Blurry vision

When I arrived at St. Norbert College for the fall semester of my junior year, I never expected to find myself at more doctor appointments than classes.

The third week of classes ended with me missing an entire Friday due to blurred vision in my right eye and frequent headaches above that same eye. After seeing my doctor, an opthamologist, and a retina specialist, the only answer I had was that my eyeballs were swollen, probably due to some underlying condition. This was not what I was expecting to hear and my stomach dropped because I knew something was terribly wrong.

That same day, I ended up having an immense amount of blood work done along with x-rays, and was waiting for a call to schedule an MRI of my brain.

The next week, I found out that I had Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, which can cause vision problems. This disease also meant gluten was now off limits. My doctor told me I still needed an MRI to make sure nothing else was wrong.

You bet there was another big surprise waiting to be discovered.

A few more weeks passed, I had the MRI, and I went back to the retina specialist for help with my vision problems, only to find out I not only would have a steroid injected into my eye, but I also had a small arteriovenous malformation or AVM in my brain and I needed to see my doctor ASAP. After meeting with my doctor, I found out I would be returning to the Neuroscience Group, where I was once treated for scoliosis.

From here, I knew my life was entering an even bigger chapter.