I'm having relationship problems with my retina, it's so detached

Hey,

It’s funny how you think things might get better and then something unexpected hits you like a semitruck. That hapene to me on Tuesay.

I had a routine eye appointment along with my 6 month visual field test (testing my peripheral vision). It’s almost like a game- as soon as you see a light you push the buzzer. I noticed that I my right eye (my bad one) was especially sucky in the test. However, it’s a kind of sucky eye so I didn’t think much of it.

After that test I go back to the waiting room. After I’ve been waiting for almost an hour a nurse comes in and announces: “Dr. Rock (my doc, glaucoma specialist) had some emergencies to attend to so he is two hours behind. If you are able to wait a bit to see him I advise you reschedule and go home”.So everyone got in a line to explain their situation and be judged whether or not it was urgent enough to make them have to see the doctor today. I decided to get in line as these were routine tests and my eyes have been pretty stable over the past few years.

I told her that I had already ha a visual field test one and was waiting for an ocular pressure check and meeting with Dr. Rock. However, these were routine tests and I din’t mind rescheduling. She then touched my hand an sai “No hunn, I heard them talking about you. You have to stay”.

Shit

Pretty soon I was in Dr. Rock’s office. He is a good doctor but has the bedside manner of a….rock. He quietly said “hello” to which I replied “Hi! How are you?”. I got no response back.

So he did the normal vision test. Usually my bad eye can recognize the big “E” on the eye chart. Ok that’s a lie, I just know it’s always an “E”, but I can at least see some blobs that look eye chart like. However, when he starte the test and asked me what letters I can read I said “You turned the projector on?”

Bad sign. I can now only see light and dark with that one eye.

He checked my eye pressure, looke at it through a slit lamp, held his fingers in front of my face (which I couldn’t see with my right eye). Then he finally spoke.

“Your eye pressure is extremely low. You appear to have retinal detachment. Follow me to Dr. Leonards office- he is a retina surgeon.

So I followed him and saw Dr. Leonard. He examined my eyes yet again, explained the problem yet again, then explained how to fix it. Surgery, obviously. It's a procedure called a vitrectomy. They suck the vitreous jelly out of your eye, fix the retina, then fill the eye with a gas bubble or bit of silicone oil to support the retina.

After getting that news I got a physical to make sure I was fit for the surgery and filled out paperwork. My surgery is scheduled next Thursday the 20th of May.

I'm kind of tired, so I won't go into any personal details regarding how I feel about the surgery...but basically it's shitty, but I have no choice. I will write more later.

Peace, Love and veggies,

Alex