BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...

Subject: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: GUEST,Fossil
Date: 05 Oct 03 - 10:06 AM

Straightening up from a cat-brushing session Friday afternoon - no pain, no warning but THERE IT WAS - in front of my left eye, a writhing black snake-like object. In the centre of my field of vision. My eye moved, it moved. I couldn't see anything with that eye, except around the edges. I thought I'd got something into my eye, possibly a bit of cat-fur, but couldn't see anything and bathing the eye totally failed to move it. After an hour or two it seemed to coagulate to a smaller black blob surrounded by a grey haze - like looking at the world through grey net curtains. The other eye was unaffectd.

Saturday morning, off to the local hospital where the opthalmologist said that a bit of my retina had become detached. She nailed it back with the laser and I have got to see the specialist on Monday. She said the black object and the haze were due to matter released into the vitreous part of the eye by a damaged blood vessel and they should resolve away given time. I sure hope so. Although I have got more used to it now, it is still a big problem.

Has anyone else on the 'cat had anything like this happen to them? And did it resolve at all? Any help on this would be most welcome.

Thanks all, Fossil.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: Amos
Date: 05 Oct 03 - 10:14 AM

Sympathies, Fossil. I haven't had it happen but I had an Aunt who had a similarly shocking loss of sight and wrote a book about it, called "Eyes" (Eleanor Clark). Dunno if it is still in print or not. I know it is not direct help, sorry. I wish you the best with the recovery.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: GUEST,Sledge
Date: 05 Oct 03 - 10:42 AM

Hi Fossil,

I used to work on a hospital ward that often dealt with eye trauma usually from playing squash (raquet ball). Bleeds into the various chambers of the eye and retinal detachments were the most common and usually resloved without any further problems and that was nearly 20 years ago and techniques are that much better now.

Hope alls clear for you soonest.

Cheers

Sledge

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Oct 03 - 11:21 AM

My mom had a detached retina and I recall that the doctor had her lie still, in one position, for a couple of weeks. I don't know how she managed the usual trips to the bathroom, bathing, etc. or if she had to limit it to a few minutes a day.

A friend of mine had a problem with "floaters" recently and it was attributed to getting dehydrated while she was out doing yard work.

It's a scary situation. Take very good care of yourself and follow your doctor's directions.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Oct 03 - 11:25 AM

Apparently it is, Amos - Eyes - Eleanor Clark And very sensibly, in a large print edition.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Oct 03 - 02:07 PM

I had a floater last year which has gone away with more hydration and a change in diet. Good luck, Fossil.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Oct 03 - 03:50 PM

ER.. define floater please? - in the UK it can be either a dead body washed up in the nearest river (most commonly the Thames) or an unflushed... well... you know....

Sympathies to you Fossil - I live with 2 small black specks that come and go - optometrist has no explaination for them, there is no logical, medical or psycological reason, but still I have them. I notice that they are less obvious when I've drunk lots of water.

Take care and don't try to focus on them, you'll give yourself a headache!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: GUEST,Santa
Date: 05 Oct 03 - 04:02 PM

I've had floaters as long as I can remember - a few years ago my optician got all worried and sent me to clinic for he'd spotted a problem. This turned out to be blood leaking into my left retina, and has left me with a small blank in my vision near the centre. If I look at a plain wall I can see this spot and chase it around trying to look at it directly. Shortly after this was discovered I had my first migraine at work: when the jaggies appeared I really thought that my retina had come off and felt pretty bad.

It hasn't got any worse: it has certainly not helped the modelling I do for I cannot get a straight line with that eye: presumably the retina is wrinkled slightly. Given that I'm now at the age where I can't see close work (I never could see at a distance) I could do without any other problems but it isn't being a problem now.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Oct 03 - 04:31 PM

Floaters are particles in the vitreous humor (the liquid inside the eyeball) that move around. Chances are we all have a few at any given time, but a large one will have distinct edges and drift around, such as from top to bottom of your vision, blurring or blocking what you're actually looking at. You can see them, like long strands of dust. Here is an illustration that might help. If you follow the Table of Contents from that page you'll find a lot of interesting stuff.

SRS

P.S. be sure to click on those business adds this thread is generating, add a few fractions of a cent to the Mudcat coffers!

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Oct 03 - 06:22 PM

And remarkably apt adverts for then threads they are too, much of the time - lkke right now they're about Laser Eye Surgery.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: Mudlark
Date: 05 Oct 03 - 07:47 PM

Hi Fossil...

If this is what you had, posterior vitreous detachment (PVD), it is a very common, usually harmless condition that usually hits as fossil age approaches. As the vitreous pulls free from the retina, it is often accompanied by light flashes or floaters. Floaters are caused by tiny bits of vitreous gel or cells that cast shadows on the retina. Flashes occur when the vitreous tugs on the sensitive retina tissue.

