An interesting phenomenon happened before my regular eye checkup in late February: the visual distortion in the right eye didn’t regress much, but subjectively my vision was almost normal. However my left eye — until now, unaffected — had developed a similar distortion in the opposite direction!
My conjecture was (and my ophthalmologist agreed) that this was a software adaption by my visual cortex. The expectation was that all these effects would continue to shrink for the next several months.
Unfortunately that was not to be. Two weeks after the checkup I noticed a persistent spot at the edge of my right-eye visual field, outlined by sparkles, even at night. I knew these were the symptoms of retinal detachment, and the ophthalmologist performed immediate surgery.
This was done by the same means as my November vitrectomy. The retina had wrinkled again, but this time at the edge; so instead of buckling it just began to tear. This was repaired by a belt-and-suspenders approach: laser “welding”, keeping the retina in place by a pressurised octafluoropropane gas bubble, and buckling the sclera mechanically. All this required paralysing the eyeball muscles and doing some tricky micro-mechanical work.
Well, after a scary and painful first week — the internal eye pressure had more than doubled and had to be relieved — I’m happy to report that recovery is underway, again. The gas bubble takes several weeks to be replaced by fluid and in the meantime there’s just a blur to be seen; but all indications are that the retina has been fixed.
More in about a month…
