I’m sitting around in the waiting room at Wilmer’s Eye Institute all dilated, waiting for the doctor to come in and admire his work. I don’t expect any problems.
Update: Yep, no problems, retina healing well, no scarring or swelling. No limits on activity. I'm supposed to check in again after 4-6 months.
It's my 9th weekly post updating the progress of my left eye's recovery from the second retinal detachment/reattachment surgery. As I suspected last week, the freon bubble in the eye is not yet totally absorbed. It looks a little like a black pearl. I can still see the bubble as I look forward, as a small circle with very dark edges (where it reflects away light that would reach the retina, and a clearer center, that still works as a 2 or 3 power looking glass. However, it shrinks noticeably every day, and it can't have too many days left. I'm guessing/hoping it will finally pop out of existence Wednesday or Thursday and I can cut off this stupid wristband that warns first responders not to take me above 2000 ft, or give me nitrous oxide.
Otherwise, things seem to be well. The two eyes get along well in normal arm and room range use and give me decent depth perception again, even looking down at about 45 degrees. More than that, and the bubble interferes. Reading in close, the left eye is sharper, and only contributes a little waver. At far distances, only the right can form a clear image, and dominates the image, but I still have the "2 horizon" situation, a normal horizon from the right eye, and a right slanted blurry one from the left. If I stare at the horizon, the right wins, and most of the slanted one goes away.
As far as how it feels? I think I still feel the rubber band, excuse me silicone rubber buckle, they installed around the eye to help keep the retina attached the second time, but mostly I just ignore it. Once in a while it seems to bother me, but rarely. No other pain, and the redness around the white of the eye, especially on the left side is mostly gone.
The weekly update to my recovery from the second retinal detachment/reattachment surgery in my left eye. This is now the sixth week of the "six week" freon bubble that was installed at the surgery. The bubble shrinks daily, but not very noticeably; the top of the bubble appearing just below the rim of my glasses when looking forward. When looking down I see the bubble as a distinct circle that nearly matches the outline of the glasses lens in that eye. I would guess I'm still facing a couple of more weeks with the bubble present. The worst thing about the bubble now is that it reflects images down to the retina (which appear in my upper vision).
So, otherwise? As I hoped would be the case, the two eyes are getting along a little better. The left eye is, as I was told it would be, more nearsighted than it was, thanks to the 'rubber band' aka scleral buckle around it. But for near vision, reading, TV etc, the two eyes both achieve some level of focus. The left has a tendency to cause my total vision to be a bit blurry out beyond arm length, but the right eye provides a clear image within the blur. The left eye still produces an image that slants to the right, and has a bit of waver in it, but the brain is starting to merge the two view and produce a basically straight image. At the beach, however, I still tend to see two crossing horizons, one sharp and one blurry. I eagerly await getting glasses that sharpen both equally, to see if my brain can force them to align also.
As far as the rubber band, the pain is totally gone. I do have a sense of something odd I in there, but it's hard to separate from the bubble and blur. The eye still has some redness, and I keep applying the ointment they dispense with the ordeal, axel grease and erythromycin, which I use religiously, which is to say, without knowing if, or why it works.
My hope for next week's report is continued improvement in the cooperation of the two eyes, and that the bubble will be high enough not to reflect light most of the time. I'd dearly like to see a single horizon.
A quick update on the 5th week anniversary of the second retina detachment/reattachment surgery in my left eye. Not coincidentally, this was also the day for the 5-6 week follow up exam at Wilmer's Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore.
According to the Drs, first the resident, and the then the surgeon who did the surgery, things are progressing on track, with no issues noticed, although the surgeon did order photographs at the imaging center to see if the there was any scar tissue forming. They blamed scar tissue pulling on the retina for the second detachment. We await the results.
From my view, there have been modest changes from last week. The bubble is still prominent in my vision, occupying about a third of the view looking forward. The left, affected eye is quite near-sighted, as I was told it would be, it's view is still tilted to the right about 2-3 degrees, and a little uneven looking when looking at a straight line. Looking up or down, the bubble dominates.
The two eyes are starting to work together a bit, a process either helped or hindered by the fact that their focal distances are quite difference. In relatively dim light, looking a relatively short (indoor) distances, the eye cooperate pretty well, the unaffected (and dominant) right eye providing clarity, and the left eye going along, and providing some depth perception. At text distances, the left eye is pretty well focused, but difficult to use with the right eye because of the tilt and distortion. At outdoor ranges, the cooperation is less. I see two crossing horizons, one clear and one blurry, although looking at less geometric things, like trees, it seems better.
