Scleral Buckle

I've learned that I apparently have two genetic abnormalities in my eyes. I'll try to describe them as I understand them...

1. progressive high myopia

This means that not only am I severely myopic (nearsighted), but after I stopped growing at around age 20, my eyes kept growing (elongating). The longer your eye is, the more nearsighted you are. Light coming through your lens at the front of your eye focuses too early and doesn't reach the back of your eye, so your vision is unfocused. The elongation also begins to weaken your retina, as it stretches and stretches with your eye. If you imagine a red rubber ball from your school days, the retina is like the inner layer of rubber (the white part of the ball).

2. lattice degeneration

As the retina stretches, it weakens along the shorter diameter walls of the eye. The weakened sections look like lattice work, thus the name.

Yesterday, my retinal specialist explained that the combination of these two issues will mean that while I'm young(-ish), I will need to update the prescription for my contacts and glasses over time - duh. More importantly, I will be at extremely high risk for macular degeneration when I'm older (60+ years old or even 50+). Macular degeneration causes blindness over time.

In an effort to keep my eyes from elongating, he has now told me that I'm a candidate for the scleral buckling procedure (surgery). He'd start with one eye, and let me recover, and then do the other eye at some point in the future.

Although I didn't know the name at the time, he had mentioned the surgery to me at least once before. However, the context at that time was to say that in the future, children (notably, probably my children) would not be allowed to have their myopia advance so drastically as mine did when I was a kid. They could put a 'sling' on the back of the eye to keep it from stretching. That's the buckle.

So, now I am a candidate myself. My vision will continue to deteriorate with or without the buckle(s). They would just give me the opportunity to slow it down drastically, and keep me on a higher road to maintain as much vision as possible, into my old age.

The side effects that I know of are:

1. pain and pressure in the eye (not sure for how long)
2. oozing and bleeding around the eye
3. bruising of the muscles around the eye, that will cause double vision for 1-3 months
- I'll need to do exercises to get the slow eye to move faster, and prevent scarring.

Apparently, my doctor is the specialist who proved through a study that this procedure is effective, and now he's one of the only (if not *the* only) one in the country who will perform the surgery. Here's one of his papers.

Not sure what I'll do yet, but thought I'd get that written down for the historical record, as I remember it.

Did I just read Twilight?

I recently asked my Facebook friends for some book recommendations. Did anyone mention Twilight? No, no, they did not.

For the entire time that Twilight has been the post-Harry Potter buzz word, I have had no desire to read any Twilight Saga books, and also no desire to watch the movies. Edward, Jacob, Jacob, Edward - who cares?

Now, after the final movie is all done with (or at least I think it is - that's how little I pay attention), they've started playing a song on the radio that's apparently from the soundtrack: A Thousand Years by Christina Perri. I don't even like her other song, Jar of Hearts. But for some reason, I love A Thousand Years. I bought the song on iTunes (which is when I noticed that it's from the Breaking Dawn soundtrack).

Innocently, I thought, "Well, maybe this is a romance that I'll like. Maybe I should watch the movies." Whaaat? The movies won't be as good as the books (if any good at all), so I'll read the books. I mean, read the first book.

So my friends recommend some awesome-sounding books, and I immediately get on Amazon and buy four books - 3 of which my friends recommended, and Twilight. No turning back now.

I got home from work/dinner with friends late last night, and the books had arrived. I pull them out of the box - how is Twilight such a long book? Oh, I see - both the print and the margins are HUGE, that's why. So I mindlessly started the book, just to test the waters. I go to bed, reading a little while longer, and fall asleep.

I wake up to find that I had read just under 70 pages last night. And then I mindlessly started reading again... and here I am, telling you that I'm finished. In a single day, 498 pages. I've heard of plenty of other people reading books that quickly, but I've never been one of them.

It was a perfect day for reading, though. A Saturday after a ridiculously long week, and it was rainy and cold outside. And Jesse really wanted to play a video game all day.

Twilight, though. Really? Huh.