When it happens in one eye, if usually, tho not always, occurs in the other within a few months.

It happened to my R eye first, while I was driving. Yikes...thought at first the windshild was full of..???? what looked like the kind of things you see under a microscope. Eye doc explained it's basically an aging problem and that usually in time all floaters disappear.

They did in my right eye, but when it happened to my left eye they did not. I'm left with a sort of elongated upside down script Y shape, but since i have mac. degen. in that eye, plus a little hemoraging that has obscured a small area of the retina, maybe the floaters have sort of hung up on all that damage.

In any case...give it time. And if worst comes to worst and all of the floating stuff doesn't disappear, it's amazing what you can get used to, over time.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: Mark Clark
Date: 06 Oct 03 - 12:19 AM

Fossil, I sure hope your eye gets better and there is no permanent vision loss. With some types of eye problems the best clinics can perform miricles. Other types of problems seem to have no solution.

I’ve been “partially sighted” for a couple of years now and for the most part, I’ve gotten used to it. I think there are millions of one-eyed folks walking around doing just fine.

In my case it was a central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO); it’s the same thing as a stroke but it happens in the retina instead of the brain. I awoke one morning thinking my vision was funny and it took a few minutes before I realized there was a large area in the center of my left eye with no vision. As it happened, I had an appointment with my PCP that morning anyway so I mentioned it to her and she got me in at the eye clinic that same day. Not much to do about it though. The vessels are too tiny to operate on.

There were two concerns in my case. One was the possibility that I might also be at risk for stroke so they put me through all kinds of scans and tests designed to check for that—all negative. The other possibility was that the eye would try to grow new blood vessels to replace the blocked ones resulting in increased pressure inside the eye, a condition known as neovascular glaucoma. That possibility is the one that came to pass so they used a laser to burn enough retinal tissue to discourage the new blood vessels. That has seemed to work okay as long as I continue to use some rather expensive eye drops to manage the pressure. Of course I’m left with no really useful vision in the left eye but the other option was to let it go until the pain became unbearable and replace the eye with a prosthetic.

Of course without parallax distance measurement provided by two well focused eyes, my depth perception from zero to five feet is gone but one develops ways to work around the problem. Things like driving aren’t affected as much since realative size and motion are more important than parallax at those distances. One benefit is that I no longer seem to have any fear of heights. I can help with roofing projects for example without being anxious near the edge of the roof. I guess I don’t have any visual cues that ground is farther away than the roof I’m standing on.

If anything should happen to my remaining good eye, the left one wouldn’t allow me to read or see films or anything like that but I think it might keep me from running into walls so it’s worth trying to keep.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: GUEST,KB
Date: 06 Oct 03 - 03:55 AM

My dad had a tear in his retina a couple of years ago - he also had the laser treatment to repair it. His vision is fine now. So it sounds like it might just take a while to clear, but should be fine after a while.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Oct 03 - 09:59 PM

I have Fuch's syndrome which can change the focus of either or both eyes without notice. Some days I may not need glasses but others no glasses correct the variable changes. It amounts to not being able to read some days but will not lead to a sightless condition.

I wish I knew if there is a food trigger but I am not sure.

Subject: RE: BS: Help! Suddenly I'm partially sighted...
From: GUEST,Fossil again
Date: 07 Oct 03 - 11:09 AM

Well, thanks everyone for the kind words and reassurances.

I saw the specialist yesterday and had cryogenic surgery to weld back a tear that had developed in my left retina. While this was about as unpleasant a way of spending half an hour as you can imagine, it was over eventually and hopefully will fix the problem (that's the good news). Bad news is that I apparently have the same problem developing in the other eye so will have to be a bit careful for a while. I still have the "floater", which has now settled down to being a black blob surrounded by a grey cloud. It's apparently caused by blood leaking into the vitreous fluid and should resolve with time. At the moment it has become a source of interest in naming the various shapes that it takes on - currently it looks like a fish (possibly a Mudcatfish....). But thanks again everyone - particularly Mark (Oneeye) Clark.

And finally, Guess what was the subject of the Radio 4
broadcast I was listening to this morning? A
documentary about the charity that arranges for
doctors to fly around Africa in a
specially-fitted-out aeroplane, doing eye
operations! Including some rather graphic
descriptions of exactly what they were doing....

A bit too close to recent events for easy listening, but
thinking about it brings home just how lucky I
was being here in Belgium - firstly to have a qualified opthlamologist
on emergency duty at St Luc's on Saturday, then to
have had a world-class retinal specialist
available for consultation, then the operation
itself, on Monday. The poor folk in Africa had all
been waiting for years....

Even in the UK, I expect I'd have had to wait six
months or so.... That charity will certainly be
next on the list for a donation from the next St Andrew's Folk Club
funds!