Hi
No doubt everyone's heard that I have had a retinal detachment and am currently grounded. Like can't leave the house-grounded. Can't fly either.
In the interest of not have to tell the backstory over and over when I see you guys again Here's the history in full technicolor, gory detail. For the ADD'ers out there here's the bottom line. As of Thursday 12/1/05 at 11:30am (approx.), the doctor said "it looks perfect." "I would say your outlook is excellent."
The long version.
I developed a visual acuity problem about 5 years ago in my right eye. I have been extremely nearsighted my whole life and have been a successful hard contact lens wearer for about 2 decades. The initial problem was my optometrist could seem to get correction right. I was effectively seeing about 20/40 in my right eye. I was almost 20/20 in my left. So I struggled along with this for a year. The first opthamologist(eye surgeon) I went to couldn't find anything wrong and sent me back to my optometrist. I went to a second opthamologist who accidentally discovered the cataract in my right eye. That's an interesting story but you'll have to sit in suspense.
I'm really young for a cataract but it's off to Opthamologist #3. I was referred to #3 by #2. "He's our best guy" I'm certainly not going to turn that down. My wife and I walk into the clinic and it's a wall to wall retirement community. No body is under 60. I feel pretty out of place with my "Flytec Championship 2003" shirt on. #3 says "yep you've got a cataract. He goes on to say it's pretty minor surgery these days but it is surgery and so there is a small risk of complications. In addition, due to your nearsightedness you have a slightly elevated risk above the already small risk.
So I decide to think about this a while since I'm still seeing mostly OK and not having the more developed symptoms of halos and blocked vision. I see #3 every 6 months for 2 years or so while thinking about it and doing research etc. Finally, as of last summer 04 I was starting to have a little (micro) trouble connecting my foot to my hacky sack. "Hold on Stop the presses That's it. I'm sick of this. I'm thinking if I schedule this for winter it wouldn't impact my flying season too badly.
I procrastinate and don't get around to calling Doctor #3 until December at which time I find out that #3 is not doing any surgery for the indefinite future. They won't say why on the phone but it's weird enough that I'm left thinking he's got a health issue or for whatever reason he's not being allowed to do surgery. (This is a top guy at USC's Doheny Eye Center) HE'S NOT SOME QUACK!!
My piano teacher is having similar issues and recommends his eye doc who was recommended to him by another medical doc he knew. OK it's off to Opthamologist #4. Upon hearing my details #4 suggests that "Since you are at an elevated risk of a retinal detachment I want you to go see a retinal specialist(Fancy Opthamologist) who can shed some light on serious your risk is. OK off to doctor #5.
#5 said "Yes you do have a cataract. Your retina does have some latticing(thinning) on the sides. That does put you at a slightly elevated risk of a retinal detachment. Given your age and current visual status, I'm going to recommend that you have the surgery. Yeah, I think?
Back to #8. who says let's schedule you for surgery." By now it's the middle of February. I have about 2 weeks till surgery and I'm researching like crazy because frankly the prognosis after cataract surgery was not very appealing to me.
After cataract surgery where they have removed your natural lens, they put in a fake one that only has one focal distance. They customize for your eye so that you will have good distance vision but your intermediate and close up vision is useless. Hence bifocals, reading glasses etc. Anyway my lovely wife, through internet prospecting stumbled across a newly FDA approved lens that had the ability to provide some amount of close up vision in addition to the normal distance vision. Hey now this was starting to sound good. I faxed #5 with some questions most notably "Can you do this?" Yes and it turns out he's the Principal Investigate for the FDA trials. This means he probably is the most experienced guy in the country doing this lens. I'm starting to get a little excited about this now.
OK for you readers who are faint of heart be fore warned we are about to enter the twilight zone. I'm doing some research on the procedure and I have some questions I want to fax in to the doctor. I'm assuming he could answer them by either faxing back or voice mail etc,. I call up the office and a receptionist tells me. "The doctor is uncomfortable doing your surgery" I'm stunned and somewhat speechless. I finally ask what is the problem. The receptionist says the same thing. Through another phone call and deductive reasoning, I decide he is confusing me with someone else(more story is required to explain how I decided this)
I'm really bummed now. Who is going to be as experienced as this guy? This is really becoming a chore and I haven't even told you about the insurance bull**
So After some more internet research we found #6 yeah, I think? When I went to the #6's office, one of my interview questions was "How many of these special lenses have you put in people?" His answer was 70. I called up doc #3
Cataract surgery went fine. In fact I was seeing close to 20/20 right after the surgery. Hey now. This was pretty cool for someone who can't see without glasses or contacts. I can get up in the morning and just see. Maybe I won't need the LASIK surgery after all.
The plan was to have a LASIK surgery after my eye healed from the cataract surgery (about 3 months) During that time as the eye healed, my visual acuity worsened to about 20/40 in the right eye. It actually took 9 months before my visual acuity stabilized such that #6 was confident about doing a LASIK.
The surgery wasn't painful but it was quite uncomfortable. Two valiums were not enough. I'll save the details for in person conversation. I was immediately seeing 20/20 and 3 days after surgery, I went hang gliding. I haven't seen that many details from launch in years. I went to work on Monday and was seeing 20/20 through what looked like fog. The doctor's office told me I would have fluctuating vision. This didn't really explain what I was seeing. The list of "get to the doctor immediately" symptoms were not happening. I came in for #6 to look at it anyway. He said everything looked fine.
