Torn Retina

[bountyhunter]

Getting old is a real bitch. Yesterday at about 5PM, I notice wierd flashing neon light bars in my left eye around the edge of my vision whenever I moved my head or moved my eyes.

I knew somebody with a detached retina, so I was immediately concerned: but, I also have migraine which has given me hundreds of incidents of strange flashing lights in my vision: but they were always stable and did not change when I moved my eyes.

So, I was thinking of going to the hospital and right about then my wife came home. I suddenly saw a large hunk of black garbage in the vison of my left eye which waved around. I knew we had to RUN to the hospital: the good news is, I live a block from the hospital. The bad news is, it's Kaiser.

By the time I got there, my left eye was gettin g foggy from bleeding into it. I told the woamn that I had a detached retina and was bleeding in my eye, and she seemd unimpressed. I kept telling her, and she said something like:

"Wait over there, I marked you a "3" so it won't be too long."

Well, it was too long because (as I told her) I needed to get treated IMMEDIATELY. There is a simple and quick laser zap they do to seal such things.

A half hor later, a resident is looking in my eye and not finding anything. By then my eye was foggy and I could not see well from the blood. A whuile later the admitted there is no opthamologist at the hospital on weekends, but they had one "on call". I convinced them to call him and he arrived 45 minutes later.

he looks in my eye and finds:

A HOLE IN MY RETINA

Well, what a surprise.... exactly what I had been telling those dumb forks for three hours. By then, the bleeding must have stopped by itself. He did the laser surgery this morning at 8AM. Now, My left eye is full of garbage. This morning it took about 2 hours for the black garbage to settle down below sight line. I still see a fog and can even watch the individual blood cells as the drift around if I look for them.

I can see about 20-30 out of the eye looking at black letters on a bright white background, but my night vision is hosed. The doctor says that some of the blood will be absorbed "over time"... I asked how much time and he said months or years.

So, there went my good eye. It's not my dominant eye but I always (used to) shoot using both eyes. Guess not anymore.

Merry Christmas

[SLM]

That sucks. I hope it gets better fast and take care. We only get one set of eyes!

[JThompson]

Now that Is all kind of f&(ked up! If they had got you right in that could had a better chance for a full recovery. I'd be livid... hell, I am livid and it isn't my eye. :angry2:

Edited December 24, 2007 by JThompson

[G-ManBart]

Wow...that sucks. The word lawsuit isn't one I think of very often, but I'm wondering if it isn't reasonable in this case. You know if there was a guy with a knife sticking in his ribs ahead of you I can understand the delay, but how likely is that?

[ChrisStock]

Wow...that sucks. The word lawsuit isn't one I think of very often, but I'm wondering if it isn't reasonable in this case. You know if there was a guy with a knife sticking in his ribs ahead of you I can understand the delay, but how likely is that?

I agree with with G-ManBart 100%. Forking idiots.

I hope it works out a better than the initial prognosis, keep us posted.

[dajarrel]

Hope it gets better soon.

One of our club members has/had a torn retina. Long story made short, after healing the worst part is "floaters" that stay in the fluid. His assistants in his office look at him funny when he waves at "flies" that aren't there.

Best of luck to ya,

dj

[Ditto_95]

I feel for ya bro.

I had a similar incident about 10 years back. A blow directly to my eye. My eye doc rushed in from the golf course to treat me. (really love him for that)

I had to be imobilized for a week. I had the same symptoms as you. He really wanted to put me in the hospital.

After all was said and done it was only a couple for months before the debris cleared up enought for my eye to feel normal. I think there may be some hope. Doctors usually give the worst case scenerio.

The accident realy put things in perspective for me and my eyes. I visit the eye doctor regularly and wear my safety glasses for dang near everything I do except watching tv.

SLM couldn't be more right. You only get one set. Even 50% is unacceptable.

[Neomet]

That tanks guy. Like others here I have similar issues. Juvenile diabetes has brought me the joy of proliferative retinopathy to compound my not so great vision. Heading for my fourth laser surgery sometime in the next 30 days. Yee-haa

The good news is it was the perfect way to convince Ms. Neomet of my need for an open gun.......

