A spot.
In front of my left eye.
I remove my sunglasses, clean them, and put them back on.
The spot is still there.
I change to my regular glasses.
The spot is still there.
I remove them, clean them, and put them back on. I’m not sure why since that didn’t work with my sunglasses but I do it anyway.
The spot is still there. It looks like a piece of dust on my eyelashes.
I take off my glasses, brush my hand over my eyelashes, and put my glasses back on.
The spot is still there.
I decide to do nothing more to see if it goes away.
It doesn’t. Instead the inside of my eyelid gets irritated.
Which scares me. What if I’ve torn the lens of my eye and it is sticking to the eyelid?
So, I call my insurance company’s nurse line and she talks me through a list of symptoms. A decision tree. You know “Do you have this symptom?” If yes, go to answer 1a. If not go to question 2. After a bunch of “no” answers she comes to the final instruction. “See your ophthalmologist today or tomorrow.” Argh!
So off to the insurance company’s website to see who is near us who takes our insurance. Where are we? White Sands National Monument. The closest town is Alamogordo, New Mexico. The website says five approved ophthalmologists there, four of which have the same address and phone number.
I call the number. They can see me four days from now. I reply that I won’t be here four days from now, could they, please, try to see me sooner. She says I can come in at 8 am tomorrow and they’ll try to work me in.
So I get up at 6:30 the next morning. Yup. Me. At 6:30 am. And we get to the clinic 10 minutes before it opens. I am the second person to sign in. And the second person they see even though there are others there who actually have appointments.
The doctor says, “Yes, I see the spot.” I reply, “Oh, good.” He says, “No, you are not crazy.”
It seems us old people all get these spots. It’s a type of floater called a cloud. It’s not really floating, though. It’s a shadow cast by a spot in the back of my eye where the vitreous gel inside my eye is pulling away from the back wall of my eye causing a posterior vitreous detachment. Now you know.
This one is not something to worry about.
The next one, however, could be so if I get any more or see any flashes of light I need to be seen again. Somewhere. Wherever we happen to be then.
Thanks, Doc. And thanks Blue Cross for paying for my reassurance.
TTYL,
Linda
By the way, the irritation inside my eyelid is from spending too much time in the desert without using eye drops. They give me a sample and a list of drops they recommend. I guess, it makes sense that my eyes should be getting as dry as my skin is. So now I have moisturizer for my eyes. Who knew?
Your eyes are important. Many years ago Terry woke up with double vision. That was a bummer but he got through it too. And no, we don’t want to hear what happens to old folks ‘cuz we’re prime candidates!! Maybe all this stuff will just skip me. At least I can hope.
This happened to me about 10 years ago (about the time I was helping Tim move). The vitreous sac actually falls down, detaching itself from the retina. This usually happens at your age, not at the age I was 10 years ago, which was the only part that was unusual. Only, it was not just one floater. It was tons of them, and also I felt like I was looking through soap scum if I looked at the sky, or a blank wall, especially if I closed the other eye. All this is normal, as is the fact that it has now happened in the other eye, as well. It made it hard to read for a while, but it’s okay now.
Also, I did have the flashes of light, which led me to a retina specialist, who had to just say \wait and see\ – if it gets really bad, you need to be at a doctor fairly quickly so that they can try to repair the retinal tear. So, hope for a gradual falling of your vitreous sac.
You probably knew all that, but just wanted to know – been there. done that.