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(Off topic) LASER fried eyeball. (On purpose)

Rags's picture

.  -My 41+ years as a juvenile onset diabetic (Type 1) has finally caught up with me.

In mid 2019 I started experiencing retinal hemoraging in both eyes.  Since then I have had a dozen or so injections between both eyes to calm the hemoraging down until the floaters cleared enough LASER surgery to seal the leaking areas of my retinas.  I had an Opthalmologist appointment last week and got another injection in my L eye. She wanted to do a LASER procedure then on my R eye. My brother was due in for a weekend visit and I did not want to lose that time with him (1-2 day recovery) so I postponed. I was told to set an appointment for 1-2 weeks.  I called Monday. The earliest available appointment was for late Sept. I booked that date.  Yesterday afternoon the Doc office called and had a cancelation opening up an 08:05 LASER procedure slot for this AM. So I took it.

All in all, it was fairly anticlimactic though I am now the proud owner of what my DW refers to as "zombie eye" on the R side of my face.  Another session is booked for the R eye in mid Oct. Then probably two sessions for my L eye and a retina pucker removal on my R eye after that and hopefully my aging diabetic eyes will get g2g for another few decades.  Though I am already informed that I will at some point have to have cataracts removed. Ugh. Getting older sucks.

The Doc is extremely talented though she has the "bedside manner" of Atilla the Hun.  Today she finally laughed as we worked through the 9 or so pain med injections in my R eye before the LASER fry fest.  I think I am wearing her down.

Then my DW had a Gyno appt to have an IUD removed and replaced.  That hurt. She came home and immediately headed to the bathroom to throw up.  I felt bad that I could not drive her to her appointment.  I was recovering from my morning eyeball session.

We are both on a health improvement journey together.  We did a doc managed weight loss program in 2017-18.  DW lost 100Lbs and I lost 80Lbs.  SInce then we have both put on about 40. 6wks ago we both got sicke of that direction and re-engaged on the program.  In the past 6wks I have lost 22Lbs, she has lost 15Lbs.  

So, all things considered, painful procedures not withstanding, things are going pretty well.

Thanks for reading my off topic blather.

 

Comments

notsurehowtodeal's picture

You are so brave! I had to go see a retina specialist before I can get cataract surgery. He found a very tiny tear in my retina and said if I could wait, he could fix it that day using a laser. It took a lot of convincing on his part that I would be able to do it without some sort of seditive! It turned out to be no big deal - just a super bright pulsing light for about 60 seconds and then a minute of blindness and then everything looked pink. I cannot imagine having shots in my eye in order to numb it.

So glad everything seems to be going so well for you both!

TheAccidentalSM's picture

But well done for taking control of your health

grannyd's picture

Well done, Rags, in resuming your weight loss program before you and your bride’s (remarkable!) success in losing so much is irreversibly compromised. I'm doing pretty much the same thing as the evil pounds are creeping up after having reached my ideal weight in 2020. 

In fact, I recently purchased a set of doctor's balance beam scales that weigh accurately to 1/10 of a pound. My DH insists that the exercise I'm getting by hopping on and off my 'new toy' every hour is burning more calories than the dieting. Biggrin

Catmom024's picture

Ugh...anything involving eyes can be nerve wracking.   Glad you're doing ok now.  I need to find a good ophthalmologist because I've had a weird issue with one of my eyes.  My eye dr (an optometrist) dilated my eye and couldn't find anything so told me it's just a floater.  I've dealt with floaters my entire life...this isn't a floater.

Congratulations on the weight loss!!!!  I hit menopause HARD.  A dr I see for my thyroid also works with bioidentical hormones.   I started them, stopped waking up every 15 minutes all night long from hotflashes, started a walking and healthy eating program and have lost 18 pounds!  

Yeah getting old is hard.