Because friends have been asking about my eye problem, I’m making it easier for myself, and explaining it once. I’ve been light sensitive from birth. My mother told me she couldn’t put me in sunshine or I’d scream my head off. As a consequence, I developed growth problems from having a vitamin D deficiency. My mother was also light sensitive and wore dark glasses when outside. They called her “One-eye Mike” because she was always squinting. Robert Service published The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike in 1909, the year before my mother was born. I have always been extra sensitive to light. I’ve been wearing sunglasses for as long as I can recall. Just to be clear – by light sensitivity I mean that bright light hurts my eyes. It’s very painful.
In the mid-1990s, I was accidentally whipped hard in the right eye by a bungee cord. I thought I’d been shot and instinctively fell to the ground. Enough blood was dripping from the injury that I envisioned an exploded eyeball and an empty eye socket. Once washed, I was relieved to see a whole eyeball. The blood came from the boney prominences of the eyebrow and cheek bone. A bungee-end-shaped bruise, including the hook and coil, developed over my eye. Four days later a member of my staff insisted I see a doctor about it. I’d been expecting it to heal on its own, as I normally heal quickly. I took her advice and went to an ophthalmologist. After the examination, he told me I have to get to Denver immediately to have an operation because my retina was detached. Denver is a 250 mile drive over the full width of the Rocky Mountains, and I didn’t think I could drive it with one eye. I flew to Denver the following morning, rented a car, and drove to the hospital. The doctor examined my eye. After examining my uninjured eye, he said he had the answer. The doctor in Grand Junction had been mistaken. I did not have a detached retina. What the doctor discovered in both of my eyes is called retinoschisis, meaning both retinas were split in two. He said I was likely born with the condition as are 1 in 20,000 humans. He said that was why the doctor in Grand Junction thought my retina was detached when it wasn’t. I was glad to hear that. However, he said, your right retina is torn in five places. He operated using cryotherapy. They use liquid nitrogen at 346 degrees below zero to form scar tissue, which essentially tacks down the retina where it ripped. My eyesight was never the same, but it wasn’t terrible once the floaters thinned out.
I’ve always had to wear dark glasses indoors under many lighting situations, especially fluorescent light, but in the years after my injury, it got worse. I can’t tell you how many people criticize me for wearing dark glasses indoors. People refuse to believe that I need them because they don’t and I don’t carry a white cane. One former friend just wouldn’t let it go at a fundraiser in an extremely brightly lighted room. She pointed to the group of garrulous attendees, none of whom but me was wearing dark glasses, as if that proved I did not need them. There were about a hundred people in the room. Likely none of them besides me had retinoschisis compounded with a torn retina. Not long after that, I got into a fight at a wedding with some asshole who wouldn’t shut up about my glasses.
About a month after that wedding, in September of 2019, my right retina exploded. They call it a retinal vein occlusion. Basically, an artery chokes out a vein which then ruptures, bleeding into the eyeball. A large black spot occluded the center of my vision. My previously pretty good vision in that eye of 20/30 was now 20/400. Very gradually it improved as the black dissipated. Now the darkness is mostly gone, but what it left in its wake is extremely distorted and even more light-sensitive vision. And my doctor tells me it won’t get any better. Retina problems cannot be fixed with lenses. My right-eye vision is hopeless. If it didn’t help with depth perception, I’d be better off without it. If both eyes were like that, I couldn’t do much of anything – no reading – no driving. Additionally, my left eye vision, which was about perfect, is rapidly worsening. Before this happened, I could read menus in dimly lit restaurants without out reading glasses. Now I can’t even read the controls on my stove. We all have problems, so I should not complain. This is to explain what’s driving decisions about my website and businesses.
Left eye on right side and visa versa.
So there you have it. I rely on my vision for photography (imaging really) and running my website. I cannot handle as much screen time with one eye. I still can do all I need to but worry about how long I’ll be able to continue. I’m 73, so it’s about time to wrap it up anyway. I’ll keep it going as long as I can do it well.
I apologize for being a grumpy old man.