Losing my sight (temporarily)
Published: Sun, 10/27/19
Something had obviously gone seriously wrong and so Venetia took me to casualty later that evening. Friday evening at HRI Casualty department is not really where you want to be if you can avoid it. There was one man waiting to see the psychiatric nurse who was brought in by two police officers who stayed with him the whole time. Others were high on something or other and were being managed by extremely embarrassed spouses or relatives. As the evening went in a couple of people came in with facial wounds which looked like the result of drunken brawls. Actually, it could have been much worse and no one gave anyone else any problems. Some people were friendly and quite chatty. I finally saw a doctor at a bit after 1 am on the Saturday morning and he was great; friendly, professional and reassuring. After examining my eye he contacted the ophthalmology department and arranged an appointment for 10am that morning. It was a bit of a
short night but I took the train back to Hull the next morning and got the full attention of the eye experts.
Part of the examination was having my eyes scanned. You look into a hole in this big box, there is a flash of light and an image of the inside of your eye comes up on a screen. My left eye was a nice smooth red with a little dot towards one side which is where the optic nerve joins the retina, all present and correct. The right eye? The only way I can really describe it is that my retina looked like a piece of old wall paper peeling off a damp wall. Which is pretty much what had happened. The retina is a layer of specialised light receptor cells on the back wall of your eye. Sometimes it detaches and partially falls off, which is what happened to me. Sometimes it may be possible to attribute this event to some particular trauma such as a blow on the head. Usually there is not obvious reason. In my case it was probably a hemorrhage behind the retina which caused it to blister and then detach.
I then saw the consultant and on Tuesday morning I was on the operating table. My right eye underwent a Vitrectomy which involved cleaning the fluid from my eye, welding the retina back in place with a laser and then re inflating the eye with gas. The operation was done under local anesthetic so I was fully conscious the who time, my head covered with a shroud that allowed access to my right eye but no more. It wasn’t painful as such, but hardly comfortable either. The best thing I could do was some detailed planning for the next sermon I am preaching next week, I am not sure how good the ideas were but it provided a distraction. Then I spent the night in the department and was discharged on Wednesday morning after a final examination.
The good news is that my retina has been successfully reattached and should remain so. The slightly less good news is that I won’t be able to see properly in my right eye until the gas bubble has been absorbed and replaced with new vitreous humor or gel. This will take a few weeks and although it has only been five days (at time of writing) that the operation was done it does seem to be getting a little better each day. I just need to be a bit patient and by the time our baby arrives around the middle of December I should be seeing just fine out of both eyes. I would like to think that I have just experienced of the British NHS doing what it does best, promptly diagnosing the problem, getting it fixed and doing it all efficiently and without any unnecessary fuss.
Two things come out of this for me. Firstly, how important sight is and how fortunate I am to live in a time and place where a condition such as a detached retina can be successfully repaired by skilled surgeons equipped with the facilities they need. Secondly, my eyes lie to me all the time. Although the top half of my retina fell off it was only the top of an image which I could see with what remained. Which would be a bit strange if I didn’t know quite a bit about cameras and that the eye is basically a camera with the retina receiving the image instead of a digital sensor, or light sensitive film as used to be the case. As the light carrying the image to your eye passes through the lens the image gets inverted, so we actually ‘see’ the world upside down. Then the brain ‘interprets’ the image so we perceive the world the ‘right’ way up. Which suggests to me that there is a big difference between seeing and perceiving.
The story of Odin giving up one eye in exchange for greater wisdom suggests that sometimes we need to see less in order to perceive what really matters. Which will be part of the experience at the Rune Retreat next year in Norfolk. I don’t mean that you risk losing an eye, just that we will explore the difference between gaining information about the universe and understanding how the universe actually works. That will be part of the theme anyway along with stances, martial training, runelore and much more. Details at http://rr.stavcamp.org/
regards
Graham
PS The HEMA event in Beverley next week at which I was going to teach the use of the staff has been canceled. Partly because I am not confident about teaching weapons when I have no depth perception.
However, we will be going ahead with the Salisbury course on the 16th Of November please see details here https://www.iceandfire.org.uk/salisbury161119.html