Lasered

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1

I had my first, really unexpected encounter with laser eye treatment today.

I went for my annual eye checkup and told the doctor I'd been seeing little lines and flashes and spots in half of the visual field of one eye for a week or two now, but they came and went and there were no drastic changes in my vision, and knowing I had an eye appointment coming up I decided to wait. If I'd noticed any huge change in vision I would have gone in immediately.

He looked and said that there are areas of my retina that are thin and weak, and also areas where scar tissue is pulling on the retina, and he recommended laser treatment because without it there was a high chance of having a retinal tear develop. I asked if this was from diabetes and he said it's not. I don't have any signs of diabetic retinopathy. It's all complications from the retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) that's caused my visual impairment since I was a baby.

So, he did laser treatment on the worse eye today. It wasn't too bad, hurt a bit, but the worst part was trying to hold my eye still and he had trouble getting to some of the areas because it was out on the very peripheral retina. It was kind of interesting because, the times I could actually keep my other eye open, I could see the laser beam. It was green and reminded me of some sort of science fiction movie (I love science fiction!). I had about eight eye drops over the course of two hours so my eyes are still kind of messed up. I don't notice any difference between the eye that was lasered and the other eye, except the eye that was lasered is a bit tired/sore and I've got a bit of a headache. I have another appointment in three weeks to check the eye again and also do laser treatment on the other (which is my "good" eye and not as bad).

Overall I am just happy I have no diabetes complications. Nothing I can do about ROP complications, but I am hoping to keep the diabetes ones away as much as possible.

2

Glad to hear you have a good doc helping you take care of your eyes. My mother was blind in one eye and I cherish my sight every day.

3

Congrats on the lack of diabetic complications! Can I ask a really dumb question (you might not know the answer, and that's fine)? Didn't the doctor have a way to hold your eye still? When I had LASIK done a few years ago, they actually sort of clamped my eyeball in place (sounds worse than it was). It didn't hurt at all, but it was weird seeing what they were doing.

4

They didn't hold my eye still but I wish they had! He got me to move my eye around to various places (look up, look up/right, etc.) so he could shoot them with the laser, so maybe that's why he needed my eye to be able to move around. I also have nystagmus which is an involuntary rapid eye movement (caused by being legally blind from birth), so I was really nervous that it would interfere with his ability to aim, but it didn't.

5

Oh, strange! I didn't even know that they could do that. Of course, what I know about eye surgery could fit in a mosquito's nostril.

6

Actually, the fact that I've read about laser treatment here and sort of knew what to expect (even though it's a bit different) made me MUCH calmer than I would have been otherwise!