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Medical Student Shows How People With Certain Medical Conditions See (19 Pics)
Medicinal progress is one of the best things that has happened to us. From the invention of antibiotics to organ transplants, from vaccination to new artificial intelligence techniques changing the ways we spot, examine and cure diseases, it has been making us live longer and healthier.
No wonder medicine has captured our imagination, fueling pop culture with shows like Grey’s Anatomy and making us reevaluate how much we know and don't know about some medical conditions. And Kelvin Fiagbe, a Ghana-based medical student and video creator, has a lot to say about the topic!
Kelvin has been creating educational videos on the most fascinating medical facts and explaining mysterious conditions to his 476K TikTok followers. Recently, he made a whole video series showing how people see with various medical conditions, such as diabetic retinopathy or glaucoma.
@med_kelvin How people see ##medical ##medicine ##medicineexplained ##education ##learnontiktok ##edutok ##glaucoma
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I don't find it that very desciptive of how it is to experience an aura. I think a more precise description would be to imagine looking at a very colourfull patcwork under stong sunlight for a minute or two. The aura acts like the "after-image" on your retina being superimposed on what you see. It is kind of there and not there at the same time, and not something stationary you can focus on. Another peculiar phenomenom is that your periferal vision just vanishes at the same time. It does not go black, it just does no longer exist. It is like the way you cannot see what is behind your head, but you do not see your head as a black obstacle, that part of the world is just simply not seen.
Yeah, starts as if you've looked into the sun, then mine begins to snake around similar to the picture, but mine has colour and flashes until it fills my entire field of vision. Theres some videos which are exactly what I experience. Google "scintillating scotoma"
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I have these, fortunately without the pain. It sort of looks like that, but is in constant motion and some of the combinations of colour and light are - for a lack of a better word - impossible.
Same here, no pain, phew, but the scintilating zig zag snake getting bigger and bigger over field of vision. Also feeling of discombobulation. If you're a woman taking birth control pills or HRT, hormones seem to make it more frequent.
Load More Replies... I think everyone's experience with aura is different. I get a thing where my hearing suddenly becomes a lot more sensitive and then I get an aura that looks like television static, but my sister sees blinking lights.
I was running around house thinking something is burning. Like cables, hair dryer etc. Though it was brain tumour, went to doctor. He said it is because of migrene. Crazy.
Load More Replies... For anyone who has experienced this late in life it is a bit worrying. It starts as a small spot and spreads across the field of vision, it can manifest with or without pain. Mine came without and the doctor had no idea that it could be a migraine without pain
You should be very gratefull that you do not experience the horible pain. It feels like the worst hangovers you have ever had, and you are partly hoping that you'll die from it just to get it overwith. The only thing you can do to relieve the pain, is lying completely still in a totally dark room as the slightest rise in your pulse from movement can be felt as a knocking in your head, and seeing light feels like staring into the sun. It quickly becomes boring like hell and have to be tolerated for hours, only interupted by throwing up, even after your stomic is totally empty. Do not recomend.
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Mine never looked like that. It was more like sparkles flickering on and off, like fireworks. Sometimes, my vision went entirely dark and I couldn't see at all.
I have the sparkles type of aura, but never have lost vision during a migraine.
Load More Replies... Yeah, this is bullcrap, as the auras visualize differently for every. f*cking. person. with migraine. Why do people (who most probably don't suffer from migraine themselves, in this example) have to "explain" stuff they can't possibly understand themselves?
This happened to me for the first time 2 days ago! So wild. I thought I was going blind, but then boom....intense migraine!
while it's nice that they are trying to show how people experience those conditions it's impossible to display the full spectrum in this picture. There are so many different manifestations of an aura - for me it's the white colours that start to shift/wiggle at first, followed by blind spots in my vision where objects/letters just disappear.
Optical migraine is that same image moving across your field of vision, thankfully mine usually lasts 10 minutes or less but very scary if I am driving. There is no associated headache
Yup that's me. But the blindness is not with those sharp lines. My whole vision just dissapears on one side.
Horribly familiar - but there are others too; like the sudden flash that seems like lighting in your head. And double vision. Ugh.
Actually the aura is a lot like pins & needles, but for your eyes, and only on a specific spot that can move around
I think auras are different for people. I've had something like that spiral around in my vision. Not blocking my vision but making it difficult to focus. My nephew looses sight in one eye completely.
my dad has ocular migraines, which are the aura sort of effect without pain, and i had a single incident where i had something like this. i suddenly had a crescent-shaped area in my vision that just wasn't there. as jon steensen says, it's not black, it's just not there. it lasted about fifteen minutes and then everything was fine.
