Two eyes good, one eye bad

When I went for an eye check up about three years ago, the optician showed me the photo they take of the back of your eyes and pointed out an area of the macula on my right eye. Whilst it wasn't causing any problems at that time, we needed to monitor it so annual eye appointments were recommended; the importance of keeping them was stressed.

I assumed it was age related maculata like my mum has and hoped it would be many years before it started to affect my sight.

I also developed a PVD in that eye a while ago which I wrote about here, it manifests itself as an oval transparent, colourless outline which i can see floating about. I only really notice it in very bright light conditions and it doesn't interfere with my sight. They're very common but having a PVD makes me more prone to a retinal tear - a far more serious eye condition, I have a list of symptoms to look out for.

Just before Christmas I noticed I wasn't seeing nearly so well out of my right eye and it seemed quite sudden but I had none of the other alarming symptoms. I rang the optician, at first he wanted me to come in right away but after I told him I thought I just needed another prescription and discussed what I was experiencing, he agreed I could leave it a few days.

Yesterday he put some tropicamide eye drops in. This dilates the pupils so he can see inside my eyes more easily. You're not allowed to drive as it makes everything seem very bright and blurs your vision for a few hours so MTM accompanied me. It takes half an hour for the drops to take effect, we went for a cup of tea and a toasted tea cake to pass the time. With the size of my pupils, I joked the staff would think I was on drugs but without any of the pleasanter effects.

The good news: no retinal tear. As a bonus, there's absolutely no age related macular degeneration in either eye. So what were we (pardon the pun) keeping our eye on?

The bad news: an epiretinal membrane which started to grow over my right eye has now stopped growing and was crinkling up as it shrunk. "It looks like a piece of cling film" is how he described it. Apparently it's just bad luck if you get one and can happen at any age.

If I look at straight lines through my right eye, they don't look straight any more, there's a little blurry curved downward jog in each line. So I have been referred to to see a specialist eye consultant at Leicester Royal. As it's slap bang in the middle of my eye and significantly affecting how I see through that eye, the optician thinks the Consultant will recommend an operation to remove it.

Apparently an appointment will arrive through the post. In the meantime, if I need to see anything very clearly, I'm just shutting my right eye .... if you notice me winking at you, it's nothing personal!

Missy safe after operation

Bit of a worrying day yesterday, Missy had her operation, I cannot tell you how quiet the house seemed without her once DH took her to the vets. Even though she had a powerful sedative to keep her calm til the operation, Geoff says she was still really interested in the smell of rabbits who were also waiting in a separate cage for operations. All went well and she was back home just before 4pm last night. We have had a pretty sleepless night with her. She doesn't seem to be in any pain as the vet gave her nerve blockers and pain killers as well as antibiotics but she's clearly in a little discomfort so she was fidgety from 2am onwards for the rest of the night (she sleeps on our bed).

Instead of taking a photograph of her a little under the weather and looking daft with the "lampshade" collar she has to wear to stop her licking the wound and unpicking the stitches, I've include a couple of snaps of us taken on holiday last week. Look at the state of my hair(!!); I told you it was windy! And honest, DH isn't attempting to strangle her, she was lovely company on holiday and I'm hoping she'll be back to her normal boundless energy self very soon!