Getting Old Sure is Fun

[Aragorn243]

Had a bit of a medial scare yesterday and today. After we ate our Easter dinner, I was getting ready to take some things to the recycling center and I noticed a "hair" above and to the right of my right eye. But I couldn't find it. I asked my daughter to look, and she didn't find anything. Then I noticed "hairs" in my lower field of vision. So, I start rolling my eyes and it's inside.

I immediately think retinal tear as I have several friends that went through it, and I just had a client three days ago that had just had surgery to correct it. I checked the symptoms and sure enough, they fit.

Phone call to the VA and they advise me to come in so off to the ER. The doc there says he does not see a tear but advises me to come in the next day to see an eye specialist so that's what I did today. This morning, I wake up, the hairs are gone but I have large floaters everywhere and my vision is a little cloudy.

Exam also shows no tear and I'm diagnosed with vitreous detachment which is a "normal" part of aging no one ever warned me about. There is no treatment for it, it's fairly benign and your brain eventually learns to filter out the floaters, but this can take weeks. Right now, I have difficulty reading and I'm right in my yearly paperwork period with tax season coming up in two weeks. Fun Fun. I slept this afternoon; my eyes were dilated huge and even though it's raining it looked like the sun was out.

On the positive side, I asked about getting a cataract removed and they said they will do it there so I don't need to pay out of pocket for it. I just have to wait until this gets sorted out to schedule that. I go back in a month for a second exam. This can lead to a retinal tear but it is rare, something like 1% of cases.