Eye Scream
My September of Partial Blindness
The retina is the sensory lining that covers the inside back wall of the eye. Parts of the eye such as the macula and the optic nerve are located within the retina. When an image passes through the eye, it is
placed on the retina and the sensory impulses transfer the image to the brain for interpretation.If the retina develops a tear that is not treated quickly, the retina can peel away from the back of the eye like wallpaper off of a wall. This is a retinal detachment. There are a few reasons a retinal detachment may occur. The most common is an untreated retinal tear. People who are very nearsighted have an anatomically long eye. When the eye is long the retina is stretched and can become thin and weak in some areas. Those areas can be prone to tearing and cause a retinal detachment.
Symptoms of a retinal detachment involve patients noticing a recent development of new floaters followed by loss of vision in a quadrant of the eye. A black shade, curtain or bubble completely blocks off a part of the vision. It can block the upper, lower, nasal, or temporal vision leaving the other areas uninvolved. It usually worsens without retina surgery.
Yes, the retina in my right eye detached and I was nearly totally blind in that eye.
Around the first of the month I did notice a couple of “floaters” but I chalked that (incorrectly) up to that age-old “comorbidity” of old-age.
Besides the floaters, I started to notice that there was a darker part near my nose. Even though I do not avail myself of allopathic medicine (last time was 2017), I was starting to feel I should get this checked and I even made an appointment at Kaiser’s optometry department. However, an incident on 13 September accelerated the urgency of seeking medical intervention.
I was driving up on I-80 when I closed my left eye and my vision was totally occluded in my right eye. I confess that I had a major panic attack and called the Kaiser advice line. It felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest. I knew I was having a panic attack because after my son was killed in Iraq on 04/04/04, I had many of those and I don’t panic over panic attacks. I knew that sitting back and controlling my breathing would cure that, but, I also realized at that point that supplements, a clean diet, or essential oils were not going to help my eye, because I already did all those things, and here I was, blind in my right eye.
In a few hours, I had an appointment with my assigned GP (more about this in another post) and even though she was mostly useless, she did refer me to the ophthalmology department. To make a long story short, I was diagnosed with a detached retina and referred to a retina specialist at the larger Kaiser facility in Vallejo.
Surgery to repair my retinal detachment was on the table, but, my amazing ophthalmologist, a very young Dr. Tausif, felt like he could do a less invasive procedure in his office on September 20th. The technology for this procedure was that he numbed my eye with drops, then with shots, and then froze that place where there was a tear. Since my vision occlusion was the “nasal” type, it meant the tear was catty-corner to the occlusion and at the upper right hand side (the brain reverses images). Dr. Tausif used cryo-therapy
Cryo-therapy: During the procedure, a surgeon injects anesthetic around the eye and then places a freezing probe over the tear or detachment. The freezing creates a scar that helps the retina reattach or seals the tear. The healing process typically takes 10–14 days to heal.
Then after the freezing, Dr. Tausif inserted a gas bubble into my eye.
A gas bubble in the eye is a common treatment for retinal conditions like tears, detachments, and holes. The bubble helps the retina heal by:
Floating the retina: The bubble keeps the retina in place while it heals.
Pushing the edges of a hole closed: The bubble acts as an internal support to help close macular holes.
Applying pressure: The bubble puts pressure on the retina to help it reattach to the back of the eye.
My recovery from this procedure has been amazing and I honor my amazing immune system. My right eye will not recover it’s 20/20 vision, because there was nerve damage in the detachment process, however, I can already see much better in less than two weeks from my blindness. I can still see the gas bubble and this could take about six months to fully dissipate. I am telling everybody the gas bubble is like the bubble in a carpenter’s level and it shows me the angle to which I should tilt my head. The recovery process includes me tilting my head to the left to make sure the bubble is over the tear. I also have to sleep sitting up with my head tilted on a pillow mountain to my left. No matter how weird I look, or how uncomfortable sleeping is, these processes are essential to my healing journey. During my follow-up appointment this past Monday, Dr. Tausif said I should be able to stop tilting and sleeping sitting up in a few days. Really, they are small annoyances to regain my vision. I have really had an empathy check for those with less than optimal vision: it’s exhausting!
I am in awe of my ophthalmologists (both in Vacaville and Vallejo) and their staffs who literally whisked me through the system. Everyone I know who has Kaiser for their medical providers are stunned by the swiftness of care, as well.
Even though I didn’t vibe with my GP, and after rejecting all extraneous tests and all proferred vaccines, she ordered some tests: an EKG and blood work. I am pleased to announce, all of my values were excellent. I didn’t need allopathic medicine to tell me that I am in good health, but, it was nice to have that confirmed. Allopathic medicine is good for a few things: i.e., if I had a badly broken bone, or even worse trauma, I wouldn’t rub arnica on it or get a spinal adjustment (both fine therapies) and I knew that I needed to have the help of the dreaded allopathia to figure out what was wrong with my dang eye.
It has been difficult, but I have been able to keep up with my Substack. I am grateful for your support.
I believe in miracles!
Writing this on Hump Day 9/25 with 1 3/4 good eyes!
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Newsletter needs and is grateful for your support!
Paypal: CindySheehansSoapbox@gmail.com
Send Check/Money Order/Cash/Love Notes/Hate Mail via Snail Mail to:
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox LLC
PO Box 6264
Vacaville, CA 95696
Despite everything, Life is still miraculous!
Thanks for sharing Cindy, and making the important point that not all of allopathic medicine is bad (although most of it is utterly wretched, which is partly why I retired from it ;-)
Early on in the covid scam I started trying to help folks find the few good doctors left, who now stuck out like a bullfrog on a pizza by virtue of their non-compliance.
They were easy to find, right there on the "bad boy lists" of the state medical boards. And now the best of the best are suing their state board, like the courageous ENT doc from my home town whose license was suspended for not requiring masks in his office! Like you, he's a fighter and was actually interviewed by Hannity at one point in his battle. So yes, there are good docs, but they are few and far between. Just gotta know where to look. So glad you were able to find them in your area.
And thanks for helping folks understand that not all specialties are equal. I think Surgery is the best example of one that still has good docs doing great things for their patients. And as you show, Ophthalmology is another one that has the requisite objectivity.
Best of luck with your vision and your visionary battle for freedom! 🤙🏻🤠
~~ Doc
wow! what a frightening experience. glad you're on the mend.