In the Blink of an Eye!

Chapter 1 Eye Believe.

I had been having a bit of blurred vision in my left eye and felt the need for some new glasses. While I have always been quite near sighted, it had never been a problem that contacts couldn’t fix. I assumed the same was true in this instance. I made an appointment to see an optometrist in early February of 2022. The appointment was set for March 22, 2022. There was obviously a run on eye appointments post Covid, so that was the earliest appointment I could get. It didn’t seem like an emergency as the changes had been quite gradual and weren’t really affecting my ability to do my job or my leisure activities.

I arrived at the Eye Institute a few minutes early in order to complete the necessary paperwork and updates required whenever one sees a new doctor. I had seen an optometrist about a year earlier and had a fairly comprehensive exam that included dilating my eye and checking my retinas. My mother has macular degeneration so I was careful to monitor for that condition.

I had a sort of “feeling” that I might be having that same issue as my vision in my left eye had become quite distorted and I had an area in the right upper corner, what an optometrist calls supra-nasal, of my field of vision that was dark, as if a sheer curtain were pulled across it. It was barely noticeable unless I covered the right eye. Truthfully, how many times do you walk around with one eye covered up? So it was that I entered the doctor’s office with no trepidation and no earthly idea of what was about to happen.

As I read the charts with first one eye and then the other, “Better one, or two, one or two, one or two?” I had been through this many times before. Then, the drops to dilate my eyes were applied. I waited a few minutes for my pupils to become large and enable the doctor to look deeply into my eyes.

The optometrist was a young woman with dark hair and a get down to business attitude. She started the exam and then as she was looking at the retina of my left eye she moved back a bit and frowned.

“I need to get some pictures of your eye, there is something there that is concerning.”

I told her about my mother’s history of macular degeneration and asked if it was possible that was what she was seeing?

“No, I don’t see macular degeneration. Let’s get some pictures of your retina and then we will have a better idea.”

The technician that was taking the pictures was clearly surprised by them.

I wouldn’t have known what a normal picture looked like. While I have spent many years working as a nurse, I wouldn’t claim any special interest in, or knowledge of, opthalmology as a specialty.

I had worked occasionally on an eye floor many years before. What is now a simple outpatient procedure for cataracts was a week-long ordeal of flat on your back, don’t move your head, and drops every hour back in the day. I would say my experience was both limited and outdated when it comes to the intricate workings of the amazing eye.

When Dr. Lee showed me the pictures she pointed out an area that looked like an opaque orange and green bulge in the retina. She said, “This area where the orange coloring is, the way it is shaped, and is pushing the retina away from the back of the eye which is causing your vision problems in that eye. This looks like cancer. It could be very bad. I want to get you into a retina specialist as soon as possible.”

“Cancer? In my eye?”

I have never even heard of it.” Well maybe I had heard of it at some point in the distant past, but it seemed my recollection was that it was usually a childhood disease and not one for an old nurse like me.

She got busy on the phone. She said ”I have you set up with a retina specialist to have this looked at.”

“For like, next week?”

“No, Right now. He is waiting for you and this is his office address. Do you have someone who can drive you?”

“I guess so. I can call my husband.”

“Call him right now, and I will write down his phone number and address. This is time sensitive and you need to get it looked at right away.”

I was kind of in shock. Not totally shocked, as in starting to swoon or anything. No attack of the vapors materialized. Nurses, especially seasoned ones do not swoon.

I was able to place a call to my husband and tell him I needed him to take me to the Retina specialist. He started to question me and I cut him off. I would be home in a few minutes and would fill him in on the way, as to why.

We lived less than 5 blocks from the optometrist’s office and I don’t really remember driving home but I surely did. David was waiting outside to take the wheel.

We currently live with my Mother in Law who has terminal cancer. She is quite frail but was OK to be by herself for a short time while we went to see the doctor. I explained to him as soon as we were in the car what Dr. Lee had told me. He was as incredulous as I was.

“Cancer! in your eye? Nobody gets cancer in their eye. I have never even heard of that before.”

“I know it sounds crazy and it probably isn’t cancer. It is more than likely macular degeneration like what Mom has. I guess the only way to know for sure is go see the specialist and hopefully she was wrong.”

She wasn’t wrong.

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