Saving my sight...
Did any one ever tell you that if you masterbate too much you'll go blind? I'm begining to think it might be true. heh.
Those of you who have been friends with me on this site for a few years might remember that I've been through this all before. About 3 years ago I was diagnosed with non-age related macular degeneration which so far has affected only my right eye. this is a condition in which new (abnormal) blood vessels grow in an area, such as the macula, where they are not supposed to be. These blood vessels begin to hemorage and ooze fluid in to the eye which distorts and obstructs vision. If not treated quickly the damange can be irreversible and permanent. the first time this happend the vessels where right in the center of my feild of vision. anything I tried to focus on with my right eye was blurry and distored like looking through broken glass or a fun house mirror. yet my periferal vision was clear, thus i could see the nurse pointing to they eye chart but the eye chart was distorted.
like this:
when i first noticed the change in my vision three years ago I didn't think it was a big deal, i asumed as many would that perhaps I just needed glasses. But upon a routine trip to the optiomologist, I was told i needed to see a retinal specialist immediately and that they had already made an apt for me. the next thing i know I'm being told that this is serious and had I waited any longer I could have had permanent vision loss. I received 2 treatments (which I will explain in detail) and my normal vision was restored. i have been fine for several years now...but at the end of last week I began to notice another small blurry spot in my feild of vision...this time to the lower left corner of my vision. I recognized it right away and booked my apt. with the retinal specialist again.
I knew going in to the apt that most likely I would not leave that office without recieving an injection in my eye. But first i had to go through the tests. the funnest of which is probably when they inject you full of a floresent dye (in your arm) in order to photograph your eye. and for about 24 hours later your pee is floresent yellow like you drank a glass of highlighter ink. it's festive. I could see the new spot on the images right away....before we even completed the test. *sigh* I had hoped that I was never going to have to go through this again.
the causes of my condition are still somewhat unknown, though apparently i fit a demographic of young woman who this condition seems to effect most. One of the culprits is beleived to be high fever as a child. my mother can remeber one incident where I may have had a high enough fever to cause the damage. the choices for treatment are lazer, however lazers destroy both good and bad tissue or an off lable injection of the cancer drug Avastin can be injected into the eye. The cancer drug shrinks the abnormal cells and stops the hemoraging. there is a permanent scar left but it will not affect your vision. Avastin worked well for me the first time and in the interst of not killing any healthy cells in my eye, I decided to stick with it.
Now having an injection in your eye is a very scary thing. However, it's not as painful as you might think considering that they completely numb your eye with drops first. They also have you looking off to the corner, so it's not like you see a needle coming at you. it feels a little wierd as the drug is injected, but it's not painful, just uncomfortable and of course you're trying to stay calm and still. after the numbing drops wear off your eye is sore...it feels like it got poked and at times it feels like you've got a speck of dust or dirt in your eye...but of course you can't rub or touch yout eye...all you can do is use the antibiotic drops that will keep you from infection.
In three weeks I will go back for an exam to see how this new area has rsponded to this drug. At that time we will determine if I shouldhave another treatment. I'm fairly confident that this is a much smaller area than last time and that I'm more aware of the issue and have caught it much earlier on, so one treatment will be enough. I hope.
Anyway...I'm doing fine. I've been getting alot of rest but I'm still very tired, but i think that's because I went into this not being healthy in the first place. I have been fighting a cold, thogh today i feel much better.
Emotionally I'm a bit depressed. I wonder if I am going to need to periodically receive these injection for the rest of my life to keep my sight. The doctors don't know. I may, or I may never have another incident again.
I think it's important to tell this story because, we often take for granted the ability to see. To read a great book, to type emails and chats, to drive, to recognize faces. People need to know that changes to ones vision should never be ignored. Maybe you need glasses, but maybe it's more serious than that and you should never put off having it checked. So that's my little public service annoucement for eye health.
Below are some of the more graphic photos of my experience...the proceedure and what my eye looked like 24 hours after the injection.
Did any one ever tell you that if you masterbate too much you'll go blind? I'm begining to think it might be true. heh.
