Important message for eye health. (1 Viewer)

[rozymisty]

Well its been a rather stressful 24hrs for me. I went to my opthamologist yesterday afternoon for a routine check up since ihadnt been to the specialist since like 2002.

Anyway she gets me in, does the eye test with the light in the eye and stff and sits back and goes ah got some bad news for you..youve got a retinal detachment in your left eye. Im like oh ok...and then she got ont eh phone to one of the opthamolotic surgeons and asked if it could be done yestereday afternoon but he was fully booked and I wouldnt have been fasted properly since i had a late lunch.

So eyah I went in today, got all preped and stuff, and then eventually saw the surgeon to see if he wanted to do the surgery. He said i dont need it at the moment prefably coz its a chronic one, probbly been there for like a few wks to months and is stable enough at the moment.

So bascially my message is...if you see anything like flashes of light, floating bits of something in your eye or your central vision or peripheral vision is starting to go on you, get STRAIGHT to the ER. Coz if you had notice it early enogh and act immediately it will save your eyesight.

 

[Slidey]

Um, everybody gets flashes of light and floating bits of unidentifiable material in their vision from time to time.

I guess you mean more than normal... you didn't make much sense. What happens if you have this condition?

 

[rozymisty]

Yes i know...and if you get just irregular flashes, thats just blood pressure changes.

With a retinal detachment,, you see more and more frequent flashes, and either the peripheral vision or central vision start to decrease.

Retinal attachments occur coz there is increased pressure on the back of the eye ie the retina, and if it becomes to much, it starts to come away from whatever teh retina is attached to.

It is a risk for those who are myopic (short sighted) because the eyeball is a lot longer than those who have normal sight or are long sighted, and so this puts pressure on they retina. Most dont get a detachment, but it is a problem associated with myopia.

Eye trauma also can result in retinal detachment. There are several media stories about people being punched in the face and eye, and coz of that massive impact, its torn part of the retina, and they risk going blind.

In my case, i never really thought much of the occasional flashes that I saw, I assumed it was normal and just the blood pressure changing and stuff like when you just suddenly get up. I only noticed it increasing more frequently leading up to my opthamologist apt and thought casually hm better mention it to her.

But mine is chronic, its been there for a while, just slowly developing.

 

[quik.]

Rozymisty, like half the threads in this section are from you, about things that are wrong with you.

I'm sorry but I think you're dying.

<3 best wishes!

 

[rozymisty]

haha yeah, sorry about that, you must all think im a hypercondriac lol..thats what mum thinks i am, with the exception to these things. I nearly fell off my chair last year when i was on the phone to her and told her about the womens issue...dont want to freak out guys here lol, coz normally she's like every woman goes through that its, normal etc so eyah when she acutally said thats no good i was going to the doc, i was like in shock!

. Its been a busy last 2 years. I guess with my eye sight, I was told last year or the yr before by one of the optometry students at my uni that coz i have myopia , and coz its high, I am at risk of a detachment. So yeah i had that in teh back of my mind.

But Ive been saying to my friends over the past few weeks that Im lucky in a way coz I am fortunate enough that mum has private health cover, althought that pays piss all, coz then I dont have to wait ages and stuff. And im lucky i dont have something like cancer or a life threatening condition. Sure a retinal detachment is a emergency procedure but its not life threating but it is sight threatening coz you can go blind like in a couple of days,...not wks but days...with the exception if its chronic like mine, hence why he didnt want to operate straight away, although i wish it was acute so it was over and done with.....for some reason, if i do go blind, i can still legally drive, but with extra precautions and always with a medical certificate. Although I think id be safe and just not drive.

I went back to see the doc today, coz im like paranoid its getting worse but he said it is usual to feel paranoid and strange when you are focusing all the time and are aware of the blind spot. He said it will take a while to get used to it. He had a look and said that nothing has changed, so it doesnt need operating on at the moment, which is a relief. He said if it gets more into the centre of my vision, thats when to call him urgently and may need operating. I asked him how i would have to be, position wise if i had the op and he said straight up. Dont know if that means even when im sleeping..i hope not, coz in that month if that is the case, I wont get much sleep! i go back and see him next on the 3rd, the original appointment.

 

[unknown1212]

I'm sorry to hear about your retinal detachment. But it is a good thing that your optometrist saw it!

Im curious to know if you had asked your optometrist or ophthalmologist how extensive your retinal detachment was, or what type? when you cover your right eye do you notice a part of vision (either at the centre or peripheral vision corresponding to your detachment) appear dimmer or black?

