In mid-January, I woke up with a blind spot in the lower corner of my right eye. In the past, I have had floaters in this eye, but it hasn’t affected my vision. When I first got this blind spot, it took away only a small part of my vision.

By the first week of February, the blind spot started creeping up toward the middle of my right eye, where I lost half the vision in that eye. On February 20th, I had an appointment with my primary care doctor at Kaiser Permanente in Parma, and told him about my eye. He referred me to an ophthalmologist. I had an appointment the following Friday, the 24th. I had my eye examined, and I was diagnosed as having a retinal detachment in my right eye. I was then referred to another ophthalmologist, this one at Retina Associates in Middleburg Heights. He then examined my eye, and referred me to the Cleveland Laser Eye Center in Fairview Park the following Monday, the 27th, for eye surgery to reattach my retina.

I had my aunt drive my car to and from that appointment, since I had to have an escort for this appointment. I went into surgery-I was given anesthesia and an IV, and the surgery took about an hour. A gas bubble was put into my right eye in order to hold the retina in place. I was given prescriptions for two eye drops, one a steroid and one an anti-infective. I had to use both eye drops 4 times a day for 4 weeks, and was gradually weaned off the steroid eye drop, while I was told to stop using the anti-infective drop. I saw the eye doctor the next day, and was told that I could sit up. I feared that I would have to remain face down for several weeks, which is typical for those who undergo retinal reattachment surgeries.

My retinal detachment wasn’t that bad; I caught it in time. If I waited longer, I would have had to undergo being face down, which would be difficult for me. If I didn’t undergo the treatment, I would have been blinded permanently in my right eye. The gas bubble faded after 2 1/2 weeks. I was off work for 2 weeks while my eye recovered.

The vision in my right eye is still blurry, but my good left eye is compensating for it, so I could read and drive, although once in a while I end up with double vision and distortion-I’m learning to manually focus my eyes to keep the double vision to a minimum. Once in a while, I still have trouble with reading; off and on, I will use an eye patch on my right eye so I can read fine print. However, my vision is gradually improving, and I go back to the ophthalmologist on June 2nd. I will most likely need to be re-examined for eyeglasses, since the surgery has changed the prescription in my right eye.

To sum it up, if a retinal detachment should happen again, I’m going to the emergency room as soon as possible-I’m not waiting 2 weeks like I did. I originally thought that this blind spot would go away, but it got worse. I’m glad I had the eye surgery done-or else I would have been blind in my right eye.