Photosensitivity -- any solutions? Career and University Issues.?

Question

I am extremely photosensitive -- and would like to ask for possible life strategies that may help.

So far, I've thought of the following:

- moving to a cloudy/foggy place like Newfoundland
- moving somewhere with a vast underground tunnel system, like Toronto
- does anyone know if U of Toronto is connected to this underground tunnel system?

The biggest problem I have is I cannot even be in a room with a window, or my skin burns, swells and eyes get blurry.

I was hoping to be able to pursue medicine as a career -- but I don't know if this will be possible now. I would have to have all my lectures in rooms without windows, which could be possible -- and would have to do my rotations at night. It's so restricting.

I am currently looking for a University with an excellent Disability/AccessAbility policy. University of Toronto looks promising.

Any other ideas?

Sincere thanks.

Answer 1

Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running!

Photophobia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Photophobia

Classification & external resources ICD-10 H53.1

ICD-9 368.13

DiseasesDB 24599

MedlinePlus 003041

MeSH D020795

Photophobia (also light sensitivity) or fear of light, is a symptom of excessive sensitivity to light and the aversion to sunlight or well-lit places. In medical terms, it is not fear, but an experience of discomfort or pain to the eyes due to light exposure.



Light sensitivity is usually due to too much light entering the eye, which causes over stimulation of the photoreceptors in the retina and subsequent excessive electric impulses to the optic nerve. This leads to a reflex aversion to light, and discomfort or pain. Too much light can enter the eye if it is damaged, such as with corneal abrasion and retinal damage, or if a pupil(s) is unable to normally constrict (seen with damage to the oculomotor nerve).



Patients with photophobia will avert their eyes from direct light (sunlight and room lights), or may seek the shelter of a dark room or wear sunglasses.



Photophobia is also a behavior demonstrated by insects or animals which seek to stay out of the light.



Contents [hide]

1 Causes

2 In mythology

3 In fiction

4 See also

5 References

6 External Links







[edit] Causes

Patients may develop photophobia as a result of several different medical conditions, related to the eye or the nervous system.



Meningitis

Eye disease, injury, or infection such as chalazion, episcleritis, glaucoma, keratoconus

Albinism

Burns to the eye

Migraines

Encephalitis

Conjunctivitis

Aphakia

Iritis

Corneal abrasion

Corneal ulcer

Cataracts

Retinal detachment

Chiari malformation

Anticholinergic drugs may cause photophobia by paralyzing the iris sphincter muscle.





[edit] In mythology

In folklore and mythology, many creatures suffer from photophobia - or heliophobia, a specific fear of sunlight.



The Norse troll is said to either turn to stone or become trapped above ground when the sun rises.

According to Paracelsus, gnomes explode when they go above ground. As C.S. Lewis puts it, "if he thrust out his face…[it] would break into splinters, bursting as a man would burst in interstellar space." - though in fact, humans exposed to the vacuum of space experience no such spectacular effect.

In English folklore, goblins are said to be unable to bear light.

A common element of the vampire myth says that vampires perish, generally by burning or turning to ash, when exposed to direct sunlight.



[edit] In fiction

In J.R.R. Tolkien's works, goblins are said to get wobbly legs and become giddy in the head when outside, while trolls turn to stone.

In Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, the zombies from the movie Zombies in the Snow are forced to retreat during daylit hours.

In the films Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch, both the Mogwai and Gremlins are incredibly sensitive to bright light; direct sunlight on their skin will kill them in a matter of seconds.

It is common tradition in literature that vampires burn and/or explode when exposed to light, which was first introduced in the 1922 German film Nosferatu. Contrary to popular thought, Bram Stoker's Dracula did not originate this convention.

In the films 'Blade', 'Blade 2' and 'Blade 3', Wesley Snipes plays a half vampire half human, known as 'The Daywalker', i.e. a vampire that can walk in the light without fear of burning/exploding.

A character from the anime Ouran High School Host Club, Umehito Nekozawa, avoids light, and wears a hood all the time to protect himself from it. When exposed to light for a short time, he collapses, but he eventually gets over it.

prot (lower-case is proper) from the planet K-PAX (upper case is proper), wears dark glasses while on our planet because he can see ultraviolet light and would be blind without them.



[edit] See also

Heliophobia, fear of sunlight

Photosensitivity, the amount to which an object reacts upon receiving photons of light

Erythropoietic protoporphyria, a disease manifesting itself with painful photosensitivity



[edit] References

Lewis, C.S. Poems: C.S. Lewis. U.S.: Harvest/HBJ, 1964. ISBN 0-15-672248-8.





[edit] External Links

Photophobia (Light Sensitivity) at allaboutvision.com

This medical sign article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.



Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photophobia"

Categories: Phobias | Neurology | Ophthalmology | Medical sign stubs

ViewsArticle Discussion Edit this page History Personal toolsSign in / create account Navigation

Main page

Contents

Featured content

Current events

Random article

interaction

About Wikipedia

Community portal

Recent changes

Contact us

Make a donation

Help

Search

Toolbox

What links here

Related changes

Upload file

Special pages

Printable version

Permanent link

Cite this article

In other languages

Deutsch

Français

עברית

Nederlands

Polski

Русский

Српски / Srpski



This page was last modified 01:54, 27 March 2007. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.)

Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a US-registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity.

Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers

Answer 2

Actually, in response to another post, it's not that easy to start a career when you're older. You might be able to pull it off when you're in your 30s but that means that you will have had your children when you were still in your teens or early 20s. The reason for that is that there is a lot of age discrimination in our society. For the most part, employers simply aren't interested in hiring people who are over 40, especially if they are women who have been out of the workforce for years. The only jobs these women can get are usually minimum wage jobs with few or no benefits. The best thing for women to do is the keep their foot in the door, so to speak. That could mean working part time when the children are small and then expanding to full time when they are older. It's much easier to find work when you are already employed than if you dropped out and are trying to re-enter the job market. You basically are starting all over again and aren't considered to be of any more value than a young person fresh out of high school or college.

Answer 3

UofT has quite a few night classes. They also have an Accessibility Service place where, if you have documentation from a doctor, they will accomodiate you.



The tunnel system only goes up to Dundas, but is accessible from the subway which runs all over (only above ground sometimes, never in the downtown core) The path has alot of stores, connects to the Eaton Centre and will bring you right near other places (movie theatre, plays, tourist points)