This is a picture of the back of my eyes. Maybe you've gotten pictures taken of your eyes before. The ophthalmologist usually dilates your eyes with drops so a clear picture can be taken, like this one. However, there is something obviously wrong here. The two images don't match, as they should. The photo on the right - which is of my left eye - is healthy. The photo on the left - my right eye - is extremely deformed. Something that no one can really see now, except when my right eye becomes severely "lazy": when it wanders off and isn't in synchronicity with my left.
I was born with this condition. It is called optic nerve coloboma: "Coloboma of the optic nerve is a congenital anomaly of the optic disc in which there is a defect of the inferior aspect of the optic nerve. The issue stems from incomplete closure of the embryonic fissure while in utero. A varying amount of glial tissue typically fills the defect, manifests as a white mass."
This picture was taken ten years ago, but I've had this condition my whole life. What this means is that I am blind in my right eye. I can see shadows and light, but nothing clearly. I have some periphery, but not much. The images that hit my eye never reach my brain, so I cannot make anything clear out. My left eye, however, is fine.
When I was younger, before I knew that without enough sleep and rest my left eye would wander, I was bullied - sometimes on accident through ignorance, sometimes not - for this. People could not discern what I was looking at when I was looking directly at them. I also had trouble playing sports. It is a source of pain for me and now, when I can, I let people know that I have this so they are not confused when speaking to me.
All of us have conditions, seen or unseen, and I think it's important that we share them for a better understanding of the human body, the human psyche, and so we can move forward. I'm sharing this for blindness awareness.
You never really can tell.
- F
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