Friday, September 7, 2018

The Eyes Have It...

Got enough dilation there son?
A couple of hours at the ophthalmologist today. Many eye drops administered, pressure checks performed, and photos taken of the interior of my optical sensors.

Good news, the problem in my left eye is correctable.

The semi-bad news, correctable by surgery. Which isn't really bad news at all.

Doc called it a rare condition with similar effects as, but not the same as, macular edema. As it was explained to me, as we age the jelly (technically the vitreous humor) in our eyes tends to start shrinking and pulling back from the retinas, which causes our vision to weaken as we age.

The rare thing I have is that normally the jelly goes quietly without a lot of fuss. Apparently the jelly in my left eye is kicking, screaming, and refusing to let go of the retina, causing that lens thingie to become rather distorted on one side. Playing all sorts of havoc with my visual acuity on the sinister side. (Latin for left, left side, not my evil side. The vision there seems fine, though somewhat skewed. Evil ya know?)

Anyhoo, they can fix that. Something about blowing an air bubble in there betwixt gel and lens to separate jelly from retina and requiring Your Humble Scribe remain in a hull down condition for two to three days afterward to let the air leak out and the jelly to withdraw gracefully from the retina.

So I can do the laying on my belly thing, never tried it for three days but what the heck, I can catch up on my sleep.

Doc wants me to get a second opinion, said that this is not an emergent thing.

So yes, correctable.

Hallelujah.

As my eyes are still the size of a cat's on a moonless night, I shall end this post here. I need to clean the face grease of the screen anyway. (Yes, damned near have my nose pressed against the monitor. Not a pretty sight.)

I shall keep you all posted as things proceed. (Posted, that right there is blogger humor. Lame blogger humor. Non-vitreous, lame blogger humor.)

Bis gleich!


Means "see you soon..." More lameness from Yours Truly.

52 comments:

  1. Well this news is encouraging even if it means surgery. Was hoping we wouldn't get to "see" you with a eye patch there Sarge. Getting old can sometimes be a ......pain eh? At least you're getting old since the alternative means you're six feet under.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, eye patches might look "cool" from the outside, not so much from the inside.

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  2. Lame blogger humor? I’d expect more talk of hips, knees, ankles, were that the case.

    I really want to make a joke about the Navy, corneas, and aqueous humor, but I can’t make it work. Ah, well. (All Navy jokes are aqueous humor.)

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    1. Took me a minute, but yeah, that got a guffaw out of me.

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  3. I mentally disconnected at the part where you talked about blowing an air bubble into your eye.

    I'm going through a regime of dry eye treatment and the good news is that it's all external.

    Take care of yourself.

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  4. Nothing funny about vision issues when it’s our own eyes.
    Glad to hear the doc thinks it’s nothing emergent.
    If it were my eye and I know some can be done, I’d want it yesterday.
    Here’s to seeing better sooner rather than later.

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  5. Laying down on the hull for that long would get to me. Maybe you can rent one of those massage tables that has that little cushion with a hole in it for your face. Keep us posted and I pray that your second opinion can agree with the first, so you can get things moving. Not to worry, there are lots of prayer warriors out here, ready for the challenge. Starting now.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, the massage table thing has been on my mond.

      Thanks Dave!

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  6. So, problems on your sinister side? Tres gauche, non?

    Moi, I have an issue with the dexter visual system having lost function as it has a border of smutziness caused by my stupid lack of wearing sunglasses until I found the best cheap glasses ever. Dewalt (yes, Dewalt as in tool maker Dewalt) contractor safety sun glasses. Rated for construction and shooting, and look actually pretty fashionable, a steal at $10 a pop at your local box hardware store.

    I can deal with my dexter loss, as my sinister side is my shield, thus leading, side. Yeah, I tend to walk slightly left-side angled forward, due to too many (or not enough) years of running shields on that side. Why don't I correct it? Because I cant, Chief. I guess I don't bend that way, barring any serious changes in my life.

    (Okay, let's see, 7 bad heraldic statements in 3 paragraphs. I must be slipping.)

    (Trust me, there is nothing lamer than heraldic humor, or herauldic humour for the snobs out there. When the SCA considers you weird, either join Star Trek live roleplay or become an SCA device herald. DAMHIK. Seriously. If you are ever in a room where one uber-geek says, "Last summer at herald camp..." RUN! Get Rampant and charge out of there, else you'll be regardent your existence forever...

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    1. None of them were beyond the Pale, yet.

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    2. Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!

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    3. Why is it scaring me that you are acting like you are actually getting herald puns? Geek-Fu must strong be in this one.

      How can you tell all the herald/Harold/haralds apart? One cants, one has an arrow in his eye, and the other has a blue tooth.

      My secret herald name was, apparently, "ShutupB(eans)" (replace 'eans' with other name portions that goes with first letter 'B.')

      And remember, Soylent Green is Heralds! (SCA herald sign for herald is green field with crossed gold trumpets, so that explains that bad joke. Nothing shuts down a room full of geek-heralds as going full Charlton Heston with the SGiH line.

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    4. Keep this up and I'm going to need to invest in a weapons-grade spray guard on the monitor.

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    5. You don't have one already?

      My first modern home computer was a Sony Vaio system that was fantastic. And the first time I used it one of the cats at the time decided to fire a nose worm about 6 inches long all over the monitor. Computer/Cat version of brand new car and baby barfing in it. Thanks DeeDee.

      Seriously, you grok heraldry? Cool.

      Delete
    6. Hahaha!

      I don't grok all of heraldry, just enough to hold my own at cocktail parties. Which is really a useless skill, we all know that heralds, pursuivants, and their ilk don't get invited to many cocktail parites.

