Rev. 02/03/02
Florida Adventure - continued
1/07 - 02/01
Real Reason for the Trip -- Margate,
FL
Right now I can't remember what I've written about my problem, and to who, so I may be repeating myself. When I was up in the back woods of Canada I lost the sight in my left eye -- everything was a blur. That played heck with my depth perception, and my hand-eye coordination -- both needed for good fishing.
When I got home I had it check by the top eye doctor in Honolulu. That was mid October. In a nut shell he told me it was like a stroke in the eye -- a blood clot blocked the outgoing vein, and there was no cure -- bummer.
Early
December he called me in. He'd just gotten back from a medical conference
where met a Dr. Weiss from Margate, Florida. Weiss has developed a procedure
along with the necessary equipment to operate on my type of problem, and
has done so on about eighty patients, with good success. We discussed it
-- he e-mailed Weiss -- I then phoned and set up the operation for the 8th
of Jan. Now you know the reason for my trip.
I met Weiss the day before the operation. An interesting
guy. He has an EE degree, same as me, and he described the operation
in detail -- in engineering terms. Said it is basically a plumbing problem
-- the drain is stopped up. Yes, he does have a sense of humor. No he doesn't
use a Black & Decker to drill the holes in my eye, uses a very small
knife to make a couple of hole in the white of the eye. He inserts a very
small tube, right down to where the veins are. Then, using a microscopic
needle, going down through the tube, injects t-PA, a clot buster, not Drano,
into the vein where the clot is. The clot dissolves quickly and he waits
to make sure the vein is clear and working. And no, it's not "viola" I can
see again, it is slow, even months that the hemorrhage slowly stops and sight
slowly returns.
What he is doing is really microscopic surgery -- if you can imagine sewing up the hole he makes in the vein to inject his Drano with a suture half the size of a hair. I saw him the day after the operation. He told me that after clearing the veins, the retina appeared to be detached, so he injected a bubble of gas into the eye. This would force the retina against the back of the eye, to reattach. Its a bit disconcerting having a black ball bobbing around in your eye -- which is what the gas bubble looks like. If I shake my head, its like the Globe Trotters, dribbling down the floor. It will gradually dissolve. Only drawback is, I can't fly or go to high altitude until it does.
Saw him again Friday, Jan 11th. He said everything was progressing right. I'll see him again next Wednesday.
I'm feeling better and will probably go down into the keys to do some fishing. I'll have to admit, it was rough for a few days, and I was feeling lousy -- things should be better now.
01/17/02
The eye is coming along pretty good. I am gradually seeing more detail, which is very encouraging to me. I know Weiss has made the reassuring statement -- "It is not what you can see out of your eye, but what the doctor can see in it." Regardless, its my eye, and what I can see out of it is important to me.
This morning the large black bubble had reduced in its original size of a basket ball, to like a tennis ball -- by evening it was just a black BB. Tomorrow it will probably be gone.
02/01/02
Had a meeting with the doctor. He spent a good bit of time looking into my eye. What he told me was, my eye is coming along very well. My vision has improved two lines on the chart since the operation. That puts it about where it was before. Normally it takes much longer to get to this point. However I can see more in the central area than before. All of the veins and arteries are working correctly, and there are very few hemorrhages in the retina. The retina has healed where it was torn. He said the eye looks very good, and the pressure is fine. Now it is just a matter of time -- now I can go home.
Dr. Weiss' web page is <http://www.crvotreatment.com> and there is a lot of detail there, including a video clip.