I would just like to clarify your description of a retinal detachment. It does not occur because there is increased pressure in the back of the eye. Increased pressure inside your eye is one of the signs for glaucoma, another eye disease that can also cause blindness.The retina is a thin layer of information-receiving cells that are attached to inner wall of the back of the eye. In your case the most like reason would because as you aged, you became more and more short sighted yes? Like you said, this is because your eyeball grew longer than someone with normal eyesight. The retina however, does not stretch as well which can cause it to tear (think of someone trying to stretch gladwrap). Once fluid gets underneath this tear, the retina can physically detach itself from its supporting wall.

It would be a good idea to avoid strenuous exercise in your case as well.

What surgery are they suggesting for you such that you would have to always be sitting straight up?

 

[jb_nc]

It is a risk for those who are myopic (short sighted) because the eyeball is a lot longer than those who have normal sight or are long sighted, and so this puts pressure on they retina. Most dont get a detachment, but it is a problem associated with myopia.

How sever should your myopia when you should be alert of this?

Bad? Need spectacles all the time?

 

[unknown1212]

If you have around more than -5D of myopia your risk starts to rise.

I think it is important to get your eyes regularly checked every 2 years or however often your optoemtrist recommends despite the fact if youhave high myopia or not .

 

[rozymisty]

I went back to the opthamologist 2 wks ago coz i was just paranoid tha it was getting really worse, or that i was just focusing so much on it. He said that yes it takes a while to get used to where the detachment an its resultant blindness is, especially when you are paying close attention to it all the time.

As for how it 'feels', hm I guess if you like test each eye and follow your fingers around and stuff and see where you can and cant see.

For me it feels at time, mainly at night, like a black spot in the bottom corner of my left eye. It doesnt really matter if I cover or close the other eye so yeah. Other times when I test out the peripheral vision, it seems like just a white area rather than black and yeah.

Yet other times it seems that the area affected is just like normal, which is really strange!!! There is a very RARE like 1 in 10million id say that it can somehow self resolve. Sometimes it feels like the central vision goes, but then I look around and stuff and it just feels like its something foggy on my glasses, plus when I take off my glasses I can still see things and stuff. So yeah.



They do say every 2 years. Ive been seeing an opthamologist since I was in yr 3, so 1992 I think, seeing Dr Colleen Boreham every year up till 2002 when I went to uni and didnt have the money to go nad see her. Then this year I decided to go back and see if I could drive adn stuff, coz mum said that since the optometrist and a GP reackoned i couldnt drive, she said to see the eye doc. However Dr Boreham had retired so I had to go and see Dr Glida Kert for a routine checkup.
She did the usual light int eh eye test and stuff with dilated eyes, and wheeled away and said ah you got the detachment. So she refered me to the retinal specialist in their practice.

The specialist, Dr Aralar, said that if/when i need the operation, it would be corrected with a scleral buckle, in which they put like a buckle arond the middle of the eye, and stitch it into the sclera whcih I think is the white part of the eye. It stays in place for ever, unless there are some reasons for not having it in or something like that.

There are other ways of correcting it too, such as injecting a gas or silicone gel bubble into the fluid space, they get rid of that fluid and replace it with the gel. You have to spend like a month or so either method used, but with the gas bulble, you have to stay like looking down I think so that the gas doesnt go to the front I think.

I think one website i found said with the sclearal buckle you have to have your head upright for 50mins out of every 60mins, and the other 10mins you can like bend and stuff like that so that you dont go stiff. But that would be hard I reckon! At least its not as awkward as bending your neck!

Um one site I found said that the risk increases with above 6...dont knwo if its negative or positive...but eyah I guess the net isnt always accurate.
When I have finished my assignments Im going to look at more of the medical databases and stuff, to find out more accurate infor.


He didnt tell me how extensive my detachment was, but I read that there are some machines where they can take photos of the back of your eye, and I was going to ask last time for him to draw a diagram, but didnt ask. I might call into the QUT optometry clinic who have all the machines and stuff. Will be interesting to have a look at what it acutally looks like.

I think the flashes are like bits of something breaking off or something in the virtous fluid, and the pressure on the eye can cause tears, and if the fluid gets behind the tear, that can cause the actual retinal detachment.

I found out also that myopic pple are more at risk of glucoma....and then I found out after the detachment that after surgery there is risk of cataracts, which is just wonderful lol.

