Eye Check-up Gone Awry

Gold flashes at the edge of my eyes marked the beginning of my saga after my twenty thousand steps in Machu Picchu in Peru. After the Citadel, we walked around at an even higher altitude in Peru's Lake Titicaca and Puno area. The altitude of 12,810 feet at Sillustani, a pre-Inca burial site, was our highest.

See an eye doctor, female friends said.

The ophthalmologist said the flashing lights weren’t from altitude and we'd keep my eyes under observation.

Fast forward to December 22, 2020, Cataract surgery, left eye.

12/31/2020, cataract surgery, right eye. Eye surgery in a pandemic at an Army hospital stateside.

** Army hospital, operating room, and a surgical opthalmologist team dedicated to me – no cattle call for my eye surgeries.

“Wow, I had no idea our neighbor’s house was that color! Everything is so bright and vibrant,” I told my husband. No more gold flashes, but I did have floaters – tiny dots that seemed to be fruit flies, and wavy hair-like lines floating constantly across my vision.

In June 2021, we were having lunch in the Bend, Oregon, area. Suddenly, black vertical lines float down my left eye, like INK. Three days later, we are at the Army hospital, waiting in Ophthalmology.

Numbing drops. “Look up, look down,” then a probe presses into my eye. Over an hour of probing. My husband left the room; he couldn’t listen or watch any longer.

The resident examined me. A staff physician examined me. Diagnosis: torn retina in the left eye.

“We need to laser it.” Consent forms were signed, and explanations were given.

The surgeon who did my cataract surgery tried to do the lasering, but he couldn’t get the laser onto the spot. Outside the normal radius, the tear was on the far left of my eye (strange, like everything medical, with me).

A retina doctor was called in. The laser didn’t fix it.

“We need to cryo it.”

The surgeon couldn't get it, so the retina specialist, in less than a minute did. Success.

“Let us know if you see a flurry of floaters. You're good to go.”

We closed down the hospital clinic that day, leaving to darkened offices and an empty parking lot. Over five hours, my husband patiently waited because that is what he was taught as a soldier; known as “hurry up and wait.”

Six months later, another minor laser correction for a film that had grown. Success. There are still lots of floaters, but I see well.

Regular eye checks are conducted to ensure the retina hasn’t torn or new issues have developed. My distance vision is like an Eagle's, but I need readers and a different pair for the computer (just like the old progressive eyeglasses).

February 7, 2024 – a check-up that went horribly awry

“Oh, I see a little wrinkle that I should laser. I will have my Staff doctor come in and look, and while we wait, I can put a silicone plug into the right eye.”

Six months ago, they could not insert a punctal plug into the left eye. The purpose is to close the tear duct so your tears stay on the eye's surface and reduce dryness. The right eye had a gel plug inserted that had dissolved. That had improved the right eye; I asked them to do both at this appointment.

“I will do the right eye first; I have to enlarge the hole.” Numbing drops, then a tool to poke in and make it larger; no problem, didn’t hurt much. She tapped in the plug, which disappeared. They are clear in color, and not easy to see. Did it fall out on my cheek? She didn’t think so. The left eye plug definitely fell out on my cheek, and she couldn’t place it in the tear duct.

The senior resident came to do another pokey-eye exam, looking for retina tears. Yikes, it hurt, no matter how many numbing drops.

SURE ENOUGH. She found an issue: a wrinkle of the vitreous gel, pulling on my retina, which could cause a tear. A DIFFERENT wrinkle than the first doctor found; a concerning wrinkle.

** If you have a retinal tear, it can blind you. It must be treated immediately. A flurry of floaters, which can be wavy lines or dots, means it is torn. It is an EMERGENCY.

“Best practice is to laser a circle around this wrinkle so if it does tear, the fluid will be contained within the circle.”

"You might have a blind spot. When I begin lasering, LOOK UP TO THE RIGHT, don’t look elsewhere when I laser. Don’t blink."

BANG BANG, the laser light continued until I moaned. She stopped.

Think of a sci-fi movie where there is a nuclear event, and the person is lit up with all their veins showing. That is what you see when they laser your eye. SUPER bright light can HURT; sometimes, it doesn’t.

It HURT. Like someone pounding the eyeball. She did it three times. I saw a green light and all the veins in my eyes before it went to white blindness.

