This doesn’t look right.
It had been a long, stressful day so it felt great to just sit down on the couch with my blanket, dog and hot tea.
My husband was busy working on his computer not really paying attention to what was on the TV. The headline read Harrison Ford hurt in plane crash. However, the words were wavy and some letters were missing. The whole screen looked distorted. I asked “Is there something wrong with the TV screen?” He looked at the screen and replied “No, looks fine to me.”
I blinked my eyes several times to adjust my eyes. Still the screen looked distorted. I moved closer to the screen to see if it was my near sighted eyes playing tricks on me. No chance. I was a little worried. I again asked my hubby if he saw something strange happening with the TV. “The writing and picture is all wavy”
He got a concerned look on his face. I again explained that screen was completely wavy and I couldn’t see all of the headline. He said “Maybe you should just go to bed. It’s been a long day, maybe you’re just tired.” I agreed and went to bed hoping the next morning I could see clearly. I thought maybe it was my contacts bothering me.
A trip to the eye doctor.
In the morning I woke up and stumbled to the sink and put my contacts in, half forgetting the problems I had the night before. My eyesight still seemed blurry in my right eye. I squinted to see if that would help and decided the best thing to do was change my contacts to a new set and see if that helped. It didn’t.
Really? I didn’t have time for such an inconvenience as no eyesight, I thought sarcastically. I was leaving on a trip to see my Mom and help her after her knee surgery. I struggled to read and to drive. It wasn’t impossible, but uncomfortable and annoying. I decided to see my eye doctor before I left on my trip and get a new updated prescription.
Bad news.
The news from the optometrist wasn’t wanted I wanted to hear. My doctor didn’t see a change in my prescription.
“It would be best to dilated your eyes and have a better look”, he said. He dilated my eyes and took a closer look. His diagnosis was “I don’t know. It could be a detached retina or macular hole. It is best to see an ophthalmologist and get a better diagnosis. Since your eyes are already dilated I think you should go now and have him take a look.”
So, I walked to the parking lot with my sunglasses on struggling to make my way to the car. I drove slowly and made it to the ophthalmologist just to hear them say “We are booked today. Plus your primary physician must approve you to see a specialist”. Since I was flying out the next day I decided to wait and take care of this when I got back from my trip. I mean how bad could this really be?
A macular pucker
I went ahead on my trip. I lived with the distortion in my right eye as uncomfortable and annoying as it was. I had no choice. When I returned home, my appointment with the ophthalmologist was scheduled. I was instructed to bring a driver with me so they could run a series of tests. Luckily, my Dad came to take me to my appointment. The news was not good. The ophthalmologist says he could see three things wrong with my eye. He stated he had never seen such a distorted shape to an eye. He recommended I see a retina specialist the very next day. This is when I started to get very concerned that I may lose my eyesight. The ophthalmologist ruled out a detached retina, but I was still in jeopardy of having a condition in which I could lose my sight in my right eye.
“You have a macular pucker”. What in the world is a macular pucker?
Find out more about my eyesight journey from Having Eye Surgery, Eye Surgery Recovery, Eye Disease Recovery, An Eye Surgery Scheduled AGAIN,A Setback and a Comeback.
Read more about Macular Pucker and Eye Disease at the National eye Institute.
Take an extra step and learn more about Non-Age Related Macular Degeneration.
