In August 2023, I discovered that my vision had begun to fail. From one doctor to another, I eventually arrived at Rambam’s emergency department, where I underwent a visual field test: staring into white light and intermittent flashes, I pressed a button each time something became visible. Not unlike photography. (Appropriately, the machine was manufactured by ZEISS, a company known for making lenses.) The test revealed a mass in my brain pressing against my optic nerve, obscuring my view of the world in a way strikingly similar to the shapes that appeared during the examination itself. They told me it had to be removed. Quickly.

Within two weeks, I underwent transsphenoidal surgery to remove a macroadenoma through an endoscopic approach that leaves no visible scars. They drilled through the sinus cavity, opened a sphenoidal window, and through that opening, with a tiny curette, scraped the mass away. I remained hospitalized for a week with specialized nasal packing designed to absorb the blood that continued to drain. Breathing only through my mouth. Breathing