BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) -Imagine doing your daily makeup routine and realizing you have no peripheral vision.
Britney Le has always struggled with vision problems, but recently discovered that she had a tumor growing on her pituitary gland larger than an inch.
“I didn’t have any peripherals and that’s what really freaked me out because it didn’t come out as well, oh, I needed a prescription or stronger glasses,” the 27-year-old said.
A visit to the optometrist quickly turned into a life-threatening situation. Le was then referred to a specialist who identified the tumor.
“That’s when he asked for an MRI scan of my brain and my optic nerve. “When we got the results, that’s when he told me I had this big mass in my pituitary gland,” Le said.
Le’s specialist contacted neurologist Dr. Miguel Meglar of Merit Health Hospital in Biloxi. According to Meglar, when Le walked into the exam room, she was considered legally blind. If she had waited any longer, he said, she would have lost all her sight.
“Even in that condition. In my experience, less than 20% of people recover their vision to a normal level,” said Meglar.
Before working in Biloxi, Meglar worked in New Orleans where most of his patients who had pituitary tumors were young people like Le. He said most of them don’t see it coming because they associate being healthy with being young.
According to Meglar, Le’s surgery to remove the tumor was too risky and could have led to the loss of all vision. Fortunately, Le fully recovered her sight after the two-hour operation.
Melgar and Le want to stress that you should get your eyes checked regularly to avoid life-threatening situations, even if you’re young.
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