I get these. They are also called an Optical Migraine. Sometimes towards the end of an episode I experience the feeling that I am looking through water. Length of attack varies from 15 minutes to an hour. It depends on the person as everyone is different. How I deal with an episode is to lay down close my eyes in a dark room, it helps some.
I have this! Although it looks different. My migraine aura is in a crescent moon shape and it’s more patches of colorful squares. Also it’s not as big and is in the bottom right corner of my eyesight. I also have a little bit of a stammer when I speak which someone told me might be related to this. Luckily, it doesn’t affect my eyesight too much but sometimes reading a book is difficult
I get frequent migraines with aura. No description really covers exactly what it's like.
This looks accurate for ocular migraines. I get those - they have the weird visual impact but thankfully no pain. From the comments on here it looks like a few others get them, too. Most of the time it’s just a nuisance but if it comes on when I’m driving I have to pull over until it stops.
Aura looks nothing like this for me, most of the lower half of the photo would be black with shiny rainbow edges. Spots across the rest, very much like what you see after staring into the sun or after a flash from a camera, only more spots, less vision and it lasts for at least half an hour. Harbinger of pain.
What's in this picture is ocular migraine. I have it. The most interesting thing is why the field that's left after the fireworks is blank - basically, due to chemical changes in your brain, the neurons responsible for seeing pictures go on a wild party and fire off all at once (hence the colorful, vibrant thing). It spreads, most often outwards from one point. After that "party" they are too tired to work for a bit, so you don't see anything for a couple of minutes. The whole attack usually lasts for an hour or so.
I have this. I know a migraine is coming when my side vision has that aura.
I am suffering from migraine since i was a kid until now. Experienced a migraine with aura last 2018, it appears to be a small blinking rainbow zigzag thing and becomes bigger until it disappear for about 30 minutes. Still glad i don't experience this aura for every migraine i had cause my head aches for almost everyday. I have noticed that mine only occurs like a certain time of the year, like a 3-4 consecutive days of the year and it will occur again for the next year.
I see those zig-zaggy artifacts from time to time, and have read them characterized as "visual migraines" which is strange because I've never had a migraine headache in my life.
My auras are more like everything is melting instead of just flashes or flares.
My vision does this but without any initial pain. Only the squiggle starts in a square pattern and eventually covers more and more of my vision. The first time I experienced this was at work and I won't lie, it scared the crap out of me. Just knew I was experiencing a stroke or something.
I have these if I'm at risk to get a migraine. Sometimes I can head off the pain, pun intended.
I have these. Painless for me, it starts like a small circle like in the picture and my entire vision is, I say dimmed for a lack of a better word, and the circle rotates and gets bigger over an hour or so until it gets big enough to leave my field of vision if that makes sense. Happens 2 or 3 times a year randomly.
I have had migraines since I was a kid. Most of the time, there is a visual aura. Can't speak for anyone else, but it looks absolutely nothing like this
Bored Panda reached out to Kelvin Fiagbe, the creator of these medical videos that are going viral on TikTok, to find out more about him. Kelvin is a 2nd year physician assistantship student in Ghana.
“I joined TikTok in May 2020. I started with comedy and found out that it wasn't really for me,” he recounted. “So I switched to medical content since I'm already in the medical field. I make medicine-related videos, from rare conditions to how people see, to guessing the name of the medical equipment.”
"Oh, squiggly line in my eye fluid. I see you lurking there on the periphery of my vision. But when I try to look at you, you scurry away. Are you shy, squiggly line? Why only when I ignore you, do you return to the center of my eye? Oh, squiggly line, it's alright, you are forgiven."
as someone that has this one... i'm not sure if the inset is the full color, or the skewed one
Kelvin said he’s been interested in medicine for as long as he remembers. “I used to have a first aid kit at home and usually play with it. But I realized that in medicine, I can actually help so many people and that makes me happy.”
When asked what rare medical condition fascinates him the most, Kelvin said it’s mirror-touch synesthesia. “Imagine feeling what other people feel just by seeing them, but there are many more.” Turns out, he learns these interesting facts from the medical shows that he likes so much as well as studying them in class.
The TikTok creator also said that he’s really glad to be able to “give people value and educate them every day.”
For all the people saying that this is cute, maybe it adds nice aesthetic to one picture, but would you really want live you life seeing this the entire time??
