Man With Strange Pupils That Change in Sizes Diagnosed With Brain Tumor

A man shared how his strange yet cool pupils, which he thought were harmless, turned out to be a tumor. Aled Harris detailed the story about his brain tumor in a thread online.

Man With Strange Pupils Has Brain Tumor

On Tuesday, Harris posted about his health scare on the r/oddlyterrifying subreddit with the headline "My eyes started doing a this really cool looking-different sizes thing. (Turns out it's a tumour)." The post has gotten over 17,500 upvotes.

According to Harris, who spoke to Newsweek, he initially chose to ignore the condition, thinking it was probably not serious after looking it up online. However, he experienced occasional headaches, as everyone with the same condition does.

His pupils aren't always out of alignment. Most of the time, they return to normal. Harris, a children's poet, went to his neighborhood hospital to see an eye doctor for comfort.

However, his eyes were healthy during the first visit. The physician performed a few examinations, using a light and he was told everything was normal.

After a while, he developed anxiety. He couldn't help but feel like something was wrong because his eyes were still acting strangely.

Harris ultimately chose to return to the hospital. For his second visit, he decided to see a neurologist. His eyes were working normally and he was told to get an MRI, which discovered the tumor.

Harris said he would never forget seeing the scan with the tumor white-highlighted. It seemed enormous. His stomach dropped and at the time, he was unaware that brain tumors could be treated.

It is not cancer and the medical procedure is substantially simpler. Harris was thankful that he listened to his body and that his condition wasn't really that bad. According to him, the chances of success are high and everything is expected to return to normal after a few weeks.

He urged others not to ignore their concerns about their bodies, noting that conditions like wonky pupils could be something more serious than it seemed.

What Is Anisocoria?

According to Medline Plus, the unequal size of pupils is called anisocoria. The pupil is the black part in the center of the eye, which gets larger in dim light and smaller in bright light.

Slight differences in pupil sizes have been observed in up to 1 in 5 healthy individuals. Most often, diameter differences are less than 0.5 mm to 1 mm.

Babies born with different sizes of pupils don't necessarily have a disorder, especially if other family members have the same condition. The case could be genetic and should not be a cause for concern.

However, pupils could temporarily differ in size for unknown reasons and return to normal, just like Harris'. Unequal pupil sizes of more than 1 mm that develop later in life and do not return to equal size could be a sign of an eye, brain, blood vessel, or nerve disease.

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