Still Keeping An Eye On Things

 I have recently had eye surgery for a detached retina. 

The retina is a thin layer of nerve cells and blood vessels which line the inside of the eye. It is sensitive to light like the film in a camera and is essential to be able to see.

Apparently a retinal detachment can occur at any time with no particular, cause though  some people are at a greater risk of developing retinal detachments - people who are short sighted, those who've had cataract surgery and who have had a severe blow directly to the eye. 

I can claim to have had the first two of these so it was almost inevitable that I would have a retinal detachment, too.

It happens when a hole or several have developed in the retina and fluid has passed through the holes causing the retina to peel away from the inside of the eye similar to a blister. The result of this is loss of whole or part of the vision. Without treatment this usually leads to permanent loss of vision in the affected eye.9

I now know that the symptoms can be dot or lines (floaters) suddenly appearing in your vision or suddenly increasing in number, flashes of light, a dark "curtain" or shadow moving across or the vision suddenly getting blurred. 

At my time of life, many things are generally due to "age" or "wear and tear" but the suddenness of the onset of this quite surprised me. 

One night I turned off the TV as I could barely see the screen and turned to a book to read, to find that I couldn't do that either. My right eye was completely blurred with a diagonal shadow across it from top right to bottom left covering more than half of my eye. Wearing my varifocal glasses (those which have different sections for viewing close up and far away and everything in between) showed that it was definately only one eye that was affected, so I phoned my optician who immediately told me to go to A&E. This being a Saturday morning and having experienced A&E numerous times at all hours of the day and night - plus the current NHS and Covid situations -  I was in no way looking forward to attending at all, let alone on a weekend.

As my current optician did not have an appointment available for me that day, to confirm or otherwise a diagnosis, I was very fortunate to get an appointment at an optician locally, less than a mile away, who, after a detailed inspection of my eyes, confirmed that yes this was a retinal detachment.  I attended the hospital accompanied by a letter with the diagnosis and the following week, had a Vitrectomy performed, which involves making three microscopic openings in the white of the eye, so that tiny instruments can be used to cut away the vitreous gel from inside the eye.  As this is happening, the vitreous is replaced by a salty fluid and the retina is repositioned using an internal splint - either a gas bubble or silicone oil, which supports the retina whilst healing takes place.  

This choice is made depending upon how the eye and retina behave during the procedure.  At the same time, either laser treatment inside the eye, or freezing treatment (cryotherapy) from outside is used. 

As it turned out, my eye and retina didn't 'behave' too well and I needed to have another operation -under general anaesthetic this time - to flush out excess blood and stop any further bleeding. Three months on I am pleased to say that the sight in my eye is improving, slowly, and my main concern now is ensuring that any changes or deteriation in my other eye is reported immediately to the hospital so that any issue with it can be identified sooner. 

So it was with a fair degree of shock and squeamishness that I came across the following  post I made on here a number of years ago and had largely forgotten.

Reposted here as a reminder of how amazing our eye sight is and that we need to take care of our eyes, if we can, for as long as we can, and to add appreciation and recognition for the  eye specialists and other professionals who treat patients every day and keep our eyes healthy. 

(I'd be very interested to know if this "technology" is now being used in wider fields. I am sure it will be and will be way beyond my comprehension - but please let me know.)

This is probably old news to many people, but it's new to me, very interesting, amazing, almost unbelievable and more than a little disturbing. 

Scientists have developed a prototype contact lens which can generate info-vision – the ability to stream information across a person’s field of vision. 

"Do what ?"  I hear you asking. I said the same to myself.

Soon we could be sending and receiving texts and emails, catching up with the latest news and generally social networking without even logging on to a computer or phone.

Images and messages will just appear in front of your eyes. It will one day be able to show directions and TV programmes. 

Yes, honestly.

Just imagine, you might never need that old fashioned Sat Nav ever again and you could watch Corrie and Enders while you are driving too. Get rid of that ancient Sky HD recording thingy that you just got installed. 

After blogging about my new phone just the other day, it seems a little 'previous' to be now talking about doing all the things I have not yet got to grips with in a blink of the eye - literally. I know there are many things that my poor brain can't fathom, but just the concept of this is quite scary to me. The next stage in this ever 'advancing' technology might be to connect our thoughts to this information stream. I find it difficult enough to keep my mouth under control, never mind my thoughts, so I dread to think of the consequences.

Within weeks  a number of people in Britain are to be implanted with a tiny device in their retina which, if successful could be on the market by 2013.It stimulates nerves in the retina which pass signals down the optic nerve to the brain to turn into an image.Robert MacLaren, the surgeon who will lead part of the  trial warned that 'the surgery is still experimental and the device does not work in all cases.'  Well, it's been tested on rabbits and squirrels so far, so that's reassuring.

I'm all for improving things for health reasons and education is by it's nature an ever evolving concept, but I am sure I am not alone in feeling wary of some of this. Or maybe I am just showing Luddite tendencies,  or whatever today's equivalent may be.