What is a non-life threatening illness/disease that you fear of the most?

Ooof

10 years ago (this month, actually) I suddenly started losing vision and acuity in my eyes. Went to an eye doctor who referred me to a neurologist (self-declared as an "MS expert") who looked at my MRI, saw lesions in my brain and diagnosed me with MS. He immediately put me on high dosages of IV steroids every day for a week and it elevated my blood pressure so high, I had to be hospitalized for 3 weeks. They did so many spinal taps that I don't even flinch when I see a needle anymore.

I did not have MS (still don't 10 years later)

What I had was Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH) and the daily dosage of steroids exacerbated it. In the end, the vision loss caused by the optic neuritis (which usually resolves itself within a few months) became permanent and I'm now legally blind. I also suffered a mini stroke during the 3 weeks I was in the hospital.

I urge you to go read up on IIH, because you may have to be your own advocate. I had never heard of it, never knew anyone who had it and so me (and my family) were at the mercy of the doctors who apparently had no idea about it either and what could've been a relatively simple condition to manage at the outset instead because a permanent disability.

/r/AskReddit Thread Parent