WWTBAM Bored

Detatched retina.

Anyone have any experience?

Two nights ago, I had a headache on the left temple near my eye. Last night, I saw some flashing. Brief but bright. Thought it was emergency road crews from storm.

This morning, as I am driving to my audition, I started seeing a moving veil of black dots and nets on a clear background.

Have an eye doctor appt. this afternoon. Boonie taking me to the train.

Think good thoughts.

Thinking good thoughts -- whatever it is, I hope the prognosis is good.

Sending good thoughts.

My eye doc reiterates every year that if you have symptoms, to get in there ASAP so they can save everything, which you're doing.

She also says not to think that LASIK prevents this, which I guess folks have told her they thought that.

Ritterskoop wrote:Sending good thoughts.

My eye doc reiterates every year that if you have symptoms, to get in there ASAP so they can save everything, which you're doing.

She also says not to think that LASIK prevents this, which I guess folks have told her they thought that.

Skoop --

I had my annual exam two months ago and there were no symptoms then.

And my LASIK surgery was 11 years ago. And my eye doctor also reminds his patients that it doesn't prevent this.

Good luck, and hoping for the best. (If you're having eye problems, I didn't want this to be hard to read.) --Bob

Good luck! I'm hoping you have just a vitreous detachment. I had that about a year before my detached retina. That was very painful, the detached retina was completely pain-free (until after the repair operation).

Editing to add that a detached retina usually looks to the patient as a solid black area starting in one corner of the eye.

Thinking good thoughts.
Love,

Hope it's nothing serious!

Kay

Good luck, Melly.

What Bob said. That was my sequence, detached vitreous which they thought had resolved itself, but apparently left a small tear in the retina that decided to expand during my plane trip to NYC for WWTBAM. Make sure they check everything carefully. Positive waves heading your way.

Good luck, Melly.

If you don't remember me talking about MarleysDad's detached retina experience, I don't recommend looking it up.

Thanks for the good wishes, everyone!

Ended up getting laser surgery for a tear in the retina.

My regular doctor didn't like what he was seeing, so he sent me right over to Wills Eye Hospital two blocks away.

They gave me a thorough eye exam and found a small tear. Performed surgery this afternoon.

So, averted a real problem.

Thanks, again.

mellytu74 wrote:Thanks for the good wishes, everyone!

Ended up getting laser surgery for a tear in the retina.

My regular doctor didn't like what he was seeing, so he sent me right over to Wills Eye Hospital two blocks away.

They gave me a thorough eye exam and found a small tear. Performed surgery this afternoon.

So, averted a real problem.

Thanks, again.

I'm glad you got in right away. Glad you caught it quickly. Most of all, I'm glad it's fixed.

Now, about that audition. Any chance for a do-over with sympathy points added on?

mellytu74 wrote:Thanks for the good wishes, everyone!

Ended up getting laser surgery for a tear in the retina.

My regular doctor didn't like what he was seeing, so he sent me right over to Wills Eye Hospital two blocks away.

They gave me a thorough eye exam and found a small tear. Performed surgery this afternoon.

So, averted a real problem.

Thanks, again.

I'm glad they got it before it became worse!

I used to live above the hospital.

Phew!

Great news.

I am glad you are OK.

What is involved in having laser surgery? Did your symptoms stay until the surgery was completed or did the flashes and floaters come and go?
What causes a retina tear?

silvercamaro wrote:

mellytu74 wrote:Thanks for the good wishes, everyone!

Ended up getting laser surgery for a tear in the retina.

My regular doctor didn't like what he was seeing, so he sent me right over to Wills Eye Hospital two blocks away.

They gave me a thorough eye exam and found a small tear. Performed surgery this afternoon.

So, averted a real problem.

Thanks, again.

I'm glad you got in right away. Glad you caught it quickly. Most of all, I'm glad it's fixed.

Now, about that audition. Any chance for a do-over with sympathy points added on?

The audition actually went well! I'll know beginning of next week if I got it.

I had two lines (memorized). And, since I was reading with three actresses (one at a time. I was the mother/grandmother), I grabbed the stool to the right, so I could cheat to the camera with the eye that didn't have the floaters.

geoffil wrote:I am glad you are OK.

What is involved in having laser surgery? Did your symptoms stay until the surgery was completed or did the flashes and floaters come and go?
What causes a retina tear?

First thing - what causes the tear.

Between the front of the eye (iris, cornea, etc.) and the back wall (the retina), the eye is filled with vitreous fluid. As we age, the vitreous fluid shrinks.