According to the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention, more than 4.2 million Americans aged 40 years and older are either legally blind or have low vision. The leading causes of blindness and low vision in the US are primarily age-related eye diseases. These include macular degeneration, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma, amblyopia and strabismus.
Refractive errors are the most common vision impairment in the US that makes it hard for a person to see clearly. It’s estimated that there are more than 150 million Americans with the condition. Reflective errors happen when the shape of your eye keeps light from focusing correctly on your retina (a light-sensitive layer of tissue in the back of your eye).
Other common eyesight conditions include cataract, which is a clouding of the eye’s lens and is the leading cause of blindness worldwide, and the leading cause of vision loss in the US. They can occur at any age and in some cases can be present since birth.
I have this and it gets worse if i'm tired or have a fibro flare up. Looking at anything with close stripes is a nightmare and really hurts my head and eyes. Sometimes the edges of things look like they have faint motion lines like you would see in a cartoon when something is drawn to look like it's shaking.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR), which you’ve seen in the video, is the condition that results from a common complication of diabetes. It progressively damages the blood vessels of the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye that is necessary for good vision. DR usually affects both eyes.
Sheldon kind of explained it perfectly. The things that bother him sensory wise is like an itchy sweater on your brain that you can't scratch and can't ignore.
I have visual snow (found out after talking to my eye doctor this year and she said it was my brain and not my eyes). Mine doesn't quite look like that, think an out of tune tube TV. Where you can see the show and the color but there is static everywhere. It makes it really hard to see in the dark too. If you're curious about it look it up, it's crazy how uncommon it is.
Glaucoma is another common group of diseases characterized by damage to the eye’s optic nerve, which occurs when the normal fluid pressure inside the eyes slowly rises. However, recent findings now show that glaucoma can occur with normal eye pressure. It can lead to severe vision loss and blindness.
I have visual snow, and I guess it's different for everyone because the first two pictures with the ripples I don't see, but the third picture it pretty much what I see.
sheesh I didn't realise this was a thing, I thought I was just broken
Not saying that it would be cool to always see like this, but the first picture actually looks nice.
More like Glaucoma that wasn't controlled and killed that person's peripheral vision. I was diagnosed with it over 20 years ago and other than being nearsighted, I see fine.
A lot of this post is exaggerated or completely incorrect. It feels like this person did a quick wikipedia search, read one paragraph, then posted. Also, a lot these very from person to person. I'm sure any medical professional would look at this and scoff.
Yes, but it's being nicely completed and corrected by panda friends, adding very interesting comments.
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Nothing for Scotoma? This is loss of vision in a part of the visual field or blind spot. I guess that we don't see the world any differently, because your brain makes up for the missing piece. You need to keep moving your eyes, otherwise the "made up" image gets stale and you miss things. For example when I am tired, I will sometimes walk into door frames because I forget to move my eyes and misjudge where they are.
I have astigmatism iirc and for me the picture for it was quite exaggarted. Stuff does get slightly distorted and blurry but it's nowhere near this level (for me not everyone)
I second your description, Cloudy Puff. Did you happen to see a different BP article that showed the "light lines" people with astigmatism get? Apparently not knowing was bothering my subconscious and I didn't even realise. There was surprising sense of relief that it actually is a known phenomenon and it has an explanation https://www.boredpanda.com/with-without-astigmatism-vision-comparison/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
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There isn't a condition called legally blind. The loss of or lack of clear visual acuity can be caused by many different things. Most of these things are correctable with glasses and or surgery. However, if you cannot be corrected better than 20/200 or if your field of vision is less than 20 degrees then you are legally blind from a US disability definition standpoint. That will look very different in each case.
Thank you! I have commented on a few different posts and websites trying to explain this (mostly where people say stuff like "legally blind? They shouldn't be allowed to this or that" Legally blind does not mean they're blind as a bat (also bats aren't blind, they have very good vision actually, but that's a different story)
Load More Replies... I have astigmatism, nystagmus, amblyopia, double vision and i get migraine aura's. I only read online articles on my desktop pc with a large very bright monitor screen with a 150% zoom at around a 14 or 15 inch distance. I can see them pretty well with this setup but i'm lost if I try to view them on a phone or tablet without zooming right in and with brightness turned up to maximum and my hand blocking out any screen reflection.
