MY STORY:
Thursday, October 31st, 2024: I woke up in the morning like any other day, got up, took my glasses off, and put in my monthly contacts that were due for a change. No pain, irritation, or anything out of the norm, just a normal Thursday yearning for Friday.
Last period, Algebra II, I sat at the second desk to the right in the front row. We learned about using synthetic long division while discussing polynomials: write out the coefficients, bring down the leading coefficient, multiply, and then add. As the lesson progressed, eyesight in my left eye slowly became blurry and blurrier.
2:51: 84% vision, 2:58: 71%, 3:02: 62%, 3:12 : 40%, 3:23: 2%. Fear coursed through my body, and the irritation in my eye maddened me like never before. 3:30, the bell rang, freedom at last! I walked down the Grand Staircase and took a right, another right, and a left.
In front of me were two large doors, but I could hardly see them. The middle pillar seemed to blend in with the bright blue sky.
I brushed it off. My hair blew through the wind as I darted to my Buick Verno parked in the middle of the bustling parking lot. I needed to go to work, I was working from 4:45 to 9 that night and expected a hectic time.
As I put my keys into the ignition my key hit the side of my steering wheel, tisk tisk. After a few tries I successfully started my car, time to drive, was 3:39. I drove home as normal, and I stressed about schoolwork and whether I would have enough time to finish it all. Those anxious thoughts raced through my mind, anxiety coursed throughout my body.
4:01, home! I texted my parents. I ran up the twelve stairs that distanced me from my bedroom. I sat down in my desk chair and took off my contacts. Left then right.
My eyes took a second to adjust from the silky smooth contact to the war zone that is my glasses. They are three-year-old pink-framed glasses with hundreds of scratches. My left eye twitched and flickered, and a wet goo formed.
I pushed this aside on my mental checklist, it barely made the top 30 things I needed to worry about.
4:10, I jumped in my car and started the ten-minute drive to work. A small Pizza Hut that I’ve called “home” since the eighth grade when I miraculously got the job at 15.
4:32 the 10-minute drive turned to 22, but I was grateful for the extra time that I could listen to God’s word. My parking job was subpar, perusal, so nothing seemed too out of the blue for me.
4:40, I squished out of my car because of the proximity of the next car over. Minutes later I’m clocked in and ready to work another night.
At 7:58, Pizza goo was covering my fingernails, and I was out of breath. We had a rush like no other, the ding, insinuating there was an order was engraved into my mind. Ding.. ding ding ding… ding ding… ding.
We all sat by the grimy side table that had been there for over 10 years, we ate our cold employee meals and refreshed ourselves. My manager tried to show me an Instagram reel on his dingy red iPhone 10, I squinted my eyes and proclaimed that I couldn’t see it.
Fear set in once more. He questioned my authenticity and a crowd surrounded us like we were in a zoo cage. “Go to the bathroom,” he said with a grand authoritative voice. “ I see something floating around in your eye.”
So I did just that, I took the 15 steps that distance me from the small 20 by 22 bathroom. I thoroughly washed my hands in an attempt to get any pizza residue off that I could.
I began prodding at my eye. I took a step back and my eye was bright red, inflamed.
I walked out of the bathroom and a crowd was surrounding me, I shook my head no.
More dings infiltrated my mind and duty called! 2 personal pans of pepperonis, 4 large hand supreme onions, and 4 orders of cinnamon sticks. I counted out each pepperoni I placed, 1, 2, 3, 4, and I took a step back to see various pepperonis stacked on top of each other.
I excused myself to the restroom and continued prodding. My sweet souled coworker walked up to me and screamed, “Q-tip!” I opened the door and declined her offer.
Once more I strutted out with an angry left eye.
8:57, my manager with the torn apart phone let me go home. I stumbled out of my car and tripped on many small pebbles on the concrete. The goo came back and with more force.
9:12, I was finally home. I recounted the story to my parents and I was enlisted to scrub my eyes and take off all of my makeup. To some avail, my eye felt less crummy from the aggressive scrub treatment.
9:41, time to shut my goopy eye and hope that It will subside.
Friday, November 1st, 2024: 6:00, buzz buzz buzz, my not-so-subtle alarm went off.
I opened my right eye, but my left was completely gooed shut. Yellow and green cruddy eye boogers coursed through my eyelashes. With some force, I was able to pry it open.
I was afraid again, but I needed to power through because I had a Chemistry test that I wanted to just get over with.
I needed to leave at 7:00 to go to the weekly “Fun Day Friday” event that involved playing games, listening to live worship music, and hearing a testimony or a story from the bible.
As I got ready that morning an overwhelming fear that something was going to happen came over me. But once again I brushed it off.
At 6:58, I left for the event and listened to worship music trying to get into the mood of the day. I arrived there around 11 minutes later because of the lack of traffic.
As I walked in my eyesight continued to decline, with each step I took it worsened.
