Finally. An Answer.

Today was my visit to the Retinal Specialist to find out exactly has been going on with my left eye. Last week I was at Credit Valley Hospital for an Optical Imaging Test where they seriously dilate your eyes, and numb them and then take a series of photos while injecting you with a dye. The point of the test was to see the dye flowing through my eye to determine the extent of the bleed. (It turns out I’m allergic to the dye and I came out in hives but only on the side of the injection and they went away very quickly.)

Here is a photo of my test results.

I know it looks like a giant boob but it is actually the inside of my eye. I apologize for the quality of the shot but my eyes were dilated and I took it with my phone. Here it is close up.

See the area there that I’ve circled in black? That is my bleed. The darker part in the center is pigmentation and the area around that is the blood. The increased pigmentation is caused by a retinal scar that I’ve had for more than 5 years. I don’t know how or when I got it but it’s there. This scar caused some extra blood vessels to form inside my eye and for some reasons, they burst causing me to lose the centre of my vision in the left eye. Essentially, the blood was blocking my retina. It turns out I have an occult bleed (I may not be spelling that right) which means it is bleeding slowly, as opposed to a classic bleed which is like a fountain.

The good news is the first time I went to see the Retinal Specialist I could only read the very top and largest line of the eye test chart. This time I could read it plus 3 or 4 below it. I did notice yesterday that I could see a little more through the centre of my spot than I could a few days ago.

The bad news is if it doesn’t clear up on its own, I will require a needle directly in my eye. The will freeze it for me first, but . . .

This is now a weak spot and may happen again and my vision may not go back to 20/20 but I’m so glad to finally have an answer. I know there are so many people out there with more serious issues to deal with, and my heart goes out to them. I’ve been dealing with this for a few months now and didn’t realize how much it was weighing on me. Now that I know exactly what it is and know what needs to be done about it, I feel as though a weight has been lifted. I'm almost looking forward to that needle!

I’ll be sure to post a photo of myself when I have my eye patch!!!