I guess you learn something new every day ... today I learned that apparently, as long as it doesn't get out of hand, my retina bleeding once in a while is a good thing - it means that the torsional stress is causing "gunk" (the scientificky term) to detach from the retina, so of course some blood vessels will also bleed, but as long as they eventually stop, it's a good thing ...
... the alternative being that they open the eyeball up and scrape it off. I told him that wasn't an option, and he said that if it ever gets to that point, I might want to reconsider, but that it probably won't. The good eye - 94% chance that it won't, the bad eye, obviously less, but still probably better than 50-50, "depending."
94% - I like those odds. 50/50, not so much. In the meantime, using the computer for half an hour in the morning still leaves me feeling like I've got dirt stuck under the eyelid for the rest of the day. Oh well - it's an excuse to get off it.
retinal detachment (Score:2)
I had a double retinal detachment which resulted in debris in my eye. The left detachment was fixed by laser, but the right was so bad that they had to do a vitrectomy and cryofreeze the retina back in place which also meant they removed the debris from my eye. The end result is I now have no vitreous in one eye but actually the vision isn't too bad so as scary as it sounds, it isn't a terrible thing to have happen. It is possible that your bleeding is due to the age related process of the vitreous detac
Wait a minute... (Score:2)
I had a double retinal detachment which resulted in debris in my eye. The left detachment was fixed by laser, but the right was so bad that they had to do a vitrectomy and cryofreeze the retina back in place which also meant they removed the debris from my eye. The end result is I now have no vitreous in one eye but actually the vision isn't too bad so as scary as it sounds
You're confusing a torn retina with a detached retina. The laser will fix a torn retina, cryotherapy if they can't reach the tear. A vit
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That rubber band routine sounds really gross.
BTW - I think the term you were looking for was internal limiting membrane [tedmontgomery.com].
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I doubt he'll recommend a vitrectomy for floaters, mine didn't. I wouldn't go through that again for anything but keeping away from blindness.
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My eyes both had multiple tears and one part was pulled away entirely. The condition I had is called Posterior Vitreous Detachment and I realised I was in trouble after a quick google of my symptoms. Straight to the hospital (thank goodness for socialised medicine) and I was treated immediately. The surgeon said if I had waited any length of time the retinas would both have completely pulled away and blinded me. There was quite a lot of bleeding which I could see in my field of view, literally streams m
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So, which hospital, since we're both talking about Kanuckistan? I was seen at the Lakeshore, then the specialist clinic, then referred to the Jewish General.
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Kiwistan as it happens (New Zealand) hence the crazy long flight from Europe due to an 11 hour stop over in Dubai. The hospital was a specialist eye hospital and they did seriously good work, especially the membranectomy where the surgeon actually waited for a new machine to come in which had 10x the resolution so he was able to remove the scar tissue.
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Kiwistan - nice!
Still, I wouldn't want to go through what happened to you. My sympathies.
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Thanks! It was a little scary but more irritating, especially when my vision got all distorted and I had horrendous double imaging which made even reading difficult. After the membranectomy it improved slowly and only now four years on is the distortion mild enough to not notice any more.
You're in trouble (Score:2)
And I'd find a new retina specialist. They don't open the eyeball andd scrape it off; I've had a vitrectomy [slashdot.org]. The "gunk" is a natural transparent shield that protects the retina, and the vitrectomy removes it as a side effect of reattaching a detached retina.
One or two drops of blood floating around isn't cause for much concern, but if you see a black snake or black snow, get to the emergency room or your eye doctor immediately.
When your retina bleeds, it's been torn and you should seek immediate medical at
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It's been a LOT worse than it is now. Originally, the left eye was completely opaque due to all the bleeding.
Over time, with lots of laser photocoagulation (which isn't just to "snip the bleeders", but also to reduce the permeability of the retina to perfusion of O2 so that it doesn't promote new vascularization [nih.gov]), the bleeding is now occasional, and pretty much limited to a "stalk" of fibrous tissue in the center (which they avoid lasering because that's where your sharpest vision is, and hitting that wil
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It sounds like you're in pretty good hands, and have had some tears lasered. (They should change the spelling of "tear" to "tare", when you're talking about eyes "tear" hinders communication)
lens thingee stuck to the eyeball
If it looks like an ink pen, maybe with a wire going to a small box, that's the instrument they determine ocular pressure with.
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No - they use a wireless pen with a pressure sensor probe to determine intra-ocular pressure. This is different.
The lens on the eyeball is a contact lens, along with a cap so that it keeps the eye fully open, and it presses up against the receiver in the slit lamp. This way they get a really magnified, detailed view of the retina - it's pretty much the same setup as when they want to laser the retina, lubricating goop and all, just not as long or occasionally painful, and with a different lens and hol