7:12, we started to play “Smash Face” a volleyball game that consisted of someone sitting in the middle, and on the fourth hit the players would spike it into the center. Because of my lack of skills I was up and down every few minutes.
As the players would raise their hand to make contact with the ball on the fourth hit I could feel my blood pressure rise. I would lose my breath and anxiety would take over my body.
7:42, the game was finally over, and as I stood up for the last time my eyes went black, and at that moment I realized something was wrong.
We all circled and talked about Psalm 23, which reads,
“ The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, and He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley I will fear no evil.”
This brought me great peace, and I realized that If this progressed I would be all right.
8:27 I walked to class, as I took the lowly stroll I ran into each step, thud, cluck, clang. I stumbled into 1st period chucking my right shoulder into the doorway.
I plopped down into the middle table in the room and sat in the right spinny chair. I felt dazed and confused. I was so off. The stress had finally gotten to me.
My classmates were worried about my well-being and I reluctantly hobbled to the nurse.
But instead of thinking about my eyesight all I could think about was my chemistry test.
What if I can’t find a day to redo it? What if I forget everything? What if I go to the hospital and never can take it? What if.
Once again I let the fear win.
The nurse was even more concerned and I was escorted home.
9:02, my dad’s truck swung into the front of the school. His entire body was flooded with anxiety.
At 9:19, we arrived home and I flopped onto the couch. The blinds were open and as I looked up my head was pounding and my eyes were fiery. I stayed stagnant on the couch until my 1:40 appointment.
As we arrived at the doctor my eyesight slowly departed from me. 1:59, my eye doctor was stumped, there was nothing wrong with my eye structure. Trying to dig deeper he asked me what I could see, all I could mutter out was ” It feels like there is a saran wrap and Vaseline covering my eye.
He giggled at my childish response.
As a last resort, he added fluorescein, a yellow stain that presents foreign bodies within the eyes. He found a sliver of contact in my eye. So minuscule that he had to use a Q-tip to exubate it from my eye.
But my retina was still intact, so was my pupil, and my cornea was crystal clear.
To ensure that they didn’t miss anything my eyes were dilated. Once more nothing is wrong. He came to his only conclusion: he doesn’t know.
The only thing that he could say was, “Try not to stress because that could be a factor”. However, it was counterintuitive because stress filled my body from head to toe.
Saturday-Monday: No symptoms. The normal sequence of events, going to work and church.
Tuesday, November 5th, 2024: I had another eyesight episode. I was at work once more and my left eye became a vast desert. I started to panic, I couldn’t breathe, no air could enter my lungs.
Wednesday, November 6th, 2024: The day was organic once more, I followed the same routine that I’ve followed since the eighth grade.
I wrote in my first period, took a test in my second, and did an English presentation in the third. In my fourth period, we had a belated Halloween party, our teacher taught us the Thriller Dance.
We went up and down, side to side, and acted like zombies. My head was pounding and my eyesight was blurry.
I decided not to care because I had other things to do. I went on with my life and went to my other three classes.
By the end of the day, I felt like I was legally blind. My mom ushered me to the doctor again.
He once more asked
He went through the same sequence: examine, fluorescein, and a therapist’s conclusion: don’t stress.
But this time he gave me an actual diagnosis, I had an ocular migraine. He explained that this could occur when stress overcomes my life. Which it did.
HOW TO PREVENT:
There are many ways to prevent the blinding diagnosis. Cleveland Clinic reports that many causes related to the diagnosis of an ocular migraine, such as stress, smoking, exercise, low blood sugar, bending over, and caffeine.
Two of these incidents have been seen in my life. I’ve been stressed beyond my limits, test after test.
I’ve also been bending over various times. At the beginning of my story, I was bending over in the WWII– esk volleyball game that I took part in. I also danced my heart out during my fourth period.
Being stressed out isn’t abnormal or foreign to Carroll Students.
Sophomore, Laura Dimberio states, “I’ve noticed that around final season many students have been sad and mopey in the hallways”
Many students have been reaching out about stressors that have inhibited their school work and actions.
Similar to Dimberio, Sophomore Mia Cavacini states that her stressors are plentiful.
” I stress about school, work, my grades, and every day occurences that happen day to day.”
Stress can overflow and contaminate students’ everyday lives. Another Sophomore Amarah Trulock realtes with Dimberio and Cavacini.
” I try not to let stress infiltrate into my grades but it can be hard,” said Trulock.
This is normal a statement for teenagers during the holiday season.
Sophomore consumer Tracy Cross gives readers suggestions that can help alleviate stress.
“Plan, don’t procrastinate, have grit/don’t give up, exercise regularly, drink water and eat healthy foods regularly, show gratitude (write down 5 things daily for which you are grateful), attend a place of worship weekly, volunteer – when you help others you help yourself, put your cell phones and devices away so they do not dominate your evening every night of the week“
These suggestions can be used for many people in many different walks of life.
Don’t let stress consume you, consume stress.
