Eyes

Many of you have asked, so I decided that today was a good day to fill you all in on the latest on my eyes.

Most of it is good news, so sit back and relax while I fill you in.

During my doctors visit three weeks ago, I was not given the chance to ask any questions. The doctor was busy, and he said a few things and was off. I took what little he had said and went on a search for answers. You know, I went to Dr. Google!

From what Dr. C. had said I believed I had a condition called Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). This is not a good thing and I envisioned myself slowly going blind at an early age.

I started wondering if I could train a dackel to be a seeing eye service dog. Could they do that for me?

This past Friday I went to see my doctor again, and here is the full report:

My right eye, which had the retinal detachment in December is slowly healing. He reminded me that I am perhaps expecting too much from that eye, as it has been just a little over a month since my surgery. However, everything in that eye looks good and I should get almost all of my vision back in that eye. I will need glasses now all the time, but heck, what does that matter?

My biggest concern is for my left eye. I knew before the right eye problems that I had a membrane growing across the retina on that eye and suddenly I was panic stricken that I might lose the vision in my left eye and be left with the newly problematic right eye.

Really, my family calls me “The Worrier” because I worry about everything. And this is true. Even I have to admit that. So here I sat, day after day, worrying that I would lose my vision, and wondering if a dachshund guide dog would be accepted by the Guide Dog World. Really, my dreams were not good ones and I fell into a bit of a depression.

Then on Friday I went in to see Dr. C. I was prepared with a printed sheet of questions and most of all, I wanted to know for sure if I did have Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR).

Much to my relief I discovered that I DO NOT have PVR in my left eye. I do however have a problem called Epiretinal membrane (ERM), also known as macular pucker.  This involves growth of a membrane similar to scar tissue across the macula. Eventually it will thicken and need to be removed. In the meantime, the vision in the left eye will continue to deteriorate until the membrane is ready for removal.

The first thing I asked was, can I go to Germany in May/June to breed my dog? Yes. He does not think that the surgery is imminent, and the trip to Germany should be okay. Before I leave I will be sure to have the Retina Specialist in Berlin’s phone number, just in case. (See what I mean about being a worrier?)

Should anyone of you need someone to worry about something for you, please let me know. My husband tells me I’m not happy unless I am stewing about something!

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Here is a picture of our lake on Sunday morning. You can see the ice fishermen out early on the lake. Also that is the Wolf Moon setting at dawn.