Laser Ablation of my Eye

I went for my third appointment at the ophthalmologist yesterday to see how my central serous retinopathy is progressing . I could have predicted the result, which was that there is not change, but I had to go through all the tests again. They did a laser raster scan of the back surface of my eye. In the first figure you can see the state of my left eye. The depression in the middle is the fovea where most of your vision is centred. 

Normal left eye

 However the right eye looks significantly different as can be seen in the second figure. The fluid has leaked into the subretinal space and detached most of the macula region of my eye from the back of my eye. This results, in my case, in blurred and distorted vision and deteriorated light sensitivity.

Faulty Right eye

This is what the scans looked like in August, and they haven't changed much. The cause can be seen better below in the fluoroscein angiogram pics. The white spot is where fluorescent dye is leaking out of my veins, pushing the fovea away from the back of my eye.

There has been very little change since August, so my doctor recommended I get the laser ablation. I thought there would be prep required and that I'd have to come back another day. I was wrong. The surgery took minutes, Renalda could attest...thinking about it now, I hope you closed your eyes babe!!

First they put more drops in my eye, this time an anesthetic, the previous time was to dilate the pupil. It was a bit uncomfortable, but not painful. You sit with your chin in one of those bucket things and look with your good eye at a predefined spot. Then he put a handheld lens onto the surface of my eye, which I tried to blink out. He then took aim, asked me to sit very still and shot a very bright laser onto the spot in my eye. Hopefully it was successful and I'll be able to see normally again soon!

Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens Walk

Gauteng has a few nice day hikes about and I'd wanted to do this one for a while. Walter Sisulu national botanical gardens is a little bit like Kirstenbosch in Cape Town, with wide open lawns and a large variety of plants, shrubs, trees and wild flowers. It's about 45mins drive from Pretoria. Not too bad for a Sunday walk, and it makes a nice change from our local, the Faerie Glen Nature Reserve.

The view of the gardens looking towards the waterfall

Myself, Renalda and Louis decided to spend our morning doing the walk. You start by walking past the outdoor amphitheatre, where they sometimes have concerts. That day the place was over run by girl guides in brown and yellow!

One of my favourite things about the walk was the giant insects and spider mounted in appropriate places.

Shelob awaits..

I really like dragon flies

This guy wood give Po a run for his money :P

Renalda and I in front of the waterfall

Louis looking very serious

 And then we walked up beside the fall to the top of the ridge, where I thought it was an easy hike, but it got harder and there was more of a climb. The veld god rocky with lots of interesting rock layers of different origin, sedimentary and igneous.

View from above looking roughly northwards

The hiar was getting a bit long!

Scary looking dude with 4 eyes :P

Lots of mooi blommetjies (pretty flowers)

Nog blommetjies (more flowers)

Nog meer blommetjies (still more flowers)

View of the layers of rocks above and the lawns below

All in all it was about a 2 hour walk, with a well deserved beer afterwards. If you haven't done it, give it a go, you won't be disappointed.