Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada (VKH) Finding out what is wrong with me Part 1 #vkh #autoimmunedisease

Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada (VKH) disease is an autoimmune-driven inflammation of ocular, auditory, and meningeal structures that all contain melanocytes, the elective target of the inflammatory reaction.1,2 The first structure to be involved in this process is the melanocyte islets in the choroidal stroma, where a stromal choroiditis develops.3,4 This inflammatory reaction can be detected early by investigational methods that reveal subclinical signs of choroidal inflammation such as spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) or indocyanine green angiography (ICGA).5,6 Such an early stage of the disease is accompanied by prodromal symptoms that can include headaches, auditory symptoms, and meningeal signs and symptoms.7,8 In case the early stage of disease is missed and/or not treated, the inflammatory process is spilling over and involves secondarily other ocular structures such as the optic disc and the retina, in a further step progressing to a granulomatous panuveitis and to chronic disease.9 I am a 47 Year Old Black African American Woman born and living in the US. I was presumed to have VKH a little over a week ago after seeing an Ophthalmologist, Next day a Retina Specialist who ordered 10 blood tests and a chest x-ray to rule out infection or types of HLA alleles. The test were negative and as of May 14, 2024 after my Uveitis Clinic appointment I have been diagnosed with Atypical VKH. Because this is a rare syndrome in many ways I felt compelled to record as much of my journey to recovery and cure as possible if it will help anyone else. I had always prided myself as being pretty healthy so this was a major shock and upset for me. I have faith that I will be healed and cured. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...