They told me the bubble was about 35-40% of the original; I still have 2-3 weeks left (I hope; I'm bored of the bubble). They also said that once the bubble is gone I could go ahead and get a new prescription for glasses.
So, looking forward? Next week, I hope the bubble has shrunk out of my sight (looking forward), but I'm not too convinced that will be the case. And maybe, the eyes will start cooperating a little better in normal use.
According to Erasmus. Unfortunately for me this is not the land of the blind. Just quick update on the 2 week anniversary of my second surgery to fix detaching retina in my left eye.
No particular new issues to report, thankfully. The PFAS (perfluoropropane) bubble they installed in the eye is slowly shrinking, just as it did last time, and as it is expected to do. The bottom of the bubble is visible just above the midline of vision in that eye, and based on my experience last time, it's only a matter of a few days more until I begin to get a glimpse of the world without the bubble, beginning as a narrow band above the center of vision.
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The swelling and redness externally is dissipating, but not yet gone. This time I've been much more diligent about using the erythromycin ointment that they prescribe for eye discomfort, and it seems to be helping. I can't figure out why grease with antibiotic in it would help the eye feel better, but it seems to. I'm down to two different eye drops, twice a day, a steroid, and an anti-pressure drop to counter the pressure increasing side effect of the steroid. Only two more weeks to go for eye drops.
Of a world in focus. Another brief update on the progress on my recovery from the retinal detachment, reattachment and vitrectomy surgery I had 4 weeks ago Thursday. When last I posted, about a week ago, the affected left eye was still completely blurry due to the bubble of Freon 12 they put in it to hold the retina in place, but that bubble was obviously shrinking by absorption, as it was expected to do over approximately 6 weeks. The evening after I made that post, I began to get narrow glimpses of focused (or at least, much better focused) reality as the bubble shrank to the point of exposing some of the pupil to eye fluid, allowing a normalish light path through the pupil, the liquid, and to the retina. At first, I wasn't even sure, and I had to hold my hand over my eye to make sure I wasn't blinking and catching the image with my OK right (and dominant) eye.
Over the course of the last week, that window has expanded. The bubble now occupies the lower half of my vision in that eye excluding apparently the macula, and a broad band above it is in approximate focus on the world. I can read text on the computer with it, better using my glasses, which are almost certainly not the appropriate prescription. However, the text looks as if it was typed on a piece of paper which was then crumpled and mostly re-flattened and tilted to the right, like Fox News. If I use both eyes simultaneously, it seems somewhat better, but it's a little disconcerting. I'm hoping more healing will fix that, or that my brain will somehow learn about the distortions and apply a software patch.
Colors seem to be correct, although yesterday, in the dark waiting for Pete to pick me up, it seemed white lights or areas of low light (like a gray house across the street), were brighter in the left eye. There might be a residual area of slightly darkened vision in the lower right, where the retina first detached, but I'm not convinced. It has improved drastically since I could see a little dark animal in that corner.
The bubble continues to shrink more or less as advertised, which means I have a couple of more weeks until it's completely gone and I can cut off the green tag on my wrist which warns first responders not to airlift me out, or drive above 2000 ft for fear of the bubble expanding and bursting the eye, not that the wrist band is still legible. If I look down, the circle of the bubble has visibly shrunk. I have a retina doc appointment at Wilmers about then, and I'm hoping for continued good news, and continued, albeit slow improvement until then.
Just a short update on the the saga that began a little over three weeks ago, when I perceived I was getting a retinal detachment in my left eye, and we started the three part journey to Wilmers Eye Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where they re-attached the retina, removed the vitreous humor from the eye, and put a bubble of C3F8 (perfluoropropane) gas in the eye to keep the retina in place while it healed.
The gas is reported to be absorbed over a period of six weeks, and based on what I'm seeing, it's about on track. When I look horizontally I have a visible fluid level mark in the middle of my vision, that sloshes when I move. If I look vertically, particularly down, I can actually "see" the edges of the bubble against the sides of the eye. So now I can at least track it's progress as it shrinks.
The big question of course, is how good the vision in the eye will be at the conclusion of the healing process. Right now, when I look forward at any distance it's very blurry, but it turns out having air in the eye makes it very nearsighted. I can see my stray eyebrow hairs and dirt on my glasses in great detail. When I look straight down now at my hand (or text), the focal distance is about 2 inches. It's a lot like looking through a dissecting microscope. But the good news is that the image is clear and highres, so it doesn't seem that the macula has been damaged (much). So I believe, once the bubble is completely absorbed, the vision will be pretty good, although my current glasses prescription probably won't be very good.
