Power_Unit
Left Retina 8/2007
*** For the many google searