30 June 2024
I had a scare the past two mornings. Yesterday, I noticed when I was in a darker area of the house what appeared to be flashes of light. At first, I thought it was heat lightning. The flashes eventually went away but when I awoke yesterday, I had a glowing ball of light with a hole in it blocking the vision in my right eye. That eventually went away also.
This morning, the ball of light was back and worse, when on my walk, I stopped to talk to a neighbor and her face was obscured by the light. When I got home I called my ophthalmologist. Fortunately, he answered my phone call and told me to come in immediately. They are open on Sunday since the doctors are mostly observant Jews and are not open on the Sabbath. I was so glad he could see me.
For the last three or four years, he’s told me my vitreous humor was shrinking. It’s going from a jelly stage to a liquid stage – due to old age. The vitreous humor is found in the eye cavity between the lens and the retina and serves to hold the retina in place as well as bend light. As it began to shrink, it began pulling on the retina. If it pulled away incorrectly, it could lead to a detached retina. I was down to one sticking point of the vitreous humor on the retina.
He basically told me I have pulled the vitreous humor away from the retina and there is no danger of retinal detachment. I’ll still see some flashes of light for a few days and the big ball of light will be with me for about a month or more but will eventually go away. It was a real scare and I got lucky when the humor pulled away. That means my trip is still a go.
I recently had a close up photo of a night blooming Cereus. At the time, there was only one bloom open. Today is a different story.
I really enjoy my morning walks (light balls excepted) and always find something new to look at. It was 80°F and 92% humidity. I did the short walk this morning for 0.9 miles.
Stay tuned!