In the first days after the surgery, there was a black spot in the lower right corner of my vision, shaped a bit like an animal, with odd legs, tails and a head, and it was surrounded by a colored aura of bluish purple. In bright light I could see a bit through it, so I knew it wasn't totally defunct, but I was worried that it might remain that way. Well, the animal disappeared a few days ago, and while some of the colored aura remains, it seems to be fading day to day. I'm down to two different eye drops once per day, which is a substantial improvement over 4 types on a complicated schedule 4 times a day. One more week and I'm done with them altogether.
Overall, things are looking OK. Having one blurry eye that sloshes is a little unsettling, and it tries to give me a headache if I try to use that eye too much. I don't like driving much because my depth perception is fubar, and glancing left is useless, but driving locally, to the water company or the beach is fine.
While tattoo-associated uveitis was thought to be extremely rare, research published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology has documented 40 new cases of the condition in Australia — doubling the number of published cases detected around the world since 2010. The research, undertaken by a team of Australians, suggests this complication, while still rare given the number of people who get tattoos, may be more common than we thought. Experts are calling for more research to understand and try to limit the vision-threatening disease.Now, that is scary.
. . .
But in recent years, Dr Richards has seen a rise in cases of uveitis caused by injected tattoo ink — sometimes long after the tattoo was done. Doctors can tell the uveitis is caused by a tattoo because it can look slightly raised and inflamed. "I only became aware of it about four or five years ago, and then once I was aware of it, I had all these patients all of a sudden," she said.
A recent study has shown that the amount of coffee consumed may impact its health benefits, adding to existing evidence that drinking coffee can have a broad range of positive eye-health benefits.
Research from the Center for Eye Research Australia has potentially found a link between coffee and tea consumption and the thickness of the macular retinal nerve fiber layer. This layer comprises nerve cells that carry visual information. Its thickness is an important indicator of the macula’s health. The macula is a small area in the retina’s center responsible for clear vision, color perception, and the ability to see fine detail.
Well, my eyes have been a problem, but not the macula. Maybe it works.
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Lauren Scruggs Kennedy lost an eye and a hand after accidentally walking into the propeller of a small plane in 2011, but she looks incredible after her remarkable transformation.
The entertainment personality and model made the headlines in 2011 when a trip in a small plane to see the Christmas lights in Dallas took a very tragic turn, according to ABC News. Kennedy walked toward the aircraft to thank her friend that had piloted the airplane, and accidentally walked into the spinning propeller. Her gruesome injuries resulted in the removal of her left eye, including the nerves, the total loss of her left hand, and a brain injury, according to Today.
Kennedy has persevered, and recent photographs posted to her social media page show her stunning transformation, and reveal that she has become a mom since the tragedy.
Kennedy endured a number of surgeries, suffered tremendous pain and had to make dramatic changes to her lifestyle, but she has managed to come out on top. It’s hard to tell that the gorgeous woman in the photographs went through this traumatizing experience.
The Wombat has Late Night With Rule 5 Sunday: Dorothy Lamour up and collecting clicks at The Other McCain.
A late start thanks to an AM visit to the eye Dr. No particular new issues, but they keep getting a little worse. And doing this with dilated eyes is painful
At the Neon Nettle, Ted Cruz Demands Answers as FBI Refuses to Say If It Participated in Jan 6
Riot. At the Right Scoop, “Who is Ray Epps?” – Ted Cruz to FBI official in Senate hearing. At Da Wire, Journalist Glenn Greenwald Asks Four Questions About Jan. 6 And The FBI, Gleen Grenwald@ggreenwald
Leave the bizarre Ray Epps case to the side for a moment: -- How many FBI informants or agents helped plan 1/6? -- How many FBI informants or agents were present at 1/6? -- How many FBI informants or agents were implanted in the 3 key groups? Why don't we know the answers?
At PM, WATCH: Tucker Carlson slams Adam Kinzinger for appearing to withhold information about Ray Epps, "There is nothing normal about this. There is no rational explanation for this," Carlson said. "Adam Kinzinger is lying. Kinzinger is withholding critical information from the public." Ray Epps is on film encouraging people to break into the Capitol, and conferring with the person who removed barriers. Yet the FBI evinces no interest in him, and Adam Kinzinger holds him innocent. Twitchy, Thomas Massie and Mollie Hemingway respond to Adam Kinzinger’s thread on Ray Epps, Mollie@MZHemingway
Replying to, @RepThomasMassie, @January6thCmte and @RepKinzinger
Kinzinger: Trump asking supporters to "peacefully and patriotically" make voices heard makes him responsible for a riot. But dude saying "I probably shouldn't say this because I'll probably get arrested" when telling same protesters to invade capitol, gets you thanked? Weird.
