to make an appointment to see an ophthalmologist the day after i returned to nyc. after many tests on many fancy machines, i learned that my eyes were perfectly healthy. whatever was causing my double vision was therefore not related to my eyes but rather to my brain and how it was processing information from my eyes (most likely). the ophthalmologist referred me to see a neuro-ophthalmologist specialist and suggested i do it asap.
when i returned home to seattle, i contacted my primary care provider, who ordered a brain mri and bloodwork to rule out a brain tumor or potential autoimmune issues, and i also met with two neuro-ophthalmologists from two different hospitals to make sure i was receiving the most complete information and advice. all of my bloodwork came back normal, as did my brain mri, which was reviewed by the radiologist and both of my neuro-ophthalmologists.
both neuro-ophthos commented on how they would have ordered a brain mri with contrast and zoomed into certain areas of my brain, but it seemed the results they saw from the general brain mri my pcp ordered satisfied them enough to confidently rule out a brain tumor.
since all of my bloodwork and mri came back normal, we were left with only stress as the likely cause of my double vision. this didn't sit well with me, partly because i've never heard of stress causing someone to lose their vision, and partly because the onset of my double vision happened right after a completely stress-free weekend in nature with some of my favorite people.
the math wasn't mathin' -- and continued to not math for another 6+ weeks before i finally got a diagnosis.
next: stress