In a small percent of the population, when the fluid shrinks, it pulls away fibers of the retina, causing a tear.

What I experienced was an increase in floaters plus light flashes. I never lost peripheral vision. By Tuesday a.m., it was as if I were looking through a fine grey mesh - almost like pantyhose. That was steady and the main reason why I went to Wills Eye Hospital immediately.

The mesh is blood.

For the surgery, the doctor put drops in my eyes for the examination - the kind that really dilate the pupil for that fashionable Little Orphan Annie look. Then, numbing drops. The laser is bright and it's a bit of a pinch but nothing that really hurt. It's as if the laser "staples" the tear together.

The doctor said the mesh look would go away in a couple of days, as the blood went back to normal. The floaters would still remain but nothing like the other night. If I have flashing again, I call them immediately.

One more thing: If the floaters keep up and/or get worse again, the doctor may opt to replace the vitreous fluid with a saline-based solution.

Thanks for answering my questions. It sounds like you had great eye doc. Wow about the what the mesh was.

mellytu74 wrote:

geoffil wrote:I am glad you are OK.

What is involved in having laser surgery? Did your symptoms stay until the surgery was completed or did the flashes and floaters come and go?
What causes a retina tear?

First thing - what causes the tear.

Between the front of the eye (iris, cornea, etc.) and the back wall (the retina), the eye is filled with vitreous fluid. As we age, the vitreous fluid shrinks.

In a small percent of the population, when the fluid shrinks, it pulls away fibers of the retina, causing a tear.

What I experienced was an increase in floaters plus light flashes. I never lost peripheral vision. By Tuesday a.m., it was as if I were looking through a fine grey mesh - almost like pantyhose. That was steady and the main reason why I went to Wills Eye Hospital immediately.

The mesh is blood.

For the surgery, the doctor put drops in my eyes for the examination - the kind that really dilate the pupil for that fashionable Little Orphan Annie look. Then, numbing drops. The laser is bright and it's a bit of a pinch but nothing that really hurt. It's as if the laser "staples" the tear together.

The doctor said the mesh look would go away in a couple of days, as the blood went back to normal. The floaters would still remain but nothing like the other night. If I have flashing again, I call them immediately.

One more thing: If the floaters keep up and/or get worse again, the doctor may opt to replace the vitreous fluid with a saline-based solution.

Slight correction: It's not "fluid" but more like a jelly. It's attached to the sides of the interior of the eye.

Ten years ago I had bleeding into my left eye to the point where I couldn't see a thing; it was like looking through milk. As it cleared it looked like a flock of starlings flying around in my eye. After that I had smaller bleeds. They never found the cause; it just stopped after a few years.

About five years ago I had an anterior vitreous detachment. The jelly had pulled away from the front of my eye. That was extremely painful. Once that was correctly diagnosed (it took three doctors over a week) I was told there was nothing to be done about it; it would heal and go back to normal. A year or so later the vitreous pulled away the top layer of my retina as that's the only thing it was still attached to. It tore the retina into three pieces. The ophthalmologist who diagnosed my anterior detachment should have had a vitrectomy done to remove most of the jelly so it didn't pull away the retina layer.

Here's a great website describing the conditions: http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/vitreous/

Glad this was fixed as well as they can fix it.

Sucks that you still will have floaters.


Just when I think that my health probs of the past couple years couldn't be worse, someone has something that could be worse. Glad yours wasn't.


I had an exam for diabetes-induced retinal neuropathy Wednesday, during the storm here. Involved, after a long, scary (because nothing should have been driving in zero visibility over continually snow-covered roads, including this bus I suddenly had to depend upon) bus ride, walking on a road that goes over the highway, complete with entrance & exit ramps, to get to where my formerly-conveniently-located eye doc has moved to. I would not recommend this with your eyes dilated, & with very-dimming sunglasses on, which is the way I had to walk back. Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic, at either end of the journey. Well, I could have sat around the office until my eyes got back to normal. Had I driven, I would have had to. But had I driven, I'd have probably never got there.

They did not see neuropathy. I also passed the glaucoma test, but one eye is at "20" with "we worry at 23", so I'm worrying anyway. Other eye is at "17". And if that was really "120" vs "117" so be it. I'm getting eye scores confused with blood sugar scores at this point. They also did not see thinning of the cornea at edges, which at 1st they thought they did see, so they did a better test.

Reading this thread is making my eyes hurt. --Bob