Via Insty, Julie Kelly@julie_kelly2 "LOL they sure went from “everyone involved in January 6 is a terrorist” to LEAVE RAY EPPS ALONE. This is hysterical" and Little Marco, "Sen. @marcorubio: "I don't care how many candlelight vigils and musical performances you have from the cast of Hamilton, you're not going to convince most normal and sane people that our government last year was almost overthrown by a guy wearing a Viking hat and speedos." And bad news for the Jan. 6ers from Twitchy, January 6 ‘didn’t immediately mean anything’ to focus group of moderate voters. Failed Never-Trump Republican candidate Michael Wood at WSJ, cited at Haut Hair presumes to tell How should Republicans talk about January 6
She could just wear orange glasses. Grimes Says She Had Part of Her Eyeball Removed in an ‘Experimental Surgery' to ‘Cure Seasonal Depression’
The singer, 31, detailed her fitness and health regimen in a new interview for her campaign with Adidas by Stella McCartney, including her decision to have part of her eyeball removed to improve her seasonal depression.
“[I] eliminated all blue light from my vision through an experimental surgery that removes the top film of my eyeball and replaces it with an orange ultra-flex polymer that my friend and I made in the lab this past winter as a means to cure seasonal depression,” Grimes, who was born as Claire Elise Boucher, said in the interview. She shared a portion of the interview on her Instagram account on Monday.Before I read this I had no idea there was a person who called herself Grimes. And I didn't know "goth" was still a thing. Dan Crenshaw apparently doesn't approve either.
Trust me, it doesn’t work.— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 17, 2019
Grimes claims she removed part of her eyeball to 'cure seasonal depression' https://t.co/0prbozghyq
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| Gold medal - Alina Zagitova |
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| Silver medal - Evgenia Medvedeva |
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| Bronze medal - Kaetlyn Osmond |
DNA from a 10,000-year-old skeleton found in an English cave suggests the oldest-known Briton had dark skin and blue eyes, researchers said Wednesday.Bear in mind that 10,000 years ago was not long after the beginning of the end of the last glacial period (which peaked about 14,000 years ago), so the first inhabitants of Europe were relatively fresh immigrants from the tropics, where a darker skin is more advantageous.
Scientists from Britain's Natural History Museum and University College London analyzed the genome of "Cheddar Man," who was found in Cheddar Gorge in southwest England in 1903.
Scientists led by museum DNA expert Ian Barnes drilled into the skull to extract DNA from bone powder. They say analysis indicates he had blue eyes, dark curly hair and "dark to black" skin pigmentation.
The researchers say the evidence suggests that Europeans' pale skin tones developed much later than originally thought. "Cheddar Man subverts people's expectations of what kinds of genetic traits go together," said Tom Booth, a postdoctoral researcher at the museum who worked on the project.
"It seems that pale eyes entered Europe long before pale skin or blond hair, which didn't come along until after the arrival of farming."
"He reminds us that you can't make assumptions about what people looked like in the past based on what people look like in the present, and that the pairings of features we are used to seeing today aren't something that's fixed," Booth said on the museum website
"No one has the right to immigrate to this country." —Donald Trump during his rally in Florida today— Hillary for Ohio (@HillaryforOH) September 19, 2016
We disagree. https://t.co/9gS9q5vQS9
York thinks the tweet above would make a fine debate question for Hillary, even if it doesn’t capture her own policy accurately. I agree, but will settle for any reporter asking her about it. Where does the modern progressive Democratic Party draw the line on the “right to immigrate”?Hillary’s Submission to Militant Muslims
In a warbling Hillary, clinging desperately to the clichés of a failed political class, Americans see little “resolve” and a lot of “fear.” Anybody wondering what her administration would look like just had to watch the pathetic response of New York City mayor Bill de Blasio and New York governor Andrew Cuomo to last weekend’s terrorist attack. Looking like a tranquilized giraffe, de Blasio surveyed the scene and concluded that it revealed evidence of “intentional” behavior but not terrorism, while a casually dressed Cuomo bumptiously asserted that it did not point to “international terrorism.” Anybody wondering what the priorities of her administration would be just had to read the New York Times on the day of the attack, which featured a story about “hate crimes against American Muslims.”From the Hill, not know to be a bastion of Hillary hate, another doctor weighs in on what's wrong with Hillary, based on the failure of her eyes to track together: Clinton's eyes — a window into her health issues
Like all things medical, there is a long list of potential causes but in my opinion the most likely one, based on Clinton's known medical history is an intermittent lateral rectus palsy caused by damage to or pressure on her sixth cranial nerve.To summarize; Hillary has brain damage. Shareblue: Another Media Matters spin-off working to elect Hillary Clinton
It is known that she suffered a traumatic brain injury in late 2012 when she fell and struck her head. What is also known is that she was diagnosed with a transverse sinus thrombosis — blood clot in the major vein at the base of the brain. Almost all patients with a transverse sinus thrombosis suffer swelling of the brain and increased intracranial pressure. Most have headaches, balance issues and visual disturbances — all of which Clinton was reported to have following that event.
