I had this spot in my vision in my left eye, upper right quadrant. Had it for several months. It was only minor annoying like the floaters one gets occasionally. But I noticed recently that it seemed to be growing, so I decided to get it checked out with the eye doc. This would also be a good time to get my eyes measured for glasses as my distance vision is also starting to blur slightly. I dont trust optometrist as their primary income is selling glasses so there is an inherent conflict of interest there. So I went to an ophthalmologist.
After shining some blinding painful lights into my eyes, and a couple of ‘umms’, he asked me, “Have you ever lived in the Mississippi or Ohio River Basins?” Puzzled, I said no. “Have you ever been around chickens?” Yeah, I raised a some on the ranch. Well you have a disease called Histoplasmosis. Its a fungus that comes from the soil where chicken poop has collected. When disturbed it goes airborne and can be inhaled. Lord knows I cleaned enough poop out of the barn and chicken coop. Anyways, he sent me on to a retina specialist.
They put me thru a whole battery of tests. One of them was injecting me with a dye in the arm and then viewing the inside of my eyeball on a blacklight. The specialist told me it takes 15 seconds from the time it enters my arm til it shows up in my eye. He warned me that one of the after effects was that I would be peeing green for a couple of days. He wasn’t kidding! Glad he warned me.
Finally the retina doc told me there was not much they could do about it. There was a clinical trial of a drug if I was interested. Sure why not. Then he told me they would inject it straight into my eyeball. When, I said? Now, he said. Gulp. Okay go ahead.
They put me in the chair and put numbing eyedrops in my eyes. After several minutes, he clipped these thin wires to my eyelids to hold them open. I felt like the guy in Clockwork Orange. Then he pulls out a long thin needle ( I swear it had a hook on the end ) and inserts it into my eye. It hurt slightly but not near what I feared.
Latest. Its been a couple of weeks. Good news it the spot seems to have become more translucent, almost transparent. Bad news is it has moved to the center of my left eye give me a slight double vision. Its sort of like looking thru a drop of water. Its really difficult to read and if I need detail I have to close my left eye.
Another appointment at the end of February, so we’ll see what he wants to do. He hinted that I may need multiple shots in the eye. Yee Haa.
So those damn chickens that I snuffed out on the ranch seem to have taken final revenge.
God I hate chickens.
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