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!

Hiking with Central Serous Retinopathy

I've never thought of myself as a stressed out person, but it seems that perhaps I am. I thought I'd put this in between the Fish River posts because I had it while hiking and I had my second test today. More on that later.

I'd had a really busy few months running up to the Fish River, with trying to be fit enough, organising suitably primal food, travelling for work and travelling for friends and family weddings, I hadn't spent much time relaxing in the passed 6 months. I'm not complaining about having a busy time, I quite enjoy it, but on some level it seems my body does not like it.

I arrived back from my cousin's wedding in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday and left for Namibia that same Saturday. Truth be told I had noticed a visual oddity on Thursday or Friday and "watched" it move slowly from the bottom left of my centre of vision. I briefly considered going to a doctor, but with the possibility of not being able to hike I decided to chance a week in the middle of nowhere with an eye that was misbehaving. I thought it couldn't be particularly bad.

As the hike progressed the visual impairment grew over my centre of vision, but I didn't allow it to worry me too much, I'd deal with it when I got home. I didn't want to leave all the diving back to Pretoria to Renalda, so I didn't tell her about it. The Monday I returned I went straight to a doctor, who referred me straight to an ophthalmologist. A barrage of tests later, I was diagnosed with Central Serous Retinopathy, which is a temporary detachment of the retina due to fluid build up behind it. the laser profile picture are quite revealing, when comparing the normal eye to the bad one. It's like there is a blister where my retina should attach to the back of my eye!

Anyway, the doctor said it was stress related and that it should go away in about 3 months, but that I should come back in 6 weeks. Today was that return visit. I'm quite sure that before last week my eye was on the heal, but one relatively rushed proposal later and I noticed the shape of the disturbance changing again, growing. So today the laser profile pics confirmed that, while it has improved significantly it is far from fixed. The doctor feels that laser surgery is an option as the fluid leak originates away from the centre of vision, but he wants to wait for another 6 weeks before going that route. So in 6 weeks I will know more.

In the mean time I've asked my boss if I can work from home, and I guess I should speak to someone about the way I handle stress...