On Sunday July 8 I had some psychedelic light streaks back and forth along top and bottom of visual periphery. A half hour later I had a black streak surrounded by distortion on the right side, and decided it was ER time. The ER doctor looked through an undilated pupil and said there wasn’t anything to do unless and until the retina actually detached, which he said hadn’t happened. The discharge instructions said I should see an ophthalmologist the next day. On the way home, looking at the sky through the windshield (wife driving) it looked like the sky was filled with a swarm of gnats. These were, however, tiny black dots which had filled my eyeball.

Arriving home, decided to call Darrel Smith, our long-time optometrist. He wasn’t home, but returned my call a few hours later. He said there were some things that ought to get immediate treatment even if the retina was not detached. We met him at the office at 9:00 p.m. and he dilated the eye. As he was peering in, his associate Curtis Anderson came in. So I got examined by two doctors on a Sunday night. Could this be real? Darrel didn’t see anything using handheld light; Curtis using more sophisticated equipment thought there might be something at the bottom of retina, maybe a tear, maybe not. They both decided it wasn’t an emergency.

The next day Curtis got me an appointment for Thursday with a retinal specialist in Topeka. Nevertheless, I went ahead and got examined by local O.D. Lynn O’Neill, whom I’d consulted many years ago when floaters first appeared. He dilated the eye and said yes, it looked like a retinal tear and he could “fix it” in about five minutes with his laser. I declined his offer, preferring to wait for retinal specialist.

Thursday July 12 retinal specialist Blake Cooper did laser surgery to repair the tear. On conclusion, he announced the “bad news”: no reading for at least a week. Well, my time is primarily spent either reading words on paper or on a monitor. I started immediately having withdrawal symptoms on account of not being able to use a computer. Made some phone calls to lawyers and courts to let them know I’d be out of business for a week or so, and spent most of the time finding out about daytime TV. The doc had told me watching TV was the best thing I could do, as it involves minimal eye movement.

Saturday following the surgery I could see a little area at top of vision that darkened and lightened with heartbeat – like visual throbbing. I called Cooper’s office and got on call doc who said it was probably normal following laser surgery. Sunday evening that was gone and in it’s place was a bundle of crap that looked like a tangled bunch of black thread. The ends hanging down from top of vision would wave back and forth as I moved eyeball back and forth. Concerned about a ruptured blood vessel, I planned to call Cooper’s office first thing Monday morning.

Monday, my wife and I got up, had breakfast, and both fell asleep in our respective recliners, not waking up until 2:00 that afternoon. While pondering the cause behind this excessive sleep (we had both gone to bed before midnight), I called Cooper’s office and got appointment the next day, at their office in Shawnee Mission.

Tuesday, July 17, Cooper dilated the eye and peered in, prounounced it looked good and I could start reading Friday. The tangle of black thread was, in his opinion, blood that settled to bottom of eyeball (things are actually upside down and reversed from what you see, so stuff I saw at the top of visual area was actually at bottom of eyeball).

So, Friday, July 20 it was back to work and back to computer. No new incidents, except Friday night I bent over to pick up something from the floor and a yellow streak started to appear on the right side. I immediately stood up and it immediately went away.

As explained to me, the clear vitreous fluid in eyeball is in a sack attached to retina and it detaches from retina with age. Sometimes it detaches “violently” and tears the retina or, in worst case scenarious, pulls some or all the the retina right off the back of the eyeball. The laser surgery I had was done to seal up the torn area so fluid wouldn’t leak in behind the retina and eventually cause detachment. I gather over the next six months the rest of the vitreous will detach from retina, hopefully without causing any more tears or a retinal detachment.

They tell me such of the crap in my eyeball that’s blood will eventually go away; such of the crap that’s floaters won’t. The swarm of gnats has gotten somewhat better already. There are a couple of humungous floaters now, that frequently blur the central area of vision in right eye. I’m slowly acclimating to them, as I already have to the various other floaters in both eyes.