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No. I have astigmatism and don't see distorted images. I have floaters, they are very hard to see, I have to shut my eyes to notice them. My son has deuteranopia and it's not that extreme, it's quite mild, yes he can see red and green. My brother is legally blind, he can use a computer and cellphone, he sees clearly in the small spots that he has left. I also have myopia, no it does NOT look like that, every ting is clear except a long way away and they just have fuzzy edges, not some big blur of nothingness. Who the hell wrote this????
The article didn't say it was the exact same for everyone. This is to get the gist, for all-seers to basically get some idea of what it looks like for most people with this or that condition. The majority with a certain condition will see this/that or something similar. It's not an exact science. It could be different for him, for her, for you, for god knows who, but it does give a good idea of what certain vision impairments (might) look like Personally I think they did very well on this article. They did the research and to the best of their abilities showed what certain conditions might look like
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So far in my life I have had personal experience with astygmatism, extreme myopia, visual snow, scintillating scotomas (the migraine auras), a detached retina (it looks somewhat like the diabetic retinopathy, except the black spots start at the utmost periphery of your visual field and slowly creep inwards), double vision after the surgery that followed and now cataract in the eye that was operated upon, also as a result. And different kinds of floaters. I wonder whether there is some kind of trophy I could be eligible for.
Is it just me or was this very scary for someone that doesn't have any of these conditions? I can't begin to imagine how terrible this must be for someone.
My sister has 10% vision, so she's had to use workarounds. My mother was pretty determined to make her succeed in school. She instructed her to explain her needs to the teacher at the beginning of the school year (such as sitting at the front, being allowed to leave her desk to get closer to the blackboard, etc.), and that in exchange for accommodation, she should work hard.
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My second cousin's wife has a condition called Achromatopsia where she can only see in black and white and shades of grey. No colour at all whatsoever. Her whole life looks like an old black and white movie.
there used to be a great site where you could tweak various sliders and add shapes or lines to a photo to help simulate exactly what you see in various situations (night driving, bright sunlight, etc), and then you could share it with an eye doctor or other medical person. a lot of it was more accurate than the stuff here, but i did learn some stuff here!
They forgot Retina Pigmentosa. Horrible horrible degenrative loss of peripheral vision and night blindness.
Has anyone had an Ocular Migraine? My first was very scary. I was at work and out of nowhere my vision felt off. A few minutes later. Basically saw kaleidoscope and twinkly lights in my line of vision. I had someone drive me to eye doctor right away. The Doctor told me what it was. And it’s nothing to worry about. I have had several over the years. They usually last 20-30 minutes for me. And most of the time no headache afterwards. However super scary the first time it happens. And not knowing what it is.
Where's "weird RGB dots that fly towards your face when you're in the dark"?
These are all WAY off base, and this post should really be removed, as too many folks are believing this bull crap! 🤦🏽♀️
Probably not 1%, but I'm one of the few who sneeze when looking at the sun (or a bright lamp, or when something feels different in my nose, of when I brush my hair and a single hair or small strand gets stuck in the brush). Also I saw a few redheads, Green eyed redhead here, They say it's so rare, but I've spent many a night at the bar with whole groups of greeneyed redheads (no, seriously, like 3, 4, 5, 6 of us all together and no, we do not live in Ireland). . . Edit: I have no proof of this, honestly don't know if I could even get it and I only recently learned this is a thing. I don't break any bones. I don't know what the condition if called, but apparently a select few never break a bone. Yea, I am one of those. Had plenty break-worthy accidents, never broke so much as a pinky toe
A lot of this post is exaggerated or completely incorrect. It feels like this person did a quick wikipedia search, read one paragraph, then posted. Also, a lot these very from person to person. I'm sure any medical professional would look at this and scoff.
Yes, but it's being nicely completed and corrected by panda friends, adding very interesting comments.
Load More Replies... Nothing for Scotoma? This is loss of vision in a part of the visual field or blind spot. I guess that we don't see the world any differently, because your brain makes up for the missing piece. You need to keep moving your eyes, otherwise the "made up" image gets stale and you miss things. For example when I am tired, I will sometimes walk into door frames because I forget to move my eyes and misjudge where they are.
I have astigmatism iirc and for me the picture for it was quite exaggarted. Stuff does get slightly distorted and blurry but it's nowhere near this level (for me not everyone)
I second your description, Cloudy Puff. Did you happen to see a different BP article that showed the "light lines" people with astigmatism get? Apparently not knowing was bothering my subconscious and I didn't even realise. There was surprising sense of relief that it actually is a known phenomenon and it has an explanation https://www.boredpanda.com/with-without-astigmatism-vision-comparison/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
Load More Replies... There isn't a condition called legally blind. The loss of or lack of clear visual acuity can be caused by many different things. Most of these things are correctable with glasses and or surgery. However, if you cannot be corrected better than 20/200 or if your field of vision is less than 20 degrees then you are legally blind from a US disability definition standpoint. That will look very different in each case.
