![]() Fortunately he was able to fit me in fairly quickly. The following morning I called the ophthalmologist and made an appointment to go over. That was a very foolish decision because I found out later that what I was experiencing was a major detachment of the retina. I had dinner scheduled that night with some guests from CNN, including one of CNN’s correspondents Nic Robertson whom I knew would have some interesting experiences to talk about from his recent stint in Afghanistan, so I decided to put off going to the hospital until the morning, because there was no pain or discomfort in the eye. ![]() That night when I was driving home from work, I suddenly became aware that I had completely lost the sight of the bottom right hand corner of my eye. I found out later that the black patch was where the retina had started detaching. However, I was very busy that day and decided to put off making an appointment until the following morning. I found one at the Pantai hospital, which was close to where I worked. ![]() It was at that stage I started thinking that I ought to see a doctor, and that morning whilst I was at the office I checked on the Internet for some names of ophthalmologists. On the Thursday morning the eye had cleared a bit but there was a static and somewhat larger black patch in the bottom of the eye. I was told that if I had gone to a hospital emergency room that morning, the hole could have most likely been sealed using a laser, preventing it from developing into a detached retina, and that would have saved me the pain and suffering of what I was about to go through. I found out later that flashing lights followed by black floaters was a symptom that a hole or tear may have occurred in the retina and should be treated as a medical emergency. I thought about going to see a doctor, but after reading the Internet write-up, decided to do nothing about it (that should be a lesson in itself). ![]() I did a search on the Internet for eye problems and found a medical site that said floaters were quite common, and nothing to worry about, and would disappear of their own accord. The next morning the flashing light had disappeared, but for the next couple of days I had black ‘floaters’ in the eye. I found out later that this was a symptom of the vitreous jelly pulling on the retina. It was a bit worrying, but the eye felt okay, so I did nothing about it. It was like a bright pin point of light on the outside of the eye which would travel around the outside of the eye in about half a second each time it appeared. On the night of Sunday 15 June 2003, I was driving home from the Bangsar pasar malam (night market) in Kuala Lumpur, when I started seeing a flashing light in my left eye every time I looked left or right at a road junction. Once it is ‘detached’ from the back of the eye, that part of the retina won’t function properly, causing a blind spot. If a hole or tear occurs, then fluid from the vitreous space can flow through the hole or tear and push the retina away from the back of the eye. Shrinkage of the vitreous jelly occurs naturally as part of the aging process, and for most people it separates cleanly from the retina, but for a few people (like me) it doesn’t. So what causes a detached retina? It's sometimes caused by a hard knock to the head (which is why boxers and rugby players know about it) but for most people it is caused by the vitreous jelly in the eye (that is the gel-like substance that fills the middle of the eye) contracting and pulling on the retina (which is like a film on the back of the eye) causing a hole or tear. It can happen at any time in life, but the odds increase the older you are. ![]() If you are short-sighted, the odds increase to something like one in 4,000 – 6,000, and if you are very short-sighted the odds are worse than that. One in every 10,000 people gets a detached retina sometime in their lifetime. If I had known what the symptoms of a detached retina were before, I could have avoided what turned out to be the worst month of my life. I have posted this for the benefit of those who do not know what are the symptoms of a detached retina (like most people, I was previously totally unaware). This story is about my experience with a detached retina. Unless you are a boxer, rugby player or eye surgeon, most people have no idea what a detached retina is. ![]()
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