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dreamsharkAfter a night in the emergency room that resulted in nothing more concrete than a 10:50am appointment with an opthamologist....
My eye is okay. It was something called "separation of the vitreous humour," which is not in itself harmful but does occasionally result in a detached retina or other side effects. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
carbonel, was that what happened to you?) Apparently, this "separation of vitreous humor" happens to pretty much everybody. The vitreous humor changes consistency and gradually shrinks with age, and somewhere between the ages of 40 and 60 it shrinks enough to pull loose from the retina at the back of the eye. This is normal and doesn't change your eyesight. But it's sort of like a suction cup letting go, and tugs on the retina enough to cause "flashers" and often some residual floaters. You would think from the description that this would be a gradual process, but it commonly happens suddenly like it did with me. And once the process is complete it shouldn't happen again, at least for that eye.
Fortunately in my case it all went smoothly. My eye is pretty much back to normal now except for some cloudy floaters that ophalmologist says will probably disappear gradually. While relieved to find that I am not going to be faced with the choice of eye surgery or losing the sight in one eye, I am wondering why I hadn't been told about this phenomenon earlier. I've been wearing glasses since I was 9 years old, which means I have been visiting optometrists and opthalmologists on a regular basis for 50 years. Wouldn't you think that somewhere along the line (maybe about the time I got bifocals?) one of these optical professionals might have mentioned this set of weird symptoms that was almost certain to happen to me and provide some guidelines on how to tell the difference between the harmless flashers of an uneventful vitreous separation and the serious situation of a detached retina?
Not only has that never happened, I had a hard time pulling that information out of Dr. Kalina. Since I may be going through this again with the left eye, this would be good to know. It boils down to this - if you have a sudden onset of flashers but no loss of vision in the eye, make an appointment with an opthalmologist ASAP to have the eye dilated and examined for retinal damage. However, it is not an emergency unless there is loss of vision - typically loss of peripheral vision, missing spots in the visual field or a dark curtain moving in from the side (or occasionally down from the top).
Here's a Good article about this topic. Do not be alarmed by the appearance of the word "catastrophic." They appear to be using this word in a technical sense to mean "suddenly."
My eye is okay. It was something called "separation of the vitreous humour," which is not in itself harmful but does occasionally result in a detached retina or other side effects. (
carbonel, was that what happened to you?) Apparently, this "separation of vitreous humor" happens to pretty much everybody. The vitreous humor changes consistency and gradually shrinks with age, and somewhere between the ages of 40 and 60 it shrinks enough to pull loose from the retina at the back of the eye. This is normal and doesn't change your eyesight. But it's sort of like a suction cup letting go, and tugs on the retina enough to cause "flashers" and often some residual floaters. You would think from the description that this would be a gradual process, but it commonly happens suddenly like it did with me. And once the process is complete it shouldn't happen again, at least for that eye. Fortunately in my case it all went smoothly. My eye is pretty much back to normal now except for some cloudy floaters that ophalmologist says will probably disappear gradually. While relieved to find that I am not going to be faced with the choice of eye surgery or losing the sight in one eye, I am wondering why I hadn't been told about this phenomenon earlier. I've been wearing glasses since I was 9 years old, which means I have been visiting optometrists and opthalmologists on a regular basis for 50 years. Wouldn't you think that somewhere along the line (maybe about the time I got bifocals?) one of these optical professionals might have mentioned this set of weird symptoms that was almost certain to happen to me and provide some guidelines on how to tell the difference between the harmless flashers of an uneventful vitreous separation and the serious situation of a detached retina?
Not only has that never happened, I had a hard time pulling that information out of Dr. Kalina. Since I may be going through this again with the left eye, this would be good to know. It boils down to this - if you have a sudden onset of flashers but no loss of vision in the eye, make an appointment with an opthalmologist ASAP to have the eye dilated and examined for retinal damage. However, it is not an emergency unless there is loss of vision - typically loss of peripheral vision, missing spots in the visual field or a dark curtain moving in from the side (or occasionally down from the top).
Here's a Good article about this topic. Do not be alarmed by the appearance of the word "catastrophic." They appear to be using this word in a technical sense to mean "suddenly."
