[Ansteorra-chirurgeon] Retinal tear

[Richard Threlkeld]

My EMT training has certainly paid off for me personally. I always thought
it was well worth the cost and time, but never expected it to help me
personally.
 
I am in Phoenix taking a class (my wife and I just bought a juice bar
franchise and we are in training). This morning I noticed some flashes of
light in the corner of my right eye when I was looking to the left. They
went away, but I had a "floater" that I had not seen before. I went through
the checklist from my EMT training and at the top of the worst case was a
retinal tear leading to a retinal detachment. 
 
I finished class and went to the Sam's club down the street to see an eye
doc, but he was out. I went to an urgent care place in the same mall and the
doc said it looked just fine to him, but he did not have all the equipment
to do a really good job. So I asked for and got a recommendation to an
ophthalmologist who had about 30 minutes till closing and was about 3 miles
away. I called and went to see him. He did a normal check and said it was
all good, but he wanted to do a full check. He said the odds were about 0.2%
that I was right, but he wanted to be sure. I said do it. He found a small
retinal tear in the lower outside area of my right eye (the left was in very
good shape). He said the tears are normally in the upper part of the retina
and gravity then makes them progress faster to a detachment. 
 
The good news is they can "weld" the retina back with a laser in an office
procedure and they say it will be as good as new. I'm go to class in the
morning then seeing the surgeon at 11AM and will be back in class by 2PM!
Modern technology is wonderful. 
 
In service,
Caelin on Andrede
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