So last quarter, Bart decided to sign up for an extra class (not cool) in which he learned to photograph the inside and outside of the human eye (cool). It was a really great class for him to take because it a) gives him an "edge" in his C.V. for Residency and b) allowed him to learn to use to state of the art equipment.
Anyway, I was pretty bummed to missing out on--more--time with Bart. That is until he asked me if he could photograph the inside of my left eye. You know, the manky one.
When I was about 5 years old, I was in a "freak accident" at a local fair. I was at the top of a super huge, super slippery slide, when my cousin pushed me. I was having a blast flying down the slide until I saw the bigger girl ahead of me. She had never gotten up from the bottom of the slide and I knew I was going to hit her. And I did. With my forehead. Hard. I was knocked out and when I came to, I had a torn Retina, damaged lens and one hell of an egg on my forehead.
I've had three major surgeries on my eye. My lens was removed due to the severe cataracts that developed as a result of the trauma of the impact. I have a Scleral Buckle and a re-attached Retina. During the last surgery, my ophthalmologist tightened one of the muscles in my left eye to keep it from wandering (lazy eye).
As a result of the lens removal, I became immediately and permanently, legally blind in my left eye. They do corneal/lens transplants now, but I am not eligible for one. Humans don't "learn" to see one image with two eyes until the age of about 7, so my brain never got the chance to do this. I cannot even begin to fathom what it is like to see out of two eyes. The only thing I can imagine is that the average person sees two different parts of one image, separate but together. Kind of like if you put two TVs together and have half of a single picture on each screen.
Anyway, as a result of all of this, I have a huge amount of scar tissue in my left eye, higher eye pressure, which means that I am a "Glaucoma Suspect"--basically it's only a matter of time before I develop Glaucoma and go completely blind in that eye. The nerve that would have allowed me to see is shriveled and underdeveloped. Basically, it's a mess in there. And after going to specialists for 19 years and wondering what these doctors found so interesting inside of my eye, I FINALLY got to see it for myself! (Super cool!). Here they are:
This is my right eye. Nice and healthy, nice and red.
This is my left eye. That big cobweb thing is what Bart thinks is a broken off piece of Vitreous. Scar tissue is clustered around the nerve. What a difference, huh?
I am so glad Bart took this class. I can't even begin to tell you all how awesome it was to see the difference in my eyes; manky and normal.
Anyway, I was pretty bummed to missing out on--more--time with Bart. That is until he asked me if he could photograph the inside of my left eye. You know, the manky one.
When I was about 5 years old, I was in a "freak accident" at a local fair. I was at the top of a super huge, super slippery slide, when my cousin pushed me. I was having a blast flying down the slide until I saw the bigger girl ahead of me. She had never gotten up from the bottom of the slide and I knew I was going to hit her. And I did. With my forehead. Hard. I was knocked out and when I came to, I had a torn Retina, damaged lens and one hell of an egg on my forehead.
I've had three major surgeries on my eye. My lens was removed due to the severe cataracts that developed as a result of the trauma of the impact. I have a Scleral Buckle and a re-attached Retina. During the last surgery, my ophthalmologist tightened one of the muscles in my left eye to keep it from wandering (lazy eye).
As a result of the lens removal, I became immediately and permanently, legally blind in my left eye. They do corneal/lens transplants now, but I am not eligible for one. Humans don't "learn" to see one image with two eyes until the age of about 7, so my brain never got the chance to do this. I cannot even begin to fathom what it is like to see out of two eyes. The only thing I can imagine is that the average person sees two different parts of one image, separate but together. Kind of like if you put two TVs together and have half of a single picture on each screen.
Anyway, as a result of all of this, I have a huge amount of scar tissue in my left eye, higher eye pressure, which means that I am a "Glaucoma Suspect"--basically it's only a matter of time before I develop Glaucoma and go completely blind in that eye. The nerve that would have allowed me to see is shriveled and underdeveloped. Basically, it's a mess in there. And after going to specialists for 19 years and wondering what these doctors found so interesting inside of my eye, I FINALLY got to see it for myself! (Super cool!). Here they are:
This is my right eye. Nice and healthy, nice and red.
This is my left eye. That big cobweb thing is what Bart thinks is a broken off piece of Vitreous. Scar tissue is clustered around the nerve. What a difference, huh?
I am so glad Bart took this class. I can't even begin to tell you all how awesome it was to see the difference in my eyes; manky and normal.
No comments:
Post a Comment