Hang in there and I hope the vision keeps coming back.

[GentlemanJim]

Wow that just sucks!!

You must live close to the civilized world...around here its a one and a half hour drive to the ER.

Then a5 or 6 hour wait to see the doc

We hope you come back 100 percent!!!!

Prayers sent.

Jim

[Derek45]

December 1996, got in a car accident and detached my right retina.

I had emergency surgery that put a teflon buckle (ring) behind my right eye, and lazer surgery on my left. I missed over 3 months of work, and when it healed, I was left with a -10 prescription (severe nearsightedness) right eye, -6 left eye.

Hello coke bottle glasses.

The most damage was to my right dominate eye.

I tried to train my left eye to become the dominate one, but never could get used to it. I also tried to learn to shoot a rifle left handed/left eyed, but it never felt right either.

For years I struggled with 20/50 vision until I found the right doc who got me some (expensive) contact lenses that have me seeing much better.

Now I'm dealing with the 40 year old reading glasses thing too.

I looked into getting LASIK, but the Doc said my right eye was too far gone (-10) and suggested a lens insert. I figured that eye had been cut on enough and got cold feet.

[Front Man]

Bounty Hunter that sucks so bad I can't even think of what to say.

Derek45, from what I hear the lense implants are the future.

Maybe someday all of us will be glasses free except when we need safety glasses.

FM

[bountyhunter]

Wow...that sucks. The word lawsuit isn't one I think of very often, but I'm wondering if it isn't reasonable in this case. You know if there was a guy with a knife sticking in his ribs ahead of you I can understand the delay, but how likely is that?

The funny thing is my wife runs the cardiac wing at the county hospital and she says I received great crae. She says it's unreasonable to think any ER would have a specialty doctor like an opthamologist on premises and "ON CALL" was as good as anybody would have gotten

Easy for her to say.. hse isn't the one looking out through a bunch of trash in one eye. She really pissed me off this time, she acts like it's no big deal and I an unreasonable.

I guess if it was somebody ele's eye, it would be no big deal to me too...

[bountyhunter]

Wow...that sucks. The word lawsuit isn't one I think of very often, but I'm wondering if it isn't reasonable in this case. You know if there was a guy with a knife sticking in his ribs ahead of you I can understand the delay, but how likely is that?

I agree with with G-ManBart 100%. Forking idiots.

I hope it works out a better than the initial prognosis, keep us posted.

It's not getting any worse or better. There is huge floating garbage but it is trapped in place. It doesn't drop. The really huge pieces drop, but the black foating "snakes and cables" appear to be permanent.

[bountyhunter]

Hope it gets better soon.

One of our club members has/had a torn retina. Long story made short, after healing the worst part is "floaters" that stay in the fluid. His assistants in his office look at him funny when he waves at "flies" that aren't there.

Best of luck to ya,

dj

Yeah, I jumped about six feet last night when I was brushing my teeth and a big, black water mocassin strted to drop down on me. Wasn't real, of course.

[bountyhunter]

December 1996, got in a car accident and detached my right retina.

I had emergency surgery that put a teflon buckle (ring) behind my right eye, and lazer surgery on my left. I missed over 3 months of work, and when it healed, I was left with a -10 prescription (severe nearsightedness) right eye, -6 left eye.

Hello coke bottle glasses.

The most damage was to my right dominate eye.

I tried to train my left eye to become the dominate one, but never could get used to it. I also tried to learn to shoot a rifle left handed/left eyed, but it never felt right either.

For years I struggled with 20/50 vision until I found the right doc who got me some (expensive) contact lenses that have me seeing much better.

Now I'm dealing with the 40 year old reading glasses thing too.

I looked into getting LASIK, but the Doc said my right eye was too far gone (-10) and suggested a lens insert. I figured that eye had been cut on enough and got cold feet.