But the scary thing about the detachment is that when I went in for the op, the anaesthetist was sying its better to just get heavily sedated and recover quicker etc. Coz it was like 4pm, i was like i just want to get this over and done with and be on teh way to recover so i wouldve been sedated had the doc gone ahead. I know that in sedation you are awake and can hear and stuff, and that is what makes me nervous about the whole thing! Sure you forget everything from the point you start getting the sedation to when they switch it off after the op, but still, id prob shit myself during the operation.

And considering how much i was literally shitting myself during the morning and stuff, imagine it during the operation!

I think i better stop there lol....need to work on my other assignment that was due today but oh well....

 

[ditto]

sometimes if i study too late into the night i see a little bit of a colourful rainbow from the corner of my eye, used to happen more last yr.

is that similar to what you used to see? or are the symptoms there even if you're not tired? oh man!

 

[rozymisty]

Um no i dont get rainbows really. Its just flashes of light, like lightening, just split second, which is why I never realy noticed them until recently.

I went to the optometry clinic at my uni the other day to get a retinal photo since they have the cameras there. Its rather interesting seeing how your eye looks. The student and supervisor both said that it looks like there is pigment around the acutal detachment and that is a good sign coz it means the eye is trying to heal itself and contain the detachment.

I will post up the pictures when I get home sometime.

 

[x.glam]

can u prevent it?

 

[rozymisty]

Um not really. One way i guess is to avoid getting belted in the eyes, coz thats a common cause of them--if you hear about pple going blind coz of a pub fight, then its prob likely they got punched in the eye and the pressure was so great that it tore off the retina.

Or if you are myopic (short sighted) if you get to a certain 'strength' thingy, you are more at risk.

I hate getting used to seeing a blind spot there in the bottom of my eye. At day time its like a white area i just cant see in, mostly like when i walk i cant see my hand swinging at certain spots. At night time when its dark, thats when I can see the dark spot.

What is most annoying about the thing is that the dark spot ie blindness isnt reversible, coz its been there for a while apparently. But then like why didnt i notice it? Mum thought that it means im not partly blind but I am. I can still see and stuff just not in the near left corner.

 

[community33]

Hello friend !
I want to know that what is the best way for eye care
because i am getting late daily about one month and getting early

 

[Aralia]

Errr...it's a bit late for my left eye, everything gets fuzzy beyond half a metre, but my right one can see really far.

 

[rozymisty]

Has your eye always been like that? Maybe you should go and see a opthamologist (eye doc) about it. Bit odd that only one eye is a bit fuzzy and the other isnt.

 

[chicky_pie]

threadstarter: i assume you have never wash your hands before you scratch around your eyes?

 

[rozymisty]

WTF? of course i wash my hands regularly. You dont get a retinal tear from not washing your hands before touching your eyes!

Bungy jumping is apparently the most common cause of retinal tears..interesting fact there for you, something you migh use when chickening out of taking the leap lol

the reason mundene lost his sight was coz he STUPIDY spat on his contact lens and put it back and then it was probably the cornea or something that got infected, im not sure.

And i dont have complete loss of vision, just the bottom of it.

 

[2opinion8d]

threadstarter: i assume you have never wash your hands before you scratch around your eyes?

are u serious?

Anyway rozymisty my optometrist told me, and a few of my previous ones as well, that i'm at risk for retinal detachment... um supposedly the eye muscles are streched out or something.
One of my optometrists in the states reccomended i go to a opthamologist but then when i went to another optometrist he said i didnt need to.
My current one wanted to do a routine dilation to have a look but i didnt get back to him, so after reading ur thread i think i should go.
I don't get any flashes of light thankfully, but i do get floating bits from time to time.
Thanx for the thread... and by the way are u studying optometry/vision sci?

 

[rozymisty]

No im not doing any optometry stuff. I dont understand all the physics etc and I couldnt be able to look into peoples eyes etc lol. The equipment costs in the frst year are astronomical-$3000 at least and then it builds from there.
I just finished my nursing degree, but I may end up getting a grad rotation in the opthamology ward at the hospital Im going to start at tmw. Would be a bit strange though, coz my specialist goes there lol.

You should go to an opthamologist. Just go to your GP and tell him that you have like myopia and that you want to see an eye specialist.

The annoying thing with my eye is that i can notice the black spot only at night time, and it looks like it would be very close to the centre, which is where it gets dangerous, coz the macular is harder to reattach than the other part of the retina.

And when I have the surgery, I do not want to be sedated! I dont want to be awake but dreamy etc while they fiddle around with my eye but i cant see anything. id be very anxious and stuff!!!