Needle in the eye.

Do you remember that kids saying “Stick a needle in your eye?”? Well, I had a needle in the eye today, and it was not fun. Sadly, it was a choice I made.

How did we get there? You see, I’m getting older, as we all are, right? And I noticed my vision getting a bit worse, and I thought, “Lord, I have to go get my eyes checked“. So, a couple days ago I went in and had a regular optometrist appointment, and they found something. Seems my right eye is great. Almost perfect vision, but my left, well, there was fluid in it. After answering bunch of questions the Dr said she didn’t know why it was there, and she wanted me to see a specialist. Right away.

It was the “If we can get you in today, you’re going.” that sorta started to freak me out.

Anyway, so my appointment was this morning, and after another two hours of tests, and those lovely drops they give you to dilate your eyes that make your vision really really blurry, the diagnosis is Occular Stroke at some point in the past(likely 6 months), and it’s caused constriction/damage to an artery in my eye, which effects the blood flow, and causes swelling and fluid. The Doc says, you have two choices.

1) Do the holistic thing and be monitored, and Wait and see if it heals on it’s own, which rarely (like 1/1000) happens.

2) Treatment. Where they inject the medicine into my eyeball with a needle in the eye. Ack!!

So, he says this sort of thing can come from Diabetes (which I don’t have), or high blood pressure (which I don’t have), or stress (which I’ve had a lot of this past year).

However, since we’re still not sure how this came about, or when, there’s a good chance if I get this treatment, it will reverse most of the damage. *fingers crossed* So, yeah, I went for the needle in the eye. Today.

They put drops in to freeze it (like at the dentist), then some iodine to help prevent infection, (which is a big concern) then, use a little clamp to keep my eye open, and say look left, and he comes in from the right side and sticks a needle in my eye!! There was a small pressure, which didn’t hurt, but then a small Pop! that was really really gross feeling. LOL Not painful, but gross, if you know what I mean?

Yeah, then all afternoon it’s been a roller coaster of weird feelings and sensations as the freezing leaves, and vision starts to come back, Itchy, pain, swelling, floaters in vision…weirdness. But yeah, so no writing done today, but I did nap for 2.5 hours after because it was getting to me that I couldn’t see anything or do anything (No reading, no watching anything as the light hurt) If I’d anticipated this, I would’ve had an audio book on hand. I will next time, because uhmm, yeah. I have to go back in 4 weeks for another one. And then 4 weeks after that… and then he said if it heals the treatments get further apart. 6 weeks, then 8 weeks…

In the meantime, I still have to go to the Stroke Prevention Center and have some more tests done. I think is because he doesn’t believe me when I say I’m not diabetic or don’t have high blood pressure. I mean, I am only 5’4 and weigh 310 pounds, so I can’t blame him for thinking it, but I see my Dr regularly because of past depression issues, so I’m pretty sure I’m right. We’ll see.

So fingers crossed k, people? I like to be able to see. I like to be able to read and write. I’m willing to take a needle in the eye every few weeks if it helps me continue to do so. But maybe, just maybe with luck, it won’t be too many of them.

NOTE: When you notice something wonky in your vision, go get it checked. I did, and I’m very glad, because it’s caught fairly soon, the chances of dealing with it/living with it successfully are higher.