I had retinal laser surgery this morning . . . thanks DU Lounge

[skip fox]

After hole like tear in retina yesterday while teaching, I described symptoms to Lounge members yesterday and many urged me to see doctor immediately.

To follow up, my department chair helped me make emergency appointment and the doctor did laser surgery on me this morning.

Next week after some more of the blood is gone, he'll do the remaining 30% of the tear.


So, thanks DU for getting me off on the right foot as soon as you did.

[TXlib]

1. Glad to hear it!

I hope you make a full recovery!

[SoCalDem]

2. Yay.. I Love happy endings

:):)

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. You have no idea how happy I am to hear this. I am so glad

you went and had that looked at. Best of luck with the remaining operation. To your good health! :toast:

[ewagner]

4. Wishing you a speedy recovery n/t

[GOPisEvil]

I wish you the best Skip!

:-)

[proud patriot]

5. Fabulous

Glad to hear it

[Raven]

6. Wow! Thank God you went!

And congrats to all the wannabe docs here at DU. :-)

[nini]

7. Good to hear.. I was thinking about you last night...

and wondered what happened.

I'm very happy to hear you got the right help and it is fixable.

:-)

[arwalden]

8. What causes this to happen? How can one avoid or prevent it?

[skip fox]

11. I thought it was stress and long drives, but . . .

My father is dying in NC, 15 hours by car from me in Louisiana. I've made two trips since the beginning of the year and spent most of Dec. there as well. He has Altzheimers and congestive heart failure, a wicked double-whammy for him as well as all those caring for him (sitting up all night &c.). On Mon.-Tues I drove 19 hours home (caught in SC's ice storm which made about 4 of those 19 hours real white-knuckle driving). Tues. drive was 14 hours and part was into sunset on I10 West. So I thought Long Drives for Old Man (57) + Stress (both emotional and physical taking care of dying fat) = Retinal Tearing. But doctor said no. It just happens.

So much for trying to understand the universe.

Important thing is if you see something like this happening (like knotted strands of floaters suddenly filling one eye), don't freak out (I kept teaching and I doubt if one student realized there was anything strange going on except I tried to sweep what I thought was hair out of my eye with my hand a few times), but DO seek medical advice immediately (as I was so well advised here).

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

15. Migraines can cause it

Optical migraines cause a thickening of the vitreous fluid in your eye..the globs creat floaters that can actually detach the retina....

If you see dots or things floating in your eye then lose your peripheral vision...you have probably detached a retina.

I get them a couple times a year so I have to watch it.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. That explains my floaters, then...

Thanks for the info!

[brook]

9. Wonderful news!

It's incidents like this that show the true wonder of a net community like DU. Kudos to all who gave you such good advice - and to you for following it. :toast: Here's to a swift recovery!

[creativelcro]

10. what did you have? retinal detachment ?

[skip fox]

12. Just a hole, a tear.

n/t

[Raven]

13. By the way, Skip

a friend of my had tears in both eyes within a few days of eachother! She got help fast like you did and she's fine. :-)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. Is the tear what was causing the floaters?

I ask because I've had floaters for years, and they've gradually been getting worse.

I'm glad you're ok! :party:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

16. No other way around...the floaters cause the tears

the streaks he saw were the lines either left by thickened vitreous or streaks from the hole.

[cosmicdot]

18. Eye Test ... see if you can CAPTION this

[skip fox]

19. W. is saying: "Yeah, well, pizza is great. One of the food groups and

all, but I got an idea how you can double your profits. Everybody loves pizza, right? And everybody loves ice cream. Well, then . . . Don't you see? I mean, they have pinapple pizza. Why not ice-cream pizza? It'd be great! Boy, I'll bet you're glad I'm president, right? I have ideas like this all the time. Wow."

[cosmicdot]

20. yeah!

:bounce:

[Cleita]

21. Good for you!

I didn't see the original thread or I would have advised you to do the same and save your eyesight. I once worked with ophthamologists who specialized in this procedure and for anyone else who has those symptoms of a retinal detachment, the sooner you see an eye specialist, the better your chances are for not losing your eyesight.