The damage to the retina did not change the focus, it's still clearer than my right eye .... on a black-on-white thing that I can see through the fog and crap in the fluid. The hole in the retina is above the area of the center vision, so if they had patched it before it tore off I would have had no problems at all. Now I have what was a 20-15 vison eye filled with a ton of crap that won't move out of my sight line.

[bountyhunter]

Wow that just sucks!!

You must live close to the civilized world...around here its a one and a half hour drive to the ER.

Then a5 or 6 hour wait to see the doc

We hope you come back 100 percent!!!!

Prayers sent.

Jim

Kaiser built the new hospital justr down the street from me.

Now if they could just hire some forking doctors to put in it:

I swear I am not making this up: the first "doctor" to look in my eyes was a OB-GYN resident... who said she didn't see anything wrong. Then she dragged in some other woman she was training.... all the time I am saying I need an opthamologist.

It took about an hour before they admitted there was no opthamologist at the hospital.... but they would call one and ask him if he wanted to come in.

All the time my eye was filling up..

BTW: when you bleed into your eye it does not look red, it looks grey. As my eye was going foggy it looked like grey cottage cheese was moving in. Still does mostly.

Still can't believe it happened. Like watching a train wreck.

[Rob Boudrie]

ask him if he wanted to come in

Yikes - you mean there coverage is doctors who might feel like coming it?

[bountyhunter]

ask him if he wanted to come in

Yikes - you mean there coverage is doctors who might feel like coming it?

Since it was a nurse and an OB-GYN resident who was looking at me:

yes, they would call him and ASK if he thought he needed to drive the 30 miles to see me. The onloy reason they took me seriously is because I kept telling them I had a torn retina and was bleeding: if it turned out I was right (and they did nothing) I would own their new hospital.

As it was, they did what is the Kaiser legal "standard of care": screw around with the local dipstick for a while, call the big guy when they get scared, and everybody's ass is covered.

BTW: the doctor is somewhat motivated to come in... they get about 50% of their regular pay just for staying "on call". But, if they come in on a weekend, they get that 50% plus the overtime rate of pay which is usual double base pay for the time they are in the hospital.

Edited December 26, 2007 by bountyhunter

[Rob Boudrie]

The scary part is to consider how much worse it would have been if you did not have the knowledge to know what to demand.

[bountyhunter]

The scary part is to consider how much worse it would have been if you did not have the knowledge to know what to demand.

Yeah. Funny thing, after I was getting the indifferent response, I was getting a little more pushy and kept repeating myself: TORN RETINA AND I AM BLEEDING INTO MY EYE!. My wife told me not to be a know-it-all and tell them the diagnosis....

Turns out, somebody needed to.

[boz1911]

I'm sorry for you poor service at the hospital, I hope you recover 100 percent.

What caused this to happen?

[bountyhunter]

I'm sorry for you poor service at the hospital, I hope you recover 100 percent.

What caused this to happen?

There was no cause, unless it's just old age. No exertion, no trauma or impact, nothing.

BTW, saw my opthamologist today. He looked in my eye and found a whole bunch of blood clots were what was getting in the way of me seeing out of it.

Gee...imagine that.

He says the body "should" absorb them eventually.... didn't say if it would be before I die, can't have everything.

[bountyhunter]

UPDATE:

Well, over a month, and here's the scoop:

1) The blood has basically been absorbed. The cottage cheese vision is gone now, that's good.

2) The dark black "tumbleweed" which was blood clots are still there, but they are not black anymore...more light gray. They are not leaving and probably never will but I can see through them and don't notice them most of the time. For those who think junk always "settles to the bottom" in the fluid of your eye, I can tell you it isn't true. The fluid is very thich and some stuff just stays where it is.

3) The hole they patched is holding. I see it at night in low light when my eye dilates. It scares me sometimes when I get up to go to the bathroom because it looks like a big round black spider just below the focused area. During the day I don't see it.

4) My lasered eye got blurry focus for a while, but it's mostly back to normal again.

I guess this is as good as it's going to get (most of the time I don't notice it) but there is still a lot of crap in there.