      Delete
    7. Sad, but true. The good old days of heralds being bad mo-fos and having carte-blanche to pass through lines are long over. Sigh.

      Had a teacher friend who had a bantam rooster, used to take it to school functions, go up to the most annoying teachers and ask them if they'd like to pet his (four letter word for a rooster starting with 'C') and since said rooster was a 4LWfaRswC, well, he got away with it.

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  7. Glad it isn't something more serious. Old joke I've used before but worth recycling. A friend had his eyes fixed, detached retina and cataracts. Complained afterwards about the number of stop signs the county erected.

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  8. Who doesn’t hate dilation? Hope you get it all back to normal. Soon. Just don’t let your newly sharp vision cause you to become an accurate observer of the little woman’s current visage. Very bad juju that.

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    Replies
    1. My vision was very acceptable up until a month ago. My theory is that the reduction in interior pressure let the jelly sag back away from the retina, pulling Mr. Retina along. The high pressure before was holding everything together, of course, letting the pressure stay that high would have eventually destroyed the optic nerve.

      The eye doc liked my theory, so I'm sticking with it. As to visage, I could never find anything amiss there. She looks (to me) just like the day I met her. (LUSH, make sure your mother reads that!)

      Delete
  9. Hey AFSarge;

    Glad your "Mark I eyeball is repairable. Eyesight is very important...when I saw the pic of the eyes the first thing I thought was "Jeez those eyes look like something a tweeker would have, LOL

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    Replies
    1. Actually they would be something a tweeker would have. I'm glad I had the wife drive me to the appointment. I doubt I could have Mr Magoo'ed my way home!

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    2. How would that have been different from normal?

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    3. Oh, snap.

      Not at all, no difference at all. I feel the need to water ski this weekend. Tell Juvat.

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    4. Doesn't his museum have that nice PT boat available?

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    5. Mine does, two of 'em. Non-operational.

      Are you trying to get out of rowing duty, again?

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    6. Perfect, Beans, Thanks! Got a date this weekend with my lovely wife out in Marathon (the see 'em comin' distances are phenomenal) to a Bourbon tasting and dinner at the Gage hotel. Now I gotta pass on that because the boss wants to water ski on his belly , because he needs salt water rammed up his nostrils to loosen his bowels? Did I read the post correctly?

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    7. Get Little juvat to helm the boat. You are the master of your world, right?

      And as to loosening his bowels, well, if I remember my one time at waterskiing, water rammed up a non-nostril hole loosens the bowels quite well...

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    8. Juvat - for some reason, I am very glad you're not my doctor.

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    9. Blog boss, I never will shirk my duties to you... Though I'm busy this weekend, next week is surprisingly full, the following weekend has already been spoken for... checking schedule, checking schedule...

      Water skiing scheduled for February 4th, 2019. Nova Scotia Yacht and Ice Fishing Club, Pier 3, "The Holy Dane." 5pm. They have a slot open for 4 hours on the Arora Borealis Water Ski Tour.

      Delete
    10. Beans - did you say your one time water skiing or water boarding?

      Just curious.

      And now I'm laughing too damned hard to even think of waterskiing. Juvat go to Marathon, or run a marathon, or have a bourbon drinking marathon, whatever it is you and your lovely wife have planned.

      Beans, go do something medieval, or something.

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    11. Beans, I just saw your comment of 4:09 PM. Nova Scotia in February? Perfect, I'll tell them that you and Juvat have volunteered to take soundings at the bow. Or row, or chip ice, your choice.

      😁

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    12. I've been waterboarded by my older brothers. Eh, no problem.

      I did mean water skiing. One time. Enjoyed the living heck out of it. But it requires a boat, money for gas, money for the boat and someone you trust to pilot the boat. Usually, I could get one, maybe two of the required four together, but not all four. Quel domage.

      As to the 5pm appointment at the Nova Scotia Yacht and Ice Fishing Club, well, Mrs. Andrew has made the appointment for you. Seems I will be busy that day doing my nails. Beds of nails don't get sharpened by themselves, dontchaknow. (you did say go do something medieval, right?)

      Delete
    13. Well, you did, can't fault you there, attentive to orders and such.

      Boats are a delight, and they're deuced expensive!

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    14. I miss being out on the water. Especially off-shore. Something about being out of sight of land makes me happy (as long as the weather is decent and the boat is working.)

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    15. I do know that feeling, know it very well.

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  10. Does not seem like a lot of fun, but the resolution will be well worth the discomfort.

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  11. Replies
    1. More annoying than painful. As Pooh might say, "Oh bother."

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  12. So, he's going to blow an air bubble to loosen your eye jelly? I know your vision's been bothering you, but did you check his walls for an actual diploma?? Just askin'.

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    1. Okay, it's a bit more technical than "blow an air bubble to loosen your eye jelly." But truth be told, my vision was kind of fuzzy so who knows what all those official looking documents framed on the wall were?

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    2. Well, it will definitely prove whether it was your eyesight or your brain that is fuzzy.

      Delete
  13. SWMBO was having vision problems and after super dilation and lots of scans and squinting by the doc they decided that the problem was the jelly stuff was starting to get cloudy, so they did what was basically "an oil change" where they stick a suction needle in one side and refill needle in another and suck out the old jelly and fill it with new. Sounds gruesome, but was quick and painless with NO NEED FOR FACE DOWN time. Not sure if that would fix your issue, but worth asking. Believe the official name is Vitrectomy.
    John Blackshoe

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  14. Well, I am glad they can fix you. You are an important part of my day.

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