The Eye Report

On Friday I was hoping to have good news on my eye situation. The bubble had been shrinking slowly all week, and I had vague hopes that it would be gone on the promised six week timeframe. My two eyes were working together pretty well, and even agreed on horizons, if I talked to them about it. The left eye, the one with the fresh surgery, stil leaned a little right on its own, and straight lines weren’t quite. But overall, a significant improvement over the previous week

Late Friday, I began to sense something wasn’t quite right. I thought vision up near the bridge of my nose was disappearing, but I was hard to be really sure. Also, and in retrospect more diagnostic, I began to see little bright lines when I twitched the eye certain ways. But I went ahead with a walk-on fishing trip with Pete early Saturday morning. over the course of of the day, it became clear the the dreaded black veil of another retinal detachment was growing in the eye. I texted Georgia and said we would need to go back to Wilmer’s Eye Clinic either late Friday or early Saturday. She had a small bag packed by the time I got home. I showered off the fish and motor smell, put on fresh clothes and we left, and arrived at Wilmer’s about 5 PM.

At Wilmer’s we again came through the emergency department. I was quickly triaged and sent to the ophthalmology section, where the eye was sonogramed (Yes, I see the detachment), and then waited an hour or so for the ophthalmologist on call, the very same one who saw me in March, did a very thorough and somewhat painful exam on both eyes, dilating them, and saw, yep, the detachment. They sent us back to emergency to try and sleep until morning, when they were have more exams, and decide a course of treatment. We spent some time in a busy hall trying to sleep, then later moved us into a room away from the hubbub. I had a last sandwich around 11 PM, so they could operate on me later on Sunday if the so decided. I slept not too awful, thanks to having gotten up at 2AM to fish, but I fear Georgia did not.

In the morning, I got two more painful eye exams be increasingly important retina docs. The eventual call was to put of surgery until Tuesday. The important part of the eye is still free from the detachment, and if I keep my head down, the residual bubble is supposed to to protect it. I hope so.

So, for the next week or so, I have to keep my head down, literally. That means I can’t use my PC or watch TV.  Blogging will be restricted to my IPad, which is very limiting. Flotsam and Jetsams will be untenable, but with a little struggle I might manage the morning pick-me-ups and some drive-bys.