Disclosing eye condition to Med school?

[crestfallen_mourner]

Hi,

As I mentioned in the previous thread, I have been diagnosed with bilateral lattice degeneration.

Do I need to disclose this to my med school? Would not it be contrary to the oath taken in the White Coat Ceremony that I would disclose any health condition that might interfere with me providing competent health care?

Lattice degeneration can cause retinal detachment and hence blindness. I think it might interfere with my ability to provide competent care. Should I disclose this to my med school?

Or should I keep getting eye-check ups with my doc WITHOUT getting the school involved?

I dont want subconscious biases against my potential to be left disabled by this disease, by evaluators/Dean etc at my school, to be a deterrent in getting into my residency of choice.

Please help senior med students.

[future_doc]

I think watchful waiting is the way to go and satisfies your obligations.

[A-Stark]

You are under no legal obligation to inform them about any personal medical conditions at this point. However, your school doubtlessly has a separate student affairs office which you can communicate with regarding it - at Dal, anyway, this office is separate from evaluations/academics, so to maintain confidentiality and privacy for personal issues. I imagine your school is the same.

[ploughboy]

Lattice degeneration can cause retinal detachment and hence blindness. I think it might interfere with my ability to provide competent care. Should I disclose this to my med school?


I can see that your diagnosis has really rattled you. But, to be blunt, you can't let this condition define you as a person.

You *might* suffer retinal detachment at some point in the future -- not necessarily during medical school. Or you might not, ever. Even if you do suffer detachment, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will go blind. You certainly don't need to tell your school about your diagnosis. If this is really weighing on your mind, it might not be a bad idea to talk to your student affairs department

Seriously, dwelling on "ifs" and "maybes" is a good way to drive yourself crazy. You're about to start medical school, dude. Enjoy!

[peachy]

Yyour school doubtlessly has a separate student affairs office which you can communicate with regarding it - at Dal, anyway, this office is separate from evaluations/academics, so to maintain confidentiality and privacy for personal issues. I imagine your school is the same.Before disclosing anything to Student Affairs, I'd suggest finding out whether it really is confidential. Schools vary, what looks confidential isn't always. I've known individuals who have had very bad experiences involving student affairs at their school.

[brooksbane]

Do not tell your student affairs department. It is information that can be used against you in the future.

It sounds like you are confused and scared and need someone to talk to. Your student affairs department will not serve that function. Find someone else to talk to that is unrelated to the medical school.

[lostintime]

Yea it's probably like all those stipulations and exceptions when your psychiatrist tells you that what you say is "confidential". And I'm willing to bet many things could fall under the exceptions category for student affairs.

[rmorelan]

I wouldn't reveal it - not so much out of fear as simply it doesn't matter really. Currently it is not impacting your ability to do anything. If and only if it ever does then you have to consider possibly talking about it. Correct me if I am wrong but I though this detachment generally only happens to people 40-50 and beyond and has very high success rate at being repaired?

You really are I think (and I do understand where you are coming from of course) over stressing the importance of this from the schools point of view. The school isn't out to stop you, it is there to help you :)

[Karma]

Really, you shouldn't worry this much! IF your retina detaches itself, it's something that can be perfectly repaired and is done to many people every day.

You're not going to become blind with a retinal detachment!

And no, I don't think you should tell your med school about it.

[crestfallen_mourner]

thank you guys.

I've realized that I do not need to reveal this to my med school. I am sure there are many med students who have other issues which could hamper their ability to provide competent care in a temporal manner (such as migraine headaches (could affect ability to think at that moment), ringing in ears (may hear something wrong) etc etc) but they never get their school involved. Of course being blind is a bit more severe deterrent in dealing with patients and their test results but I hope future technology will overcome that.

Of course I will need to get my school involved IF I become blind so that alternative arrangements could be made for my exams/tests/clerkships etc. But only when that happens, before that I have no reason to get them involved because according to one doctor, the chances of developing RD from car accident/trauma are higher than from lattice.

Thank you for your input.

[Darla]

Take a peak at Chapter 5 of "Every Patient Tells a Story". It talks about a blind physician and how his practice is affected by his lack of sight. (spoiler - not much)

http://books.google.ca/books?id=wKp2xKBNWiMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=every+patient+tells+a+story&source=bl&ots=DT3-CZ0ucu&sig=OXK01sfBOep6r7MOXJIjWVrTHcI&hl=en&ei=BntyTJPOLMiknQeW_sS_CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

[ploughboy]

But only when that happens

*If* that happens.

Repeat after me: "I am not going to go blind during medical school." :D

[leviathan]

Seriously, dwelling on "ifs" and "maybes" is a good way to drive yourself crazy. You're about to start medical school, dude. Enjoy!
I worry that he's going to get a nasty spell of med studentitis in the near future. :)

[b3ar]

maybe send an anonymous email to ask for advice from your student affairs office?

[NLengr]

Do not reveal anything that could potentially harm you to the medical school. Nothing good could come of it. It could only hurt you. End of story.