Visual History

The history of my visual problems is long and complicated. Here's the brief version.


Timeline

When I was 3 I was diagnosed with amblyopia. I was right handed but left eye dominate (my strong eye). So my doctors surgically straightened my "lazy" right eye and patched my left eye. The hope was that they could equalize the strength of my eyes. When they pulled the patch off, my left eye had turned out. The surgery failed. They attempted once more, this time straightening my left eye and patching the right. After the surgery, my right eye turn back out. A third surgery was not attempted. 

By age 5 I was wearing glasses to school. I couldn't see the board well and I struggled.  It took me until after second grade to learn how to read.

By age 7 I realized I couldn't see well at night. I was on the swim team and I did great in practice but chocked during meets because we competed outside at night in poor lighting. This was my first symptom of Retenitis pigmentosa. 

Age 13 I got hit by a tennis ball in my open left eye causing scare tissue. I'd lost the ball in the air, unable to track it in my visual field. 

In my 20's I got into several car wrecks. These were caused by people cutting me off. I was instant Karma. These wrecks weren't my fault legally. But after a series of incidents I took myself to the eye doctor. When I was 25, I was diagnosed with RP. My optometrist didn't know much about it After a few months of research and testing, he decided I was legally blind and shouldn't drive anymore. I hung up my keys for good. A couple of months after stopping driving I starting Orientation and Mobility training - white cane training. 

A few months before my 26th birthday I made my way to Johns Hopkins to meet their retina specialists. Johns Hopkins told me that my amblyopia surgery had failed because my brain was forcing my eyes out of sync to get a wider field of vision. I had an ERG on my eye, the only official way to prove RP.  The doctors were amazed I'd made it so long in life without being diagnosed. They said that was an indictment of the entire field of optometry. Johns Hopkins advised me to get cataract surgery.

At 27 I had my first cataract surgery. I had the subcapsular "RP" cataract. It was tiny but happened to sit right over my tiny field of vision. Doctors removed the natural lens of my right eye and implanted a contact  like lens as replacement.

At 29 my body grew over the implanted lens. I had to have "yag" surgery to burn off the skin.  I'm light sensitive so I couldn't keep my eye open for long with a bright laser pointing at it. The result was that my yag surgery left an island of skin alive in the middle of my eye, unattached to my body. My surgeon was amazed it stayed alive and documented it for publication. The flashes from the camera he used to document my eye was pure torture. Afterwards I had a second yag surgery on the same eye; a unique and unwelcome occurrence.

At age 31 I had cataract surgery on my left "good" eye. I was now using bifocals to read. Reading was so frustrating that I had to give up printed text.

At age 32 my eyes became suddenly swollen and red. I was in a lot of acute pain and discomfort. My cornea's had become infected and had growths coming out of them. I was diagnosed with Keratitis caused by the Staph bacteria. The growths would brush my eyelids as they closed. This infection could have been linked to my last cataract surgery (a batch of bad artificial lens was going around) or it could have been coincidence. For a month I went to the doctor every week and he'd yank the growths out. It was. . . not fun.

At age 33 I had yag surgery on my left eye. No second surgery required this time.

Age 38. On July 4th the fireworks didn't look right. They were all blurry. So I went to the doctor on my 39th birthday and he said it was an end stage RP symptom. The fluid of my eye was drying up and it had clumped together. This large clump would float over my tiny visual field and mimic cataracts. There was nothing they could do about it. 


Current Visual Impairments

RP - highly restricted fields, 8 degrees in left eye, 7 in right (160 to 180 is normal)
Eyes correct to 20/40 for distance (using implanted lens in combination with glasses)
astigmatism prevents correction to 20/20
Nyctalopia - night blindness
Photopsia - constant flashing lights around edge of remaining visual field
Floaters - dried vitreous fluid has broken off and obscures my vision in both eyes as it passes over my visual field
Sensitive to bright light (including computer monitors)
Difficulty transitioning from outside to inside or vise versa because changes in light level
Amblyopia (cross-eyed) - two failed surgeries to correct
Monocular vision - I see with one eye at a time. My right eye is for distance, my left eye for reading. If I try reading with my right eye I get headaches
No depth perception or stereo, 3D vision 
Keratoconus - blurry vision. I'm never sure what I'll be able to see when I wake up in the morning 


List of Surgeries

2 amblyopia surgeries using sedation
2 cataract surgeries using sedation
3 yag laser surgeries - in-patient without anesthetic
10x Keratitis cornea growth removals - in-patient without anesthetic
 Total = 17


A friend suggested that I'm now ready to be a MLB umpire.