Leaving the room to see another patient, I was told to rest.

I was seriously stressed and needed to scream or cry, but I forced myself to breathe deeply. Had I cried, I wouldn’t have been able to stop, and they couldn’t have finished their treatments.

They helped me to another room in order to look with a different light to ensure the lasered circle was satisfactory.

They had conferred with the oculoplasty doctor. “I’m so sorry, but we must try to get that plug out of the right eye, so it won't cause an infection. There are right angles in the tear duct. When I put it in, I could see it, and then your body just sucked in too deep. Wait in the waiting room until we are ready.”

My eyes are red from the drops and poking. My husband looks at me and tries to comfort me, but I tell him no, don’t. If he consoles me, hugs me, I will burst into tears. I want to finish this and go home. “Guess what? Now they need to cut my tear duct open to find the plug. They will, and won’t find it; you watch.” He is rubbing his forehead in stress.

More numbing drops, and I see two super long Q-tips above my eyes.

“You are going to try and squeeze it out?”

“Ah, ha, yes, how did you know?”

“Because I am old!” I said. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what they intended. One Q-tip under and one above, maybe they could push it out of the tear duct.

It didn’t work. I tasted salt. The flushing saline into the tear duct was draining the salt water into my throat.

The story continues:

Now in Room 10, their minor surgery room. “We will inject a numbing agent under your eye and make an incision in the tear duct to look for that punctal plug.”

We all donned face masks, hair nets, normal surgery prep, inside the clinic. The overhead lights were blinding. Painful.

"I will put an opaque contact in the right eye, and you close your left eye; don’t squeeze so we can open your right eye.” First the numbing drops, then the injection. “A poke first; here comes the burn.” Yeah, it burned!

“Get me the curette.” It's a good thing I can’t feel this; I’m trying to relax under the pressure of their fingers and tools probing in my eye. Curette? Isn’t that a blade? They worked together in the cutting, poking, and looking, while I was doing my best to control my nerves and the muscle twinge in my back.

~~I have a high threshold for pain. If I am squirming or moaning, it is truly horrid.~~

It was painful enough that I was straining on the table, and the resident told me not to move; the senior resident continued prodding in my eye. It felt like she had a knife poking the bone on the side of my nose.

The duct plug was not found. I told them the plugs needed to be colored so that they were easily located, or ones that can be found under ultraviolet light – something to improve all of this (ever the process improvement leader). She needed forceps to remove the opaque contact lens, which was incredibly uncomfortable.

“I’m so sorry for the pain and how long it took. The good thing is that our minor surgery will cause scarring in the duct, and that will do the exact same thing the plug is meant to do. You will have bloody tears for a day. If there is any swelling or sign of infection or any new floaters, come in immediately. Otherwise, use the antibiotic steroid ointment twice daily, and we will see you next week.

Of course, I'm thinking, I hope that plug fell out; I hope it isn't in there and going to cause an infection; I hope they don't have to do a more invasive surgery to get it out. DAMN!!

**

The area on my nose had a dull, burning ache all the way home. I put a cold compress on it. I didn’t sleep well. I can see now, the day after, but the right eye is runny.

2/9/2024. Eye oozing and another exam. Oculoplasty doctor examined me, using two Q-tips, poking and cleaning the eye. "No infection, use different drops 4 times per day." Then he told me he was confident the plug was not in my tear duct because he would have been able to feel it with his prodding of the area. Later that night, I thought: why didn't he advise them to try and feel it like he did, BEFORE, they cut my tear duct open?

2025. I get progressive glasses once again. Sick of pulling out readers. Throughout the year, I notice a worsening of vision in the left eye and many more floaters.

2026. Left eye is worse on optical eye exam. Retina specialist does an exam. He exclaims upon a look at my left eye, "Oh! A huge floater right in the center of your vision," saying he's never seen one like it. There is an Epiretinal membrane (ERM), a wrinkle in the vitreous gel. "Think of crumpling a piece of paper. When you let it go from your hand, the wrinkles are still there. I can do a retain peel if the condition is really bothering you. It will only improve your sight one step up."

Some might think it's better to have wrinkles inside your eye than around them, but I don't agree.

I leave. I cannot justify more surgery for a minor improvement while I'm still recovering from a knee replacement six months earlier. And my new eyeglasses are fabulous.

A/N: updated with current (2026) information.