Central Serous Retinopathy: Dilation and Freaking Out

One of our writers has had to deal with an eye condition known as Central Serous Retinopathy. Since we work with eye surgeons I asked her to write about it and agreed to post it on this blog. She has written a series of nine blogs on her experience with Central Serous Retinopathay.

This is blog post 6 of 9:

The night before my appointment I was talking to my mom and she thought I should get W. to drive me. She was worried that they might dilate my eyes and I wouldn't be able to drive myself home. I have had my eyes dilated twice before and it didn't bother me at all. I live about a half mile from the clinic. I told her I didn't want him to have to just sit there waiting and being exposed to a bunch of sick people (in the middle of the Swine Flu scare, no less). If it was that bad I would walk or call him to pick me up, and I could pretty much drive home from there with my eyes closed anyway.

Well, it didn't go quite like I expected. After the dilation I could not see, I was nauseous and dizzy. I could barely walk to my car. So, I called W. for a ride and then I waited, and waited. It should only have taken five or ten minutes for him to do whatever he needed to do to get out of the house and get down there. The drive itself takes maybe a minute. Eventually the receptionist came out and told me I had a phone call. The car wouldn't start. Today of all days! So, he walked over and drove me home in mine.

Taking my vehicle to the appointment the next day was not going to be an option, so we were going to have to find another way to get there. W. called and left a message for his dad and we waited to hear back from him.

My eye doctor did a really good job of putting me at ease during my visit, but the more I thought about everything as the evening wore on I started getting scared and worried about what it all meant. He was so gentle and reassuring about it all, but so insistent that I have more tests immediately. The underlying message was starting to terrify me. I had tried to have an intelligent conversation about it all, but I couldn't see, so I couldn't write anything down. I normally take a lot of notes and rely on them heavily. Now I was going on memory and trying not to think about it too much all at the same time, at least until I could look it up.

When I was feeling better and able to see I did look it up and what I kept finding was that the number one most important thing is to avoid stress.

OK. So, I am waiting to find out how I am going to get to my emergency appointment 50 miles away and down the mountain, to have tests to find out if I may be losing the sight in one eye and possibly need laser surgery to stop the vision loss. Oh, and did I mention that everything I read also said that the surgery will cause some permanent damage to your vision, could even make it worse, and should only be used as a last resort, and that my situation fit the description of the unusual and extreme that pretty much describes the worst case scenario making laser surgery the good option? Plus, I’m supposed to give up coffee. And I'm facing another day of dilation sickness, including an hour and half of riding in a car on curvy mountain roads while I’m feeling nauseous.

This was a great recipe for "avoiding" stress.