Pressure drop

This post is a departure from my usual socio-political analysis so those not interested in personal drama should go no further. Still here? Go on with you now.

In what amounts to pure kismet, a loose screw on a pair of eyeglasses probably saved me from going blind. About six weeks ago when a tiny screw came loose in the left temple (the things that fit over your ears) of my fancy Robert Marc glasses, I brought them into the store for tightening. They did tighten it but advised me that it would be best to leave them there and have them sent to the lab for a permanent fix. They said that they would be ready the next day.

I left them there and proceeded to stumble homeward. My eyesight has been deteriorating over the past five years, with a cataract turning up in the left eye at my last exam two or so years ago. I also have floaters in both eyes, which I have gotten used to although some people are driven to such distraction with them that they actually become suicidal.

Once I got home I was totally beside myself since I could neither read nor watch television. The guy at Robert Marc suggested I get a second pair for just such occasions. I realized that I could not wait around for three or four days when I needed a new prescription for the glasses next time and decided to spend the big bucks I needed for a second pair. Robert Marc has very trendy and expensive frames that I order with thin, progressive lenses—also expensive—so we are talking about a major purchase. I justify this expense to myself since it is the only luxury good I pamper myself with nowadays in my post-Goldman Sachs existence. No more Mount Blanc pens or Paul Stuart suits, etc.

Since the cataract had already been identified at the time of my last exam, I decided to go to an ophthalmology clinic in the neighborhood that would do a thorough evaluation as well as prescribe new lenses. After putting me through a battery of tests around a month ago, the optometrist informed me that I had a cataract in my right eye as well. Great. But the real news was the possibility that I also had optic hypertension, or even glaucoma. Tests revealed that the pressure in my right eye was 27 (normal is about 12), and the left eye nearly as bad. I was supposed to come back on April 8^th for a field of vision test, which is used to determine if you have the kind of nerve damage associated with glaucoma.

So I took the field of vision test yesterday that consists of clicking a button whenever you see a pinpoint of light on a dark background. If you miss the lights on a consistent basis, it means that you have permanent nerve damage. Even though it is a painless test, I found it very stressful considering what was at stake.

After the field of vision test was done, the optometrist rechecked my eye pressure. She was alarmed to see that the right eye had gone up to 37–300 percent of what is considered normal. She told me that I would probably require laser surgery to allow the fluid to drain properly and relieve the pressure. She then called in an ophthalmologist, also a woman, from the next office to review the results. She redid the test and asked me how soon I could do the laser surgery. When I asked if next week was okay (I was just buying time), she said that it should not wait.

Interestingly enough, optic hypertension presents the same kind of invisible threat that circulatory hypertension does. There is no pain or symptoms involved. If you don’t learn about the problem through a test, you might just risk getting a heart attack or blindness.

I went home to collect my thoughts and then went back to the clinic to get zapped. After having eye-drops administered, I went into the laser room, sat down in the chair, and had a special lens put over my right eye. The doctor then brought the business end of the laser right up to the lens and drilled away for about 3 minutes into my iris, at the right-hand corner of my eye. I felt a slight pinch as the laser beam did its work, but nothing worse.

Next I went back into her office where she reexamined me. Good news. The pressure had dropped to 17. Unlike the Toots Hibbert song, this was good news.

Cause a pressure drop, oh pressure
Oh yeah pressure drop a drop on you
I say a pressure drop, oh pressure
Oh yeah pressure drop a drop on you

Next Wednesday I go back to get my left eye treated. If things go according to plan in a best-case scenario, I don’t have to worry about glaucoma. If for some reason the pressure builds up again, I will start taking eye drops. No biggie. The problem with glaucoma is if you catch it too late. An old friend from my Trotskyist days is blind in his right eye from unattended glaucoma. He told me that his left should be okay as long as he takes his drops.

Then there’s the fucking cataracts. The one in my left eye is much worse than in the right. If I try to read something just using my left eye, it is nearly hopeless. I will try to work up the nerve to have it removed in January. Everybody who has had it done, including my late mom, tells me that it is no big deal. My problem is that I never got over watching some idiotic 3D movie in 1958 that showed the main character getting eye surgery. You see the stupid knives coming right at you in 3D.

I suppose I have nothing to complain about compared to the millions of people in the 3^rd world who can’t afford surgery. An article in the NY Times reported a new breakthrough that allowed lasers to remove the cataract, a much less expensive approach. According to the optometrist, this is not the best possible solution since there is no permanent lens put in place of the lasered tissue. This means that you have to wear extra-thick glasses. Better than being blind, you can be sure.

Looming over the medical issues, however, is the bigger question of my mortality. If you had asked me 20 years ago what turning 65 would involve, I would have responded with arthritis, heart disease, cancer, early Alzheimers, or a host of other nasty things that account for the billions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid expenditures. When I was at the eye clinic yesterday, it seemed like everybody there was in their 60s and up.

But I never expected to deal with major eye problems that sneaked up on me like a sniper. My advice to younger people who read this blog is to wear sunglasses. Cataracts apparently result from being exposed to direct sunlight over a lifetime. I am no sun worshiper but I never protected myself. They also told me at the clinic that the optic hypertension problem probably resulted from dislocations inside my eye resulting from the cataracts. So if you can prevent such problems, please do.

As much of a drag all this is, I am so relieved to have received proper medical attention before it was too late. If it had not been for a loose screw, I might be blind today since I had not planned to get a new prescription for another year or so. If my eye pressure was 37 yesterday, then who knows what it would have been a month or two from now. I was a walking time bomb. Thank god, if one existed, for my good luck.