Birth control decision leads to loss of sight
With her loss of vision, Lynnette Hulett counts on a strong memory, hearing and sense of touch.
“By the time I was 21, I had my fourth child. I thought that was enough, so I wanted to get my tubes tied. But my doctor kept telling me, ‘You’re too young for that.’ Instead, he introduced me to Norplant, which was this birth control system where they insert little stems in your arm. He said, ‘It’s really good. It’s working great for people.’
“I had it done four weeks after my son was born. Within a week’s time, I started losing my vision. I would see something, but then all of a sudden it got much darker. I asked my mom why she turned off the lights. She said, ‘Lynnette, the lights are not off.’
“Then I was in the kitchen cooking one evening when my eyes just went totally black. It felt like somebody had put shades over my eyes. My mom took me to the doctor, and they told me I needed to go see a glaucoma specialist.
“The specialist confirmed it was glaucoma, but he couldn’t understand why it was so extreme in someone my age. I went to him five times. After having surgery and everything else, he still couldn’t figure out why the pressure in my right eye wouldn’t lower. That’s when I raised my arm and said, ‘Do you think this might be the problem?’ He said, ‘What is that?’ I said, ‘It’s birth control.’
“I told him that I felt like I started losing my sight once I got it. So he said, ‘My advice to you is go get it taken out, and come back to see me in two weeks.’ I went to the doctor’s office that same day to have it taken out. When I returned to the specialist he said, ‘Wow. Your pressure is so much lower, back to where it should have been from the get-go.’
“By then I had lost a good 80 percent vision in my right eye. Within a few years, it wiped out that eye totally to where I can only see light in front of me. And then it started taking away the peripheral vision in my left eye. Even with the stems out, I guess the medication itself was still in my system.
“It’s challenging, but I get by. Today is a good day. I can actually see you. Then I have other days where I see more blackness than anything. It comes and goes like that.
“But I thank God that the saying is true: When one sense goes, the other ones kick in. My memory is great. My hearing is excellent. I can hear two conversations going on at one time. And my sense of touch is wonderful. Sometimes I can touch money and tell you exactly what it is. So I’ve got that going for me.”
— Lynnette Hulett, 46
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