Took the photo above a few minutes ago. Apparently a man is holding a woman hostage in front of Union Station, Toronto's main train station, a few blocks from our place (we've been hearing a lot of sirens in the past half hour). What's most eerie about the scene is that normally this area is packed with people hurrying to work. I hope it all works out with no one getting hurt. :-(

(Added later in the morning: Here's the Toronto Star coverage of the event.)

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So I had my retinal laser surgery yesterday. Just to clarify...this wasn't the type of laser surgery meant to improve my vision; it was the type meant to save my vision.

Starting with my regular eye checkup

I wasn't even going to have the checkup in the first place, but Jeff nagged me into it since he was going to have one, and noticed that I hadn't had one in years.

At the checkup, the doctor noticed two small holes at the back of my left eye, apparently looking as if they had existed there for years. My eye doctor said they may very well stay the same for many more years without effect, but she wanted to have a specialist look at them to see if there was a risk of retinal detachment, which would be bad. She said that if I suddenly noticed light flashes, a sudden increase in floaters, or a grey curtain moving over my field of vision, to phone her immediately.

At the time, however, it was a "just in case" sort of thing. The rest of my eye checkup had gone well; I hadn't even needed a new prescription despite not having had new glasses for many years.

Getting checked out by the specialist

The specialist at Sunnybrook Hospital did a somewhat more in-depth test of both my eyes and said that he believed I should get retinal laser surgery done to seal up holes. He said that the procedure should take about 10 minutes. I made the appointment for the next available time slot which was a couple of months later, and unfortunately on my wedding anniversary. Jeff understood, however. :-)

The diagnosis

The laser surgery was performed in the same office at Sunnybrook Hospital where I had my previous appointment. An assistant put drops in my eyes to dilate my pupils shortly after I arrived and I was sent out to sit in a smaller waiting room. After several appointments with similar eye drops, I had smartened up and brought my iPod and headphones...that way I could listen to music, language lessons and an audio novel instead of sitting there wishing I could read.

About 40 minutes later, an ophthalmologist took me into another office and gave me a much more in-depth eye examination to check on the two holes in my eye. He gave me more eye drops, this time to numb the surface of my eyeball. The exam consisted of some poking with an instrument, a bright light, and him looking at my left eye through a magnifying lens. It was mildly uncomfortable, but only lasted a few minutes. He said that the surgical procedure itself would be pretty much the same, but with a laser.

What he said next shocked me: that one of the holes had grown into a subclinical retinal detachment, that although I had not noticed any effects yet, I would have lost the vision in my left eye within 1-2 years.

And suddenly I was immensely grateful to Jeff for nagging me into finally booking an eye check-up.

The laser surgery

If I only had the one small hole to repair in my retina, the procedure would have been relatively short and painfree, just as many of you reported. However, it turns out that the second hole involving the detached retina was larger than the doctor expected, so the procedure took longer. Jeff says I was in the laser surgery room for about 40 minutes. Although there were several breaks while the doctor checked on the progress of the surgery (more of the poking/prodding tests), at least half that time was spent under the laser.

There was a lot of "Look left", "Look up", "Look more right" and then asked to hold that position while the laser did its thing. It was tough, especially when there was nothing to focus on. Sometimes my eyes would automatically try to follow some random floater and I'd hear an urgent: "No, don't move, DON'T MOVE!"

What the experience was like

- I was lying back in a fully reclined examination chair, with my neck cushioned for comfort. The doctor held my eye open with his fingers, just as he did in the pre-examination. I had been worried about some kind of Clockwork Orange set-up, but my fears were groundless. I had to hold my chin up and look where he asked me to.

- Short repeated flashes (about two a second?) of very bright green light, accompanied by a brief buzzing sound. I tried counting the number of flashes, but lost count eventually. I estimate between 150-250 flashes total during the 40 minutes. Sometimes he'd do just a few flashes in a row, sometimes up to 15-20 flashes in a row. The flashes were bright, but not unbearably so.

- Depending on where the laser was aiming, sometimes a dull pain/pressure with each light burst, occasionally a sharp pain, sometimes just the bright light flash with no other physical sensation. When there was any pain (and I want to emphasize that the pain was quite bearable, and always very brief), it usually came near the end of a long series of flashes.

- About halfway through the procedure, I went blind in my left eye. My doctor said it was normal and only a temporary effect. Still freaky, though.

- For me, the most uncomfortable part wasn't the laser flashes, but when he was pushing and squeezing my eyeball between laser flashes, perhaps making sure the retina got properly reattached. However, whenever this was going on, I focused on the fact that if it wasn't for the surgery, I'd be losing my vision in one of my eyes. Couldn't help but wonder: how was my condition treated before laser surgery was invented?

Afterwards

As the doctor predicted, the vision came back in my eye shortly after Jeff and I left the hospital, though I had a migraine after I got home (only the second migraine headache in my entire life, hopefully the last). My eye feels a bit sore this morning, but that's not surprising after its calisthenics session yesterday. I've also noticed a slight shadow in my upper periphery vision, and have left a message with the doctor's office about it just in case. Even if the shadow ends up being permanent, I barely notice it, will probably eventually tune it out, I'm sure.

I'm supposed to go back in a month to get checked out. I've also been told that I need to get an annual eye checkup from now on, since I'm at higher risk for the same thing happening again.

But to those who haven't had eye checkups in a long time, I strongly urge you to go out and get one. It might be a bit of a hassle, but could be well worth it. If I had let mine lapse another couple of years, it might have been too late to save my eyesight, or at the very least would have had to go through a much more complicated procedure.

Some useful online resources:

What you should know about retinal laser surgery

Retinal detachment: National Eye Institute

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