My name is Imani Mayfield, I am a super senior at the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business. I am from Dallas and have 5 half brothers, 1 half sister, and 1 full sister. Around last year in September I started having weird health issues. My little sister took me to the Houston Methodist ER because I was having super intense headaches that would not go away over the course of a few days, tingling and numbness throughout my whole scans later, I was sent home with some medicine I really didn’t need, without any conclusive idea of what was causing issues. I was referred to a neurologist within Houston Methodist.
To make a long story short, I did an MRI scan of my head, and neck. I did an EMG test, and another electro-something test. Every single one of them was non-conclusive. The neurologist apologized, but said they could not find anything out of the ordinary, despite my trouble walking and constant feeling of tingling and numbness in the bottoms of my feet. They schedule me for a follow-up visit for April 2025 and send me on my way.
Fast forward to around Christmas, I start losing vision in my right eye. To get an idea of what my vision in my right eye looks like, google “Macular degeneration vision”. Thats what the vision in my right eye looked like, but much, much worse. It wasn’t getting worse rapidly, it was very gradual, so I wasn’t too alarmed, even though my friends and family urged me to go to the doctor.
In January, my vision was about 80% gone. At this point I knew there was an issue so I scheduled an eye appointment as fast as I could.
I found an eye appointment for the next day with an optometrist Dr. Yasmine Moharer-Sanaei at Memorial Eye Center in Rice Village. To this day I thank her. If it wasn’t for her, I would not have gone to the Houston Methodist ER and gotten a proper diagnosis.
I think I did something called a retinal eye scan (not sure if this is correct). Things went the same as they did with all my other appointments. Dr. Sanaei said things looked good. She couldn’t quite find out what the problem was. But instead of brushing me off, she listened to me when I said I couldn’t see out of my right eye. She continued to do eye exams with me to see what the problem was. She said my macula was kind of thin, but since it was my first time at the clinic, she said she had nothing to compare it to. She said my optic nerve looked okay, but that it maybe could be the problem. When she shined light into my right eye, she said it wasn’t reacting the way it should have. The end of our appointment was nonconclusive, but she said she would get back to me on Monday with next steps.
Dr. Sanaei ended up calling me back twice the following week, but I missed both calls. For one of them, I don’t remember I think I was at my part time job. But the second call back, I was napping, saw that she was calling, and went back to my nap. I am kind of anxious about calling doctors and setting up appointments and what not. I think it’s kind of a Gen-z thing haha.
I eventually call her office back, and I never directly spoke to Dr. Sanaei, but whoever the receptionist was told me that she left notes for me to go to the Houston Methodist ER. It was Monday afternoon, and I didn’t want to be at the ER all day, so even though it was going to snow on Tuesday in Houston, since I didn’t live very far from the Houston Methodist ER I decided to risk the drive and go. I assumed it wouldn’t be busy and I would be seen fast. That was pretty much true.
And now I have been at Houston Methodist receiving treatment ever since. I was only diagnosed with MOGAD like two days ago. I actually regret not playing in the snow a little more.
By Imani
