For the past year I’ve been plagued with problems in my right eye. I would say it’s not Pit-worthy because according to my very talented retina guy, they are correctable. So more annoying than life altering. But it’s still very stressful to have shit going on with your eyeballs.
So about 9 months ago I noticed a blurry spot in my vision while driving the family home from vacation. I initially assumed it was some gunk caught in my contact lens but it remained in my vision weather or not I was wearing my glasses or contacts. As luck would have it, my annual eye doctor appointment was scheduled to happen in about a week so I figured I’d have it looked at then. In the meantime, I’m freaking out because I think I may have damaged my eyes accidently staring at a lightbulb or a solar eclipse or some such thing,
Basically like wearing a pair of glasses with a streak of Vaseline smeared across the top but you see it regardless if you have the glasses on.
Anyhow, my long-time eye doctor notices what is called a Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion (BRVO) or basically a blocked blood vessel inside my eyeball causing the problems. He sent me to a retina specialist who treated it with an injection to the eyeball.
The first time I received the injection, he accidently nicked an external capillary in my eye causing a harmless but grotesque reddening of the eyeball.
The following month I experienced a common side effect of a small air bubble introduced into the eye. Also harmless and normal and usually clears up in a few days. Until then it’s a weird sensation of feeling like someone put a “Magic 8-ball” in your head.
Things had cleared up for the past several months until a few days ago when all of a sudden I experienced a small black spot “floater” in my vision (same eye) when then over the course of a few hours soon created an effect that I would describe as a snow globe filled with coffee grounds.
Yaada yaada yaada went back to my retina guy and sometimes some blood can work its way into the eyeball from my particular condition. Not really much to do but wait for it to clear on its own over the next weeks and months.
I suppose the silver lining is I don’t have any damage to my eye’s lining. So that’s good. My wife’s uncle had a detached retina and they screwed up the surgery so now his vision in that eye is so bad he wears a patch most of the time. So that freaks me out. Oddly, my wife’s cousin’s husband had a detached retina that was completed fixed. Still, that’s a statistically high number of people having retina problems who aren’t genetically related.
Damn. It’s bad enough any time eye conditions develop. It doubly sucks that you’ve gone to specialists and are still on a nerve-wracking rollercoaster ride.
Good luck w that. I’ve had slowly advancing cataracts like everybody else my age. And age-related farsightedness, and … . But yeah, you’ve got a scary collection of malfunctions there.
FWIW, my dad was also an airline pilot. He lost one eye completely to cancer at age 50. And flew jets for another decade with one eye. And rode motorcycles until he died a decade after that. Eye problems are very, very scary. I toitally get that and totally share that fear. But it’s amazing how well humans do on just one eye. So in one sense, you can take comfort that the worst case isn’t all that bad.
As a veteran of two corneal transplants, one retinal detachment, and two surgeries to address problems with the original surgery to fix the retinal detachment, I feel your pain. Eye problems are scary.
But hopefully things will get better for you, they did for me. The last three-four years I’ve had no issues and have probably the best (corrected) vision I’ve had in thirty years.
It’s a bit of a process to prove to the FAA you can safely fly that way. But there are a rather surprising number of one-eyed professional pilots. Just in my circle of friends / coworkers I know of two besides my late Dad.
I suspect it’d be very difficult to get hired as a pro with just one eye. But folks lose eyes later in life for a number of reasons, and for someone well established in their career, it makes sense to continue if able.
One of the warning signs that it may have been time to find a new job was I started looking forward to “Eyeball Day”.
Surprisingly, the injections aren’t really that bad. It’s not like you stare at a needle going into your cornea. It goes into the corner of the white part of your eye and they numb it first.
I speak from a somewhat similar, though less scary sounding, litany of eye problems to @Wilson . Born with pathological myopia, had lots of retinal tears as I got into my 40s, two premature ordinary cataracts and a bonus posterior sub capsular cataract. Two surgeries and more outpatient procedures than I cared to keep track of later, I have incredibly good vision without corrective lenses (I just need glasses at night as my visual acuity drops in dim light).
So I feel for you, @msmith537 and all others in this thread who have endured eye conditions and procedures. Eye problems are scary, inconvenient, and sometimes quite uncomfortable.
At the same time - isn’t modern medicine great? I first saw an ophthalmologist in 3rd grade, thanks to a vision screening at school. For years, they told my mother, “she’ll be blind by the time she’s 40.”
Indeed, that prediction would have come to pass without advancements in treating eye conditions. But here I am, 67 with great eyesight! Yes, I’m at high risk of retinal detachment, but I know the signs and if it happens, at least I know I’ll have access to excellent medical care. Same with macular degeneration - I rather hope that doesn’t become a problem for me, but if it does, at least there are treatments, uncomfortable though they may be.
Mmm…too be honest that actually sounds way scarier.
I think the treatment for macular degeneration is the same as what I’ve been getting. Basically they are injections to reduce blood vessel swelling and excessive growth.
I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been going to a really good eye doctor for like 20 years who recommended a really good retina specialist. They are really thorough. Crossing all their "t"s and dotting all their…lower case "j"s.
Yup. Inject chemotherapy agents into the eyeball. I took my late aged MIL to all the appointments for testing, diagnosis, & (quite successful) treatment.
My late MIL also went through that. I never heard details, but she did say that it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. Which is good, since just typing “needle in eyeball” makes my palms sweat.
I was relieved to read:
Even so, if/when I need the injections, I think I might beg for some Valium the first time, with the understanding that following the first treatment I will search high and low for my big girl panties and wear them to all subsequent treatments.
You really don’t want your eye to be full of passengers.
I can sympathize. I’ve had a central retinal vein occlusion with retinal edema for about 10 years now. The edema is controlled to the point that I haven’t needed an eyeball poke for about a year. But I’m always on the lookout just in case my vision seems to go bad suddenly.
