TL:DR; I'm doing well. Check your eyes! A little over 10 years ago, while on a flight I realized I was having a hard time seeing the book I was reading clearly. Turns out I had a massive non-cancerous tumor crushing my optic nerve. Today after treatment, my vision is normal 1

Prolactinoma is a pituitary tumor that can be asymptomatic (like it was for me). It was about the size of a golf ball. It was crushing my aortic arch and my right eye's optic nerve. 2

Didn't know that though. Just had a blurry bit of vision in my right eye. Went to eye dr. They ran tests and referred me to a specialist who got me an MRI right away. I then was told I had some tumor in my brainpan! They needed to find out what it was. 3

Because it was crushing the aortic arch, no more flight for me. :-( I got in touch with a great neurosurgeon. We started doing blood work and pre-op stuff. A few days later... told surgery shouldn't be needed. BUT! I'd have to be on a major med for a long time. 4

Turns out the type of non-cancerous tumor I have is treatable with a med... but it's ghastly expensive. Without insurance, I'd be paying $6k/month for treatment. I've been on this med for 10 years. Yes. You read that right I'm at almost 3/4 of a million $ in meds! 5

(side rant) because of my experience, I'll never not talk about how too expensive the US medical system is. In other countries on their open markets, the pills I take would cost about $200/month. (end side rant) 6

I've needed to get checkups from some serious specialists frequently. Today was a visual field acuity test. They can determine the extent of issues like the optic nerve getting crushed. It slowly was getting better... but... TODAY I HAVE NO IMPERMENT. I have "normal" vision. 7

All that to say I'm feeling more blessed and grateful than I typically do. My week is off to a better start than I'd ever have asked for... and I wanted to share this with all y'all. Hugs! fin