A Change of Vision

Normal view, driving on a sunny winter's day in Nevada.

February 7th I was working on some sketch ideas for my brother who had asked me in December about illustrating a short story-poem he had written. I was making some mini test paintings and as the room I use for my studio filled with bright afternoon light, it seemed like something was going very wrong with my eyes.

There was an unusual amount of black dots, “floaters” is what they are often called, appearing in my right eye. It seemed like I was looking through a strip of black pepper flakes. Plus, everything seemed more blurry, like I couldn’t quite focus my eye.
 

Illustration of the floaters and blurring inside my eye.

 My heart was racing as I called the ophthalmologist, of course this had to happen after office hours on a Friday. I left a message and tried not to panic.  

Last spring while dealing with the usual round of allergies, I had my first change of vision. I woke up one morning with what looked roughly like a faint circle of black dots suspended in a kind of thick gel in my eye. This annoying mass kept drifting in and out of the center of my vision, making it really challenging to see clearly.

I made my first appointment with an ophthalmologist in over 30 years.

What had happened in my right eye is called a “vitreous detachment”. It seemed terrifying, but it was explained to me as one of those “normal” things that can happen with aging. Sheez, the things no one tells you about getting older! The vitreous gel in the eye gets thicker as people age and may pull away from the back of the eye. That part isn’t dangerous to the eyesight, only if it manages to pull the retina with it.

Steroid drops helping, black dots are smaller and there is less visual blurring.

                     (Looping shape is the right eye vitreous detachment turned on it's side.
                       the dark dot on the side is from left eye vitreous detachment.)

Thankfully, my retina was fine, but the doctor warned me that if I ever saw a “swarm of black dots” that I should contact him immediately. Those black dots are blood cells making their way into the eye. Before you freak out about seeing those dots in your own eyes, it’s perfectly normal to have a few, just not a whole bunch suddenly appearing all at once!

I took a deep breath of relief, it was a nuisance but I could manage since my left eye was still clear. I was immediately disappointed when the doctor told me that this same thing would probably happen in my left eye! Sure enough, a similar thing showed up in my left eye in August. Sigh.

The only treatment besides the controversial laser targeting or risky surgery of having all the vitreous sucked out of your eye and replaced with salt water is patience. Gravity is your friend and over time will eventually pull the annoying things to the bottom of your eye where they are not so much in the way. It looks like they are at the top of your eye because of the way the brain turns the upside down images projected on the retina right side up.

By December, I had pretty much gotten used to the inconvenience. Yes, making art was harder. I often had to tip my head to the side to get them out of the way if I was working on something detailed, I cried now and then out of frustration, but dammit, I wasn’t going to let them stop me from making and creating whatever I wanted.

This is why the appearance of that “swarm” of dots in early February was so upsetting. The doctor’s office did call me back and I was able to go in to get my eyes checked on Saturday. The good news, my retinas were fine. The bad news, the back of my right eye was obviously inflamed, which is also a danger to eyesight. The question was why?

The name for it is Uveitis, specifically Posterior Uveitis in my case since it is the back of the eye.  If you search on-line for what can cause it you will find a long list of about 30 upsetting reasons. I looked them all up, trying to understand what might be going on, but none of them felt like an exact match for me.

The rest of the month of February has been a series of blood tests and doctors visits and medications. The good news is that several of the scary things on that list have been ruled out. I don’t have tuberculosis, lyme disease, lupus or toxoplasmosis. The shingles virus was a real suspect at first, but it’s not that either. I still have an MRI test to do to check for multiple sclerosis or a tumor, which are more scary things to consider, but I would like to know for certain.

The only clue I feel I have is that I had a nasty sinus attack Dec. 22nd and then came down with a cold on Christmas day. I was still coughing weeks later when I caught the cold again the end of January and had another painful sinus attack just before this ordeal with my eyes started. Did being sick for so long mess with my immune system and trigger the inflammation in my eye?

The steroid eye drops I am taking are keeping the inflammation at bay, which I am truly grateful for, but they are not a cure. 
 

Illustration of how it looks currently.

I debated with myself all month about talking about this on my blog, but as an artist this event really shook my world. The first few days were so very upsetting and I was full of fear of losing my eyesight. I’m still concerned since I don’t have any solid answers yet. I’m grateful the doctor said I could drive again, so that is an improvement.

It also feels important to me that I let other people know that if you ever get an unexpected blizzard of little black dots in your eye do not wait around, get to an ophthalmologist as quickly as you can!

Hopefully Creating

>^-^<
Tina