Today has been a crazy day. Really crazy. And tomorrow should be even crazier by a mile.

Over the last couple weeks, I've had some problems with my eyes. A little fuzziness, and little bright floaters in the bottom corner of my eye. Didn't really think much of it. Then I realized that I had switched my contacts - my left was in my right and vice versa.

But that didn't change anything. Actually, over the last couple days, the bright spots got even bigger. I'd be just about to go to sleep, in a dark room, and I'd see bright spots in eye...and just the left one.

So yesterday, I was thinking to myself, 'You know what? This isn't going to get better, it's just going to get worse. I should really see a doctor'. I haven't seen an eye doctor in about 6 years. I should be seeing one regularly, but I've just been lazy. That, and I hate going there, almost more than the dentist. Since my eyes are pretty bad, I go through a lot more testing and torture than the average person. Last time I went to a doctor, they had told me that I was so nearsighted that my retinas were getting strained. Your eye is a ball, right? When you're nearsighted, your eye gets a little oblong, more oval. The more nearsighted you are, the more oblong your eye is. And lets say I'm close to legally blind. Which means my retinas are really stretched out.

So of course I thought it had something to do with my retinas.

So finally I pulled out my insurance card and tried to figure out how to go about finding an ophthalmologist to check out my eye. Finally I found one that was close to where I'm staying, and I called to make an appointment. And it went a little like this.

Her: Hello?
Me: Hi, I'm not a current patient, but I want to make an appointment.
Her: Are you currently having a problem or is this a checkup.
Me: Actually, I've been seeing little floating lights in my eyes for a while.
Her: How long?
Me: About three weeks.
**she asks a couple more questions**
Her: Let me see if we have anything available.
**listening to hold music**
Her: Are these little blinking dots, or big flowing spots?
Me: Flowing spots.
Her: Can you hold on?
Me: Sure.
**more hold music**
Her: Do these spots move around in your field of vision, or do they stay in one place?
Me: One place. Lower corner of my eye.
Her: Please hold...

By this time, I was thinking that something was up. I'm in support, and we only do that 'please hold' deal when we don't know what to do or if a problem is really bad.

Her: Can you come in at 5pm today? We have an opening.
Me: Do you have anything tomorrow?
Her: Well, you should come in today.
Me: I'm at work, you see, and...
Her: You should come in today.

Something in the tone of her voice told me, 'This isn't a request, get your ass in here TODAY, girlie!' So I agreed.

So I stuck my head in my bosses office, and quickly explained the situation and said I had to leave early. He seemed pretty cool with it.

Got home and Dave took me to the doctor.

The assistant ran a couple tests, which verified to me that I am blind. (she asked me what letters were up there, and I was like 'WHERE?!?!?' and I could only see a light shining, and when I put on my glasses it was a fat ass 'E' on the wall)

Then they dilated my eyes, and the doctor checked me out. He shone a REALLY bright light into my eyes as he examined my retina. He then asked me to bring Dave in the room and explained that my retina had detached. Essentially, it had stretched out so much that it was no longer attached to my eyeball, and there was fluid in the space where it detached. That, my friends, is not a good thing.

He told us that he was going to page an eye surgeon to see if he could do surgery that night. But he was unavailable. My doctor said that I had to have surgery done immediately, because if I waited any longer, it could detach further and my central eyesight would be affected. Currently, it's only my peripheral eyesight that's is affected by the detachment, but the tear could go down to the rest of my retina.

After paging several surgeons, there was one that was currently in surgery that said he could see me once it was done. So then we were told to go to the ER of a nearby hospital so the doctor could see me. After waiting an hour or so, we were able to see the doctor, who explained the retinal damage to us, and then the surgery. It's too much to go into right now, so click on this link to see what's going on.

Detached and Torn Retina

It's pretty scary. I was under the impression that it would be laser surgery, in and out of the hospital and back to work the next day. However, they'll be using a general anesthetic on me, which means I'll be asleep, and the surgery will last at least 50 minutes as the repair the damage to my eye. In total, I'll be in the hospital for half the day, counting all the pre-surgery stuff and post surgery stuff. I've never been in a hospital before - not for treatment on myself. Never been in surgery. There's always a first time.

The chances of everything going OK are good, but I'm REALLY nervous for some reason. I know it's only eye surgery, but these are my eyes, man! Everything is happening so fast. In a matter of hours I was normal, and now I'm someone counting down the hours until surgery (7).

The recovery is 2-4 weeks, and I can't work during that time. Normally, I'd be ecstatic, but what am I going to do for two weeks if I can't see? I'm sure you all will be happy to know that I'll be wearing a patch for a couple days. At work, before we knew how bad it was, we were coming up with nicknames for me (not knowing even that these nicknames were foreshadowing the future). Names like One-Eyed Estacio, Winky or Patch. Personally, I like Winky.

So yeah. There's butterflies in my stomach now. Who knows what will happen!

Wish me luck!

Posted by Yano at July 19, 2004 09:50 PM

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