Those of you who have been friends with me on this site for a few years might remember that I've been through this all before. About 3 years ago I was diagnosed with non-age related macular degeneration which so far has affected only my right eye. this is a condition in which new (abnormal) blood vessels grow in an area, such as the macula, where they are not supposed to be. These blood vessels begin to hemorage and ooze fluid in to the eye which distorts and obstructs vision. If not treated quickly the damange can be irreversible and permanent. the first time this happend the vessels where right in the center of my feild of vision. anything I tried to focus on with my right eye was blurry and distored like looking through broken glass or a fun house mirror. yet my periferal vision was clear, thus i could see the nurse pointing to they eye chart but the eye chart was distorted.
like this:
when i first noticed the change in my vision three years ago I didn't think it was a big deal, i asumed as many would that perhaps I just needed glasses. But upon a routine trip to the optiomologist, I was told i needed to see a retinal specialist immediately and that they had already made an apt for me. the next thing i know I'm being told that this is serious and had I waited any longer I could have had permanent vision loss. I received 2 treatments (which I will explain in detail) and my normal vision was restored. i have been fine for several years now...but at the end of last week I began to notice another small blurry spot in my feild of vision...this time to the lower left corner of my vision. I recognized it right away and booked my apt. with the retinal specialist again.
I knew going in to the apt that most likely I would not leave that office without recieving an injection in my eye. But first i had to go through the tests. the funnest of which is probably when they inject you full of a floresent dye (in your arm) in order to photograph your eye. and for about 24 hours later your pee is floresent yellow like you drank a glass of highlighter ink. it's festive. I could see the new spot on the images right away....before we even completed the test. *sigh* I had hoped that I was never going to have to go through this again.
the causes of my condition are still somewhat unknown, though apparently i fit a demographic of young woman who this condition seems to effect most. One of the culprits is beleived to be high fever as a child. my mother can remeber one incident where I may have had a high enough fever to cause the damage. the choices for treatment are lazer, however lazers destroy both good and bad tissue or an off lable injection of the cancer drug Avastin can be injected into the eye. The cancer drug shrinks the abnormal cells and stops the hemoraging. there is a permanent scar left but it will not affect your vision. Avastin worked well for me the first time and in the interst of not killing any healthy cells in my eye, I decided to stick with it.
Now having an injection in your eye is a very scary thing. However, it's not as painful as you might think considering that they completely numb your eye with drops first. They also have you looking off to the corner, so it's not like you see a needle coming at you. it feels a little wierd as the drug is injected, but it's not painful, just uncomfortable and of course you're trying to stay calm and still. after the numbing drops wear off your eye is sore...it feels like it got poked and at times it feels like you've got a speck of dust or dirt in your eye...but of course you can't rub or touch yout eye...all you can do is use the antibiotic drops that will keep you from infection.
In three weeks I will go back for an exam to see how this new area has rsponded to this drug. At that time we will determine if I shouldhave another treatment. I'm fairly confident that this is a much smaller area than last time and that I'm more aware of the issue and have caught it much earlier on, so one treatment will be enough. I hope.
Anyway...I'm doing fine. I've been getting alot of rest but I'm still very tired, but i think that's because I went into this not being healthy in the first place. I have been fighting a cold, thogh today i feel much better.
Emotionally I'm a bit depressed. I wonder if I am going to need to periodically receive these injection for the rest of my life to keep my sight. The doctors don't know. I may, or I may never have another incident again.
I think it's important to tell this story because, we often take for granted the ability to see. To read a great book, to type emails and chats, to drive, to recognize faces. People need to know that changes to ones vision should never be ignored. Maybe you need glasses, but maybe it's more serious than that and you should never put off having it checked. So that's my little public service annoucement for eye health.
Below are some of the more graphic photos of my experience...the proceedure and what my eye looked like 24 hours after the injection.
EDIT 9/17/2010: Still looks knarly. and those are just some lightly tinted sunglasses, but they cut glare and keep me from touching/rubbing my bad eye. at least you can only see the bloodshot when I lift my lid.
expo:
Looks nasty
bbeckett69:
Thanks for the PSA!!! Hope you feel better soon. 