Stupid eye.

Since January time this year Ive noticed that my vision in my left eye has slowly become more and more distorted. Now Ive suffered a grand total of 4 corneal ulsars in my time (bloody painful bastards) so my cornea is scarred to hell and back, so distortion over the scarred areas is normal, but this seemed more than that... this seemed like actual twisted images like looking in a fun house mirror that morphed the entire left hand upper quarter of an image, into a twisted smudge.

Went to the opticians the other day to get some contact lenses fitted (on a new trial of some experimental thingies that feel bloody amazing... dk number of 140+ compared to my old ones of 89), so I mentioned that I had some vision problems with my left eye.

Optician first suspected a change in perscription, so tested my right eye (good eye) first, everything was crystal clear using my current perscription. Then left eye uncorrected. I was no longer able to see the tft screen displaying the opticians chart (posh opticians I go to everything is electronic). With corrective lenses at my current perscription I could identify either a D, E, F, P or B at the start of the first line. The rest of the screen was a smudge that went to the same colour as the wall.

Quick look through her slit lamp thing, she thought it was corneal scarring after that, yet saw nothing out of the ordinary, some eye drops and a dilated pupil and she examined my retina, whammo... Retinal Schisis/Adema. I have a pocket of fluid collecting directly behind my retina, its now deformed enough to start impinging on my macula (the area of the eye associated with detail, allows you to read text, and see lines).

She took a retinal image of it, and can safely say its a scary sight.

Dark area of macula, surrounded by what looks like "stretch marks" in my retina, and a huge white... well.. gash it looks like in the bottom right of the photo. Scary as hell. It covered more than half of my eye.

Needless to say, Ive googled, gotta say im rather perturbed with all the talk of "normally a precursor to retinal detatchment" on everything I read.

My uncorrected eyesight is normally around 6/6+ in my left eye its now 6/13+ with the added distortion thrown in to confuse things a little.

20/20 = I see at 20 feet, what a person "should" be able to see at 20 feet.

6/6+ = I see at 6 feet, what someone with normal eyesight sees at 6+ feet. So looking at something 6 feet away someone will appear with the same detail Id see if someone with normal vision was viewing them from 7ish feet.

6/13+ = I see at 6 feet, the level of detail a normal person would see at 13+ feet.

Heres actually a good thing.

I see this in my left eye:


When everyone else sees:


Eek. Hospital on Tuesday (as I have a final exam on monday afternoon) and then I get to find out exactly what on earth I have, what caused it, and what the heck I do about it.

:shock:

On the other hand, you dont need nearly as much mescaline as the rest of us do now, and you have the potential for an awesome nickname.

people get detached retinas all the time, bit of laser and they are back on in no time

id not worry too much

its not actually hard work as such for them to re-attatcht he retina.  Its a common injury in sailing due to the number of head impacts that happen (Helmets are for wimps).  

Ive had it myself, apart from the eyepatch i wore for a couple of weeks afterwards it was no hassle.  

cant they stick in a syringe and drain the damn thing.

a needle in the eye.. hardly a good idea, especially since the retina is fragile enough without poking holes in it

Good luck Rich, I hope it is sorted out painlessly for you.

sounds nasty, hope you get it sorted ok dude!

Quote from: Clockd 0NeGood luck Rich, I hope it is sorted out painlessly for you.

Ditto. :-)

Quote from: Binary Shadowa needle in the eye...

But you get a pirate eye patch!

Quote from: Binary Shadowa needle in the eye.. hardly a good idea, especially since the retina is fragile enough without poking holes in it

Its done qute regularly for several problems, although they have to be *very* careful.

ass sticks.

"yeah its not a retinal schisis, theres no doubt about it, youve a detached retina and its been that way for quite some time"

Operation thursday afternoon. Rubber bands, general anaesthetic, and argh... scared.

Slap bang in the middle of my finals so no idea if I can even get to graduate this year! :cry:

Ass.

f**k!

excuse the use of the word but jesus cant you get some mitigation?

Theres definitely a process for this kind of thing - you can get extensions, delays on exams all sorts for mitigating circumstances. Go see your tutor/mentor or whoever is doing this role.

Its horrible that its happening (at all) but especially in the middle of your major year - I feel for you I really do. But detached retina as scary as it sounds is fairly common and easily rectified - Im sure youll be fine before you know it. Just keep telling yourself that once youve graduated you can brag that you graduated despite having eye surgery in the middle of it all. Save a damsel in distress and help overthrow a tyranical south american dictator as well and youll be an afternoon American tv hero!

All the best though mate hope it goes ok.