Thank you! I have commented on a few different posts and websites trying to explain this (mostly where people say stuff like "legally blind? They shouldn't be allowed to this or that" Legally blind does not mean they're blind as a bat (also bats aren't blind, they have very good vision actually, but that's a different story)
Load More Replies... I have astigmatism, nystagmus, amblyopia, double vision and i get migraine aura's. I only read online articles on my desktop pc with a large very bright monitor screen with a 150% zoom at around a 14 or 15 inch distance. I can see them pretty well with this setup but i'm lost if I try to view them on a phone or tablet without zooming right in and with brightness turned up to maximum and my hand blocking out any screen reflection.
Load More Replies... No. I have astigmatism and don't see distorted images. I have floaters, they are very hard to see, I have to shut my eyes to notice them. My son has deuteranopia and it's not that extreme, it's quite mild, yes he can see red and green. My brother is legally blind, he can use a computer and cellphone, he sees clearly in the small spots that he has left. I also have myopia, no it does NOT look like that, every ting is clear except a long way away and they just have fuzzy edges, not some big blur of nothingness. Who the hell wrote this????
The article didn't say it was the exact same for everyone. This is to get the gist, for all-seers to basically get some idea of what it looks like for most people with this or that condition. The majority with a certain condition will see this/that or something similar. It's not an exact science. It could be different for him, for her, for you, for god knows who, but it does give a good idea of what certain vision impairments (might) look like Personally I think they did very well on this article. They did the research and to the best of their abilities showed what certain conditions might look like
Load More Replies... So far in my life I have had personal experience with astygmatism, extreme myopia, visual snow, scintillating scotomas (the migraine auras), a detached retina (it looks somewhat like the diabetic retinopathy, except the black spots start at the utmost periphery of your visual field and slowly creep inwards), double vision after the surgery that followed and now cataract in the eye that was operated upon, also as a result. And different kinds of floaters. I wonder whether there is some kind of trophy I could be eligible for.
Is it just me or was this very scary for someone that doesn't have any of these conditions? I can't begin to imagine how terrible this must be for someone.
My sister has 10% vision, so she's had to use workarounds. My mother was pretty determined to make her succeed in school. She instructed her to explain her needs to the teacher at the beginning of the school year (such as sitting at the front, being allowed to leave her desk to get closer to the blackboard, etc.), and that in exchange for accommodation, she should work hard.
Load More Replies... My second cousin's wife has a condition called Achromatopsia where she can only see in black and white and shades of grey. No colour at all whatsoever. Her whole life looks like an old black and white movie.
there used to be a great site where you could tweak various sliders and add shapes or lines to a photo to help simulate exactly what you see in various situations (night driving, bright sunlight, etc), and then you could share it with an eye doctor or other medical person. a lot of it was more accurate than the stuff here, but i did learn some stuff here!
They forgot Retina Pigmentosa. Horrible horrible degenrative loss of peripheral vision and night blindness.
Has anyone had an Ocular Migraine? My first was very scary. I was at work and out of nowhere my vision felt off. A few minutes later. Basically saw kaleidoscope and twinkly lights in my line of vision. I had someone drive me to eye doctor right away. The Doctor told me what it was. And it’s nothing to worry about. I have had several over the years. They usually last 20-30 minutes for me. And most of the time no headache afterwards. However super scary the first time it happens. And not knowing what it is.
Where's "weird RGB dots that fly towards your face when you're in the dark"?
These are all WAY off base, and this post should really be removed, as too many folks are believing this bull crap! 🤦🏽♀️
Probably not 1%, but I'm one of the few who sneeze when looking at the sun (or a bright lamp, or when something feels different in my nose, of when I brush my hair and a single hair or small strand gets stuck in the brush). Also I saw a few redheads, Green eyed redhead here, They say it's so rare, but I've spent many a night at the bar with whole groups of greeneyed redheads (no, seriously, like 3, 4, 5, 6 of us all together and no, we do not live in Ireland). . . Edit: I have no proof of this, honestly don't know if I could even get it and I only recently learned this is a thing. I don't break any bones. I don't know what the condition if called, but apparently a select few never break a bone. Yea, I am one of those. Had plenty break-worthy accidents, never broke so much as a pinky toe
