16 3.20.22 Photo illustrations by Ina Jang
Diagnosis By Lisa Sanders, M.D.
“You can’t see the ceiling, can you?” the
man asked his 31-year-old wife. She gri-
maced, then shook her head. She was
lying in bed looking toward the familiar
shadows and shapes cast by the wintry
morning sun. But she couldn’t see them.
It was as if a dense white fog lay between
her and those daily shifting patterns.
Squinting didn’t help. Opening her eyes
as wide as she could didn’t, either. All
her life she had perfect vision. It was a
secret source of pride. She’d never even
seen an eye doctor. But that morning
changed everything.
She fi rst noticed the trouble in her eyes
six months earlier. She is a professional
violinist and a teacher and that summer
took her students to Italy to experience
the sacred music and art. As she gazed up
at the frescos decorating the ceiling of a
favorite cathedral, a shimmering shape
with jagged, irregular edges appeared out
of nowhere. The points seemed to twin-
kle as the starlike image slowly enlarged.
Inside the glittering outline, the colors
were jumbled, like the crystals in a kalei-
doscope. It was beautiful and terrifying.
She dropped her head, closed her eyes and
rubbed her aching neck.
When she opened her eyes, the star
burst, with its glimmering edges, was still
there, distorting all that lay beyond it. It
grew so large that it was almost all she
could see. Then slowly it began to fade;
after nearly a half-hour, the world start-
ed to resume its familiar look and shape.
There had been similar, if less severe,
experiences: Every now and then, when
she would get up quickly after sitting or
lying down, she would feel an intense
pressure inside her head, and when it
released, everything briefl y looked faded
and pale before returning to normal hues.
These spells only lasted a few seconds and
happened only a handful of times over the
past few years. She wrote it off to fatigue or
stress. After that day in Italy, those glisten-
ing star bursts appeared weekly, then daily.
Stranger still, straight lines devel-
oped weird lumps and bumps when she
looked at them out of the corner of her
eye. Doorways, curbs and table edges
seemed to waver, growing bulges and
divots. When she looked at the object full
on, it would obediently straighten out but
resumed its aberration once it was on the
sidelines again.
Days after her morning whiteout, the
young woman went to an optometrist in