If you get flashes of light in one of your eyes (particularly if middle-aged or older)...

[ashling]

40. I have had 8 eye surgeries since 2009 (sorry, longish)

In March 2009 I had cataract surgeries in each eye. The Doctor was very meticulous in explaining all of the possible side effect - including blindness or death. It was that or continuing to see 3 of everything, so I did it. I had them a couple of weeks apart so I could get them done while on Spring break. I was in graduate school. So that was my first 2 surgeries.

Things went pretty well at first. In June i was driving when I noticed a flock of crows or grackles - at least I thought that is what they were at first. Then I noticed a couple of real birds and I realized that these were floaters, but they soon settled down. That evening after class my wife and I and another student were talking out by our cars under a street light in the parking lot and I felt what seemed like a bug fly into my left eye. I thought nothing of it as it was a summer evening and there were bugs flying around near the streetlight. The next morning I was in my office when I told my wife that I thought I had some unusual floaters. She asked me if we should go to the doctor. I usually would have said "no, I don't think its anything", but I stood up and at that second, I saw what looked like a jet of ink from an octopus in my right eye. Realizing that I did not have an octopus in my eye, I urgently said "yes." The Doctor's office said to come right away.

The doctor found 3 tears in my retina and sent me to Irving to a retina specialist who got us in right away. The retina guy said there were 5 - the latest one being right on a blood vessel. He did a lot of laser in both eyes -probably 130 laser pulses. By the time I came back the next week, my right eye was so full of blood that he had to use a sonogram to determine that I had a detachment. I had surgery that afternoon. (Surgery #3)

He said that I bled a lot, but that it was succesful. He put on a scleral buckle and the retina settled down in place. Recovery was going well for a few months. Then I noticed a dark area which turned out to be another detachment of the same retina but in a different spot. He had to do a vitreoectomy taking out the vitreous fluid and injecting a medicated silicon oil. (surgery #4) The recovery from that was going well. It takes a while for the oil to dissapate and be replaced with fluid. While that is happening it looks like there is a bubble in the eye. Then they have to go in again and take the oil out. (Surgery #5) As it went down, however, there was some fuzziness in the center. He took some pictures and showed me what looked like a map of mars, but it was my eye and indicated that the optic nerve was not working properly.

I went to yet another specialist. Apparently at some point I had lost blood flow to a part of the optic nerve - technically a stroke - and had lost vision to the center part of that eye. Amazingly enough, the vision to the eye was brighter and clearer than ever - except for that one spot that takes in about 90% of what you are looking at. I could still see . . . I just couldn't see what was there. So I am legally blind in that eye.

A few months later I noticed a dark spot in my right eye, - I was really attuned to these sorts of things by now, so went in to the retina guy again. Sure enough, the retina was detaching. So I went through the scleral buckle surgery again (surgery # 6)

To make a long story less long, things went pretty much as before, including a secong detachment (surgery # 7) and recovery of the oil (Surgery #8).

So I am legally blind in one eye and have to have various pairs of glasses to be able to focus with the other. But at least I can see, and can still drive with my glasses - though with only one eye. I have to shut my left eye so as not to screw up the image I am seeing with my right.

Prior to all of this I had had spine surgery ( a fusion of C5 - C6) because of severe spinal chord compression. I had been falling and the Doctor said that if I fell again that I could be paralyzed. That went as well as could be expected, but after all of this I started having issues again. It seems I had developed a bone spur which required another neck surgery.

Growing old is not for sissies!