Not anime characters, me. Over the weekend, my left eye got really strange: really bloodshot, swollen, sore, painful, lots of icky gooey discharge. Monday I finally reached my point of fear and walked to a walk-in clinic and saw a doctor about it. He gave me a prescription for antibiotic eyedrops to be used every four hours.

The next morning when I woke up, the vision in my left eye was cloudy. It's exactly like what it looks like when my glasses get fogged. Or like I was looking at the world through a sheet of waxed paper. It didn't get better.

I reached my fear level again today, so I went back. I was worried that something had happened to the cornea, and that it might be permanent. While I was walking over, though, I noticed that when I looked up at the overcast, there was a texture to the fog, and it moved like floaters do. That suggested that something had gotten into the vitreous humour, the jelly that fills eyeballs.

The doctor used a flourscent dye to check the cornea, and said there was nothing wrong. He didn't have the equipment to check inside, so he got me an immediate refer to an ophthalmologist. A quick taxicab ride later, and they squozed me in -- which was kind of them, because it turned out I did need their help.

It isn't a bacterial infection. It isn't "conjunctivitis". It's "uveitis", something I've never heard of before. Inflammation on the inside of the eye, rather severe. He put drops into my eyes to dilate the pupils; the right eye dilated nicely (and is still dilated as I write this). The left pupil didn't dilate much, and that's another diagnostic indication of uveitis. Turns out that there's stuff gunking up the iris, kind of sticking it in place, preventing it from opening and closing.

He told me there was no reason to keep using the antibiotic. Instead, he gave me (literally; samples they got from a salesman, at no charge to me) two new drops. One is a dilator, to be used three times per day. That's to keep pressure on the iris so that it'll eventually unstick. The other is a corticosteroid, to reduce the inflammation and tone down the immune storm.

It's already working; my eye doesn't hurt anything like as much as it did even two hours ago.

And we'll see how it goes.

This was making me feel sick with worry. I was scared: is it permanent? Will I lose most of my sight in my left eye? That's still potentially possible, but not likely, and with a correct diagnosis and correct treatment there's every reason to expect it will get better -- but probably not very fast. This could be a part of my life for a couple months.

I've got an appointment to go back next Wednesday, and we'll see how much improvement there's been by then.

The inflammation is likely to improve very rapidly. But if junk has gotten into the vitreous humour, it could take a long time for it to clear. There are mechanisms to do that, but they don't run very rapidly.

UPDATE: The first attempt to view inside my eye at the optho place was exciting. The device you have to set your head into pivots, and he placed it a bit too far forward. I reached underneath it to pull it closer, and there was a loud snap, and I got a jolt on my left ring finger. Pulled it back out and there was a big black mark on it.

He was very apologetic; they disconnected it and we moved to a different room. It didn't feel like a 110V jolt; I've gotten those before. This was more like a capacitor discharging. I think the black mark was grease. It didn't do anything permanent to the finger; after I washed it off, you couldn't see where it happened, and it doesn't hurt. But it was a bit of a surprise.

And the eyedrops they put in to dilate my eyes stung like a bitch; it made me go ouch loudly, leading to some joking (by them and by me) about how mean they were being to me that day, or how unlucky I was, or something.

The dilator drops I have to keep using burn for maybe a minute after being put in. This isn't going to be super fun -- but it'll still be better than the last few days.

Part of why I've posted this is to explain why I haven't been making a lot of posts here. I've had things on my mind. It's hard to be witty when your eye hurts and you're worried that you're going blind.

UPDATE: Bedtime. Two more doses of the corticosteroid and one of the dilator, and right now my eye doesn't hurt at all even when I wiggle it all around. This morning, looking sharply up or down was a near-scream experience.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 05:27 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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