The eyes have it
Posted in Life on August 29th, 2006Finally got around to seeing the eye doctor today about the problem in my right eye. For those that don’t remember, I woke up one morning to discover what can only be described as having a raindrop inside my eye. If you wear glasses, you know what I’m talking about – a drop gets on the inside, and everything looks wonky through it.
Only this “raindrop” doesn’t move, and is made of tinted water. So now I have this spot just slightly the the left and up from dead center.
There are several possible explanations, ranging from a slightly detached retina to a “floater”. The optometrists’ prognosis: Macular Degeneration. One of the layers of my retina (there are ten) appears to have a bump in it. possibly caused by a leak from a blood vessel. Treatment options are basically nil, but he wants me to see a specialist anyway.
The good news is that my brain has trained itself to just ignore conflicting visual data from that eye. During the exam, he dilated my pupils and shone a light in that eye, and I was still able to see past him and mostly ignore what he was doing. When he did that to the left eye, it blinded me.
Wonderfully adaptive creatures, we are.
Hollerings