[Leica] Eye problems, the saga continues

[leica_r8 at hotmail.com (Aram Langhans)]

Glad you have caught things soon.  I am getting to that age when things 
start to happen.  Bumps here, things there...  You are a good reminder to 
not let things progress too far so the damage is not fixable.  My 
father-in-law almost waited too long and lost 50% of his eyesight in one eye 
before going to the eye doctor.  He had been going every year, but neglected 
it three years in a row since all seemed well to him.  Glaucoma.  But they 
did a laser procedure and his pressure is back to normal w/o any medication. 
His vision  is stabilized now with no more loss.  They could have caught it 
much sooner if he had gone for regular checkup's.  And he is 90, so things 
are bound to break down, no matter how good your genetics are.

I have an appointment Tuesday to look at some darn bump between my two outer 
toes.  Just cropped up while hiking on our last trip.  Darn near ended my 
hiking except for a bi of Gerry rigging of some band aids and rings of foam. 
If they can?t fix it I say cut the darn toe off.  Don't need that one anyway 
and I would rather enjoy hiking.

Here is hoping for your speedy recovery and great photo ops in the future.

Aram

-----Original Message----- 
From: Peter Klein
Sent: Sunday, June 16, 2013 12:56 PM
To: lug ; olympus at thomasclausen.net
Subject: [Leica] Eye problems, the saga continues

My latest news:  My right eye (with the reattached retina) is getting
better all the time, still a little "milky" but sees OK.

BUT, I've had another problem, this time with my left eye. It lost sharp
vision in the center. Last week I practically freaked out when I
returned to work and discovered I couldn't read the computer screen,
because the right eye hadn't wasn't sharp enough yet, and the left eye
decided to go Lomo on me.

It turns out to be a rare complication from my cataract surgery two
months ago.  They did an OCT* scan of my retina, and it has a little
cone-shaped bump dead-center.  It's like somebody stretched the center
of the "film" towards the lens, so of course it's out of focus. One or
two steroid shots in the eye should clear it up in a couple of months. I
got the first--and hopefully the only one!--on Friday.  The odds are
very good that I'm going to be OK.

This is a cautionary tale for all of us.  If you notice a change in your
vision, DO NOT WAIT.  See an eye doctor as soon as possible. In the last
3 weeks I have had two major issues that could have destroyed my vision
in each eye.  It was my going to a good ophthalmologist as soon as I
noticed the problem that saved my vision.

I'm trying to keep a sense of humor about it, but it's been NO FUN!

--Peter

(*) OCT stands for Ocular Coherence Tomography.  That was fascinating.
It created three-dimensional cross-sectional pictures of my retina.