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FEATURE

When It Rains, It Pours

Marc's Medical Adventures

Issue: 23.1 (January/February 2025)
Author: Marc Zeedar
Author Bio: Marc taught himself programming in high school when he bought his first computer but had no money for software. He's had fun learning ever since.
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 13,204
Starting Page Number: 12
Article Number: 23102
Related Web Link(s):

http://www.xdevmag.com/browse/13.5/13500/

Excerpt of article text...

This update was supposed to be a short article about my eye. In mid-November, the retina in my right eye detached (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinal_detachment). However, it turned out there was something even more problematic than my vision.

You might recall that I had issues with a retinal tear in that same eye in 2015 and had to undergo laser treatment to seal the tear (http://www.xdevmag.com/browse/13.5/13500/). At that time, the fear was that the tear could lead to detachment, which is much more serious and can result in permanent blindness.

Because of that, I had expected a retinal detachment to be far more noticeable than the tear. With the tear, I suddenly had hundreds of "floaters"—tiny objects floating around my eye like a miniature asteroid field (see Figure 1)—and "flashes," which are pinpricks of light flashing in random places. Wouldn't a detachment be much worse?

The detachment, however, was much more subtle: just a faint shadow in a corner of my eye. I noticed it enough to realize it was odd, but I could see fine, so I didn't worry too much. I was also on the road (I went to Missouri for the memorial service of my great-aunt, who passed away in August at the age of 100), which made getting treatment more complicated.

Once I returned home (I was only gone one weekend), I called my eye doctor, and they had me in to examine the eye that day. They confirmed my worst fears: it was a detachment, and I was rushed into surgery that evening.

The procedure they use is called pneumatic retinopexy and involves inserting a bubble of gas into the eyeball. The retina itself is like wallpaper glued to the back of the eye. Detachment happens when there's a tear and liquid gets behind the retina, causing part of it to peel off the wall. The air bubble, which expands to a larger size over a few days, creates a zone of pressure that pushes that "wallpaper" (the retina) back against the wall. The hope is that after a few days, it will stick there on its own. The bubble gradually disintegrates after about six weeks. (It was right on schedule and was completely gone exactly one day before the six week mark!)

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