My Optometrist Saved My Life

My optometrist taught me the value of a small, repetitive practice that changed my brain pathways, my vision, and my life. Vision as a barometer of stress. Consider eye health in this work from home, high screen world.

Proem

When diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2008, the neurologist told me that I had had MS for 25 years. ‘How can you tell?’ ‘See these black dots and white spots on your brain scan? The white dots are inflammation from active demyelination, and the black holes are where the inflammation has been reabsorbed. There’s nothing there.’ Actually, it looked like swiss cheese. I was 56, so 25 years earlier would be 31 years old. My wife and I tried to piece that together. At that time, 25 years earlier, I had decided to stop wearing my glasses because of the double vision. The prisms in my lenses were getting stronger and stronger. I read about eye exercises and tried them. I even drove without my glasses. That lasted six months or so. Fast forward to 2008 — I spent a lot of time in meetings, reading and writing notes while looking up at a speaker or slides, taking my glasses on and off, on and off. I was exhausted, frustrated. I told my PCP that something was really wrong. I felt a fog rolling over me — my vision, weakness, dizziness, fatigue. When finally diagnosed and treatment started, my vision remained a problem. I didn’t know if I could keep…