Stan’s Blog

I just had my follow up appt and the Optho says my lasering went well and the tear is now going to stay down. She says that it is OK for me to shoot guns again, so I guess I won’t get rid of the Mini 14.

Hear is what My Eye Looked like when I first got home from the Opthomologist after the lasering.

For a meaningfull comparison, here is what My Eyes looked like after the LaZix I had 2 years ago to correct my vision. I need to try to get a consistent skin color for these pictures.

And No, I don’t really think that the lazix caused my torn retina.

About 6 Weeks ago I got a bunch of big floaties in my left eye which diminished in a couple of days. In the dark if I looked to the left real fast, I would see a flash of light like lightning that wasn’t there. I went to a opthamologist who put something which was the texture of vasoline on my eye and put a big magnifying glass against my eye like a contact lens and looked around in there. She moved it all around on the surface of my eye while she looked thru it. She could see my floaties but otherwise my eye looked normal. We rescheduled in 6 weeks. Then I went to the Shoot and shot my Mini 14. After about 30 shots, I realized I had a bunch of new floaties like little specks throughout my left eye. I decided to quit shooting. It was kinda like lookin thru a sno-globe that was all shook up. They cleared up in about a day. Over the next day or two, I saw some squirts of dark lines appear as new floaties which disapated in a few minutes into little specks. I figured that I had an appointment soon with the eye doctor and I would mention them to her. Well I go into the appointment, they dialate my eye, She does the Vasoline contact lense magnifying lens thing, looks around in the left eye and then lets out a big sigh and says “I see a tear”. She says I am going to send you over to our other office where they have a laser to fix it. So she calls and speaks to the other doctor and tells her that She is sending me over and that I have a bucket handle shaped tear at the 9 o’clock position in my left eye and to prep for laser surgery to fix it. They give me directions to their 7 corners office and send me off. So I drive from Fairfax to 7 corners while trying to blink all the vasolene out of my left eye. I get to the other office, they put me in a chair and dialate my eye some more. I give the new lady my story and she looks into my eye and says “There it is”. She says I am Sooo lucky that when it ripped that it tore some blood vessles which bled into my eye. She figured that all that bleeding into my eye is what caused me to come to the eye doctor. She told me that the tear was big enough to lead to a Detached Retina at any moment.
So to prep me for the lasering, she puts some more of that vasolene in my eye and she pushes a big magnifying glass against my eye thru which she aims the laser. She hits the button for each shot. Zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap- zap-zap-zap-zap goes the laser. With each zap there is an incredable flash of light in my left eye. I can’t close it because she has this lense shoved against my eye. Zap-zap-zap-ZAP-zap- zap-ZAP-zap-zap-zap- zap-zAp-Zap-zaP goes the laser. She wiggles the lense across my eye to aim the laser at different spots on the back of my eyeball. There are certain spots on the back of my eyeball that REALLY hurt when they are zapped. I am trying to tolerate the pain but: Zap-zap-zap-zap-zap- zap-zap-zap-ZAP-ZAP-ZAP-(I jump a bit on that last ZAP) -Zap-Zap goes the laser. She says “Don’t move when I am lasering your eye”. I inform her that it sometimes hurts. She says to try not moving during the procedure. Zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap- zap-zap-zap-zap-zap goes the laser. I practice my deep breathing exercises to focus my mind and to distract myself from the pain. She shifts the eye piece around on my eye and tells me to look to the right. Zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap- zap-zap goes the laser. After 4 or 5 zaps I totally forget to keep looking to the right. She doesn’t seem to mind. Zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap- zap-zap-zap-zap-zap goes the laser. She says OK, now look down. I look down. She shifts the eye piece around. Zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap- zap-zap-zap-zap-zap goes the laser. The same thing happens. I forget where I am supposed to be looking after a couple of Zaps. She still doesn’t mind. I am doing good, LOTS of deep breathing, staring into the bright light wondering what kind of picture she is burning into the back of my eye. Zap-zap-zap-zap-zap- zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap goes the laser. If it wern’t for the pain, I think of going to sleep while she zap-zap-zapped my eye. I decide against it. Zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap- zap-zap-zap-zap-zap goes the laser. She says she is done and pulls the eyepiece away from my vasolened eye with a big sucking noise. For the fun of it I try to look out of the left eye. Everything is really dark. Then things look redish and out of focusy. She says “Let me look at things”. She pulls my eye open and looks inside with her magnifying glass. “Oh” she says “Theres a spot where some fluid got under the retina. I will have to tack it down”. She puts more goo on my eye and fires up the laser. Zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap- zap-zap-zap goes the laser. “Almost there” she says. She shoves the eyepiece around my eye some more and: Zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap-zap- zap-zap-zap-zap goes the laser. “Done” she says. “So that wasn’t so bad, was it?” I decide not to answer. She gets a squirt bottle and tries to squirt the vasolene out of my eye. Slowly the vision starts coming back in the left eye. She says to make an appointment in 2 weeks. She says my eye might be a little irritated by all the eye piece shoving around. I thank her and leave.

As of this time, I have lost a little peripheral vision to the left. As the eye heals I may get some back. I have some floaties like jellyfish tentacles in the eye that occasionally interfere with my vision. I don’t have any light flashes when I move my eye.