A Scare on the Road

MS is such a strange disease. There is no such thing as a textbook case as we each have a varied set of the major symptoms, along with those lesser things that are unique to us. My eye episodes, for example.

First time it occurred I walked into my office at an out of town hospital where I was on temporary assignment. I was one year into my diagnosis and in a bit of denial. The job had me living in a hotel for the week, working long hours under extremely stressful circumstances.

I walked into the office, BAM, a bar of bright light obscured the vision in my one eye. I was scared, made it the 20 minute drive to my hotel and found a walk-in clinic. It passed after a few hours and has only happened again a handful of times, the most recent during this last winter. Always I have been inside, safe, able to manage.

Yesterday I was driving...timing is everything...to the doctors to see about this lingering cold, cough and earache. All of a sudden I felt blinded by this ball of bright light, with a halo that not only hurt my eyes but totally messed with my vision. And I was driving...help.

I blinked and rubbed my eye and looked about...and guess what? It went away. Well not all the way away, it was back when I looked forward. That’s when I realized that it was coming from outside, and was not a problem with my eyes. What a relief.

It was still hard to look ahead, that ball of light was right there, and coming from the back window of the car ahead of me. When that driver turned off I gave a big sigh of relief, and noted that where the light seemed to be the brightest was that bar light in the centre of the car’s back window. The sunlight must have hit at just the right angle to reflect back.

I experienced it again as I made my way to my appointment, but not as bad as the first time.

It was a relief to know I was not having a relapse, but at the same time I’m concerned about the safety on the road. What if I had been travelling at 100 KM per hour on the 401, and suddenly was blinded by such a bright and blinding light? I can see such potential for disaster.

A word of warning? Caution? Be save out there, there’s a long summer ahead filled with sunny, sunny days.