Clinton's physician reported that she was placed on Coumadin (a blood thinner) to dissolve the blood clot. Actually, that is incorrect, because Coumadin has no effect on an existing clot. It serves only to decrease the chance of further clotting occurring Clinton's physician has also reported that on follow up exam, the clot had resolved. That is surprising since the majority of such clots do not dissolve. The way it was documented that the clot had resolved has not been reported.
If, as is statistically likely, Clinton's transverse sinus is still blocked, she would still have increased pressure and swelling and decreased blood flow to her brain. That swelling would place pressure on the exposed portion of the sixth cranial nerve at the base of her brain, explaining the apparent lateral rectus palsy. And such a deficit can be partial and/or intermittent.
Additionally, when patients who have decreased intracranial blood flow becoming volume depleted (dehydrated) or have a drop in blood pressure loss of consciousness can occur. That could explain her witnessed collapse in New York City on 9/11.
One thing that is taught early in medical school is that a patient's history, physical exam, signs and symptoms should usually lead to a single diagnosis.
Crudely put "when you itch, it is probably not lice and fleas but one or the other." More professionally put, in most cases the patient's symptoms can be explained by one unifying diagnosis, not a constellation of disparate ones. The admittedly speculative scenario I propose is an attempt to understand and rationally explain what is going on, based on known facts and the observable signs exhibited by Clinton.
The NY Times has a piece today about Shareblue, another group created by David Brock to help elect Hillary Clinton. Shareblue’s niche is offering the kind of unabashedly pro-Hillary pablum that even many of her progressives supporters find embarrassing. . .That's a high bar, but CNN takes the leap: To beat Trump, facts don't matter. Which is convenient, because they don't favor Clinton. Deplorable: Share of Clinton voters who think at least half of Trump’s voters are racist is … 87% Fair enough, since I'll bet a similar fraction of Trump voters think Hillary is a criminal.
● WaPo op-ed ponders, ‘when did we start wondering if the candidates were healthy?’Ace: My Friends, You Have Nothing to Fear From Hillary's Googely-Goggely SpazzyEyes
—Jazz Shaw, Hot Air, yesterday.
● Hillary’s Health Was Fair Game For The Washington Post Before She Ran Against Trump.
—Peter Hasson, the DC Caller, September 7th.
● Is McCain’s Age Showing? Tongues Wag Over Flubs.
—Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post, July 23rd, 2008.
● Questions Linger About McCain’s Prognosis After Skin Cancer.
—David Brown, the Washington Post, October 18, 2008.
From Drudge, using the headline "UNFOCUSED," this clip of Hillary's eyes going crazy to the left, apparently following the trajectory of her political positioning.
Is this unfair?
Well, I think it was unfair to pound Trump for saying a bombing was due to a bomb, or to pound his son for "calling Syrians Skittles." (He said if there was a bowl of Skittles, but three were poisonous, would you eat any? Which suggests, correctly, that while most Syrians are fine people, there will be killers embedded with them. But apparently it's a a Social Justice Warrior offense to call people dish-candy.)
So anyway, rather than asking "Is this unfair?," I think the correct question is: "Why should we treat the left any less viciously than they treat us?"
#War.
We will consider a truce when you offer one.
Hillary Clinton thinks you all need to stop doubting Hillary Clinton. Don't question her health. Don't ask what was in the 30,000 emails she deleted. Don't follow the money trails that lead in and out of the Clinton Foundation, the State Department, and her own bank account.And now a few words on Hillary from Michelle Obama:
This is what we expect from a politician with a paranoid streak. The odd thing is that parts of the media are going along with her.
But now Obama claims sexism is the reason Hillary Clinton isn't doing well. Instapundit shouts: REPORTED H.W. BUSH VOTE FOR HILLARY IS EXACTLY WHY MANY REPUBLICANS SUPPORT TRUMP. No Newt Axes! Hillary in 1993: Let's Double the Gun Tax. My Facebook is full of liverals trying to assure me the Hillary won't revoke the 2nd Amendment. It's easier to just regulate it away.Remember that time Michelle Obama used Bill Clinton's cheating to say Hillary shouldn't be President? I do. pic.twitter.com/zi6DywEHtF— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) September 18, 2016