This was Tuesday and by Thursday, during class I saw a strange kind of floater. Instead of being hairlike, these were just black spots and only a couple of them. In fact at first I thought they were flies and I actually swiped at the air around me. I immediately realized this was in my eye. I called the doctor's office and because I had already been in on Tuesday and because I was only seeing the black spots the we decided not to come in right away but evaluate it over the weekend. (Friday was a holiday) By Friday, I was seeing flashes and a curious black stripe across the lower left corner of my field of vision. It was like there was a piece of tape over the corner of my eye.
It took until Saturday night before I put it all together. And called the doctor's office to get an "on call" opthamologist (#7?) on the phone. #7 advised that she agreed it was a retinal detachment or tear. She didn't think it was critical that I get to an emergency room that night. However, she did think I should see a retinal specialist the next day (Sunday) She couldn't remember the phone number of the clinic. (????) This is a long side story but it turns out she was the only doctor the message service could get a hold of. The point is this led to opthamologist #8 who had the referral phone number and assured me this was the place to go. (We had been on the web looking for the phone number for retinal vitreous associates and it comes up in Google as "RV clinic". Recreational Vehicles???
I call opthamologist #8 (They're dropping like flies now), who is the "on call"
at the RV clinic. He agrees that I should come in Sunday morning. Little did I know, this was going to be the first day in a series of 8 out of the next 10 days, where I would be getting my eyes dilated and examined. He confirmed a significant, but serious tear in the upper right corner of my retina(remember, the visual system reverses everything)
He also described my 2 treatment options. I could do an immediate in office procedure which would probably have a 60% chance of success. Or I could go for surgery the next day which would have a 90% chance of success. The surgery would also destroy my LASIK correction and possibly my implant lens thus destroying all the work done since the beginning of this story. I opted for the in office procedure which would also preserve all this work. This involved two valiums and some topical and then injected anesthetic. Then using a cryoprobe(freezing) to "weld"(actually cauterize) the retina tear back together. Finally, the insertion of a gas bubble approximately 30% of my internal eye volume which would serve to hold my retina in place as long as my remained in a position such that the gas bubble floated to the back of my eyeball where my tear was. This position was laying on my left side in bed as much as possible or sitting up with my head down. I could go to the bathroom as necessary.
The procedure went smoothly and the next day he thought it looked 90% better. He said to come back in 2 days for another look. That night I thought I saw different light flashes, so I called the on call doctor thinking this was an emergency and found that my doctor(#8) actually still on call. I woke him up. He was annoyed. Despite being annoyed, he told me to come in and see his partner as he was going to be in surgery tomorrow morning. I hung up thinking, "He's going to be in surgery tomorrow but he's on call now. This guy works too much.
The next morning opthamologist #9 says it looks OK don't worry. OK fine. I come back two days later and #8 looks at it and says "It looks worse, It's "guttering" (As in rain gutter) He said lay on your left side only and I'll see you on Monday. This was Friday.
I spent the whole weekend in one position moving as little as possible and boy was I sore. I went back on Monday. After looking, #8 said It looks much better, about 90%."I'll give you one more day on this procedure if doesn't look 100% tomorrow, then you're going to surgery the day after.
Next day he said Sorry it's not 100% so off to surgery tomorrow. The surgery went well but I was not sedated enough. I was only going to have a local anesthetic with a twilight sleep. Not a general anesthetic. In the operating room, #8 said to the anesthesiologist, OK we're ready. My left eye and face is covered with a checkered cloth. All I can see is a bright blurry lighted circle. I can see objects(that look probe like) moving in the lighted circle. I hear #8 say "we should deal with the front of the eye first before the retina." I'm starting to think that I should be more out of it. I see more probes and I can tell they're in my eyeball from the pressure. Then I feel some tugging and the beginning of some pulling stinging. I wait until he's done and then I say. "Hey doc, I can hear what you're saying and I can see those probes. #8 says "You're awake?"
"Give him some more anesthetic. I still felt pretty aware. I started counting the squares covering my left eye in an attempt to distract myself from what's going on in the right eye. Later they told me they had to give a 3rd dose of anesthetic.
I remember starting to have gaps in awareness as time went on. The entire operation took about 40 minutes.
During the operation, the doctor made two incisions in the white part of the eyeball, one on either side of the iris. He used these incisions to insert tools. These tools were used to scrape a part of the sub retinal tissue. A laser was used to cauterize (glue) the retina back in place. Then a small piece of silicon was sewn to the outside of my eyeball which created a buckle(ripple) in the eyeball which helps the retina adhere better. This is called a scleral buckle. Then a strap was inserted around the eyeball. The strap runs over the top and under the bottom along a meridian line on the side of the eyeball. I'm not sure if it was sewn into place or not. Finally, a gas bubble, filling 85% of the internal eyeball volume was inserted. The bubble presses up against the retina, holding it in place.
As I write this, I've now seen the doc (#8) 3 times since the surgery. Things look good for the retina. I can't see through it yet, but that's normal for this procedure. I did say I would probably be flying within 2 months. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Retinal Detachment
Moderator: Chip
Where is the rest of the story?
I can't get past the 8th paragraph.
Where is the rest of the story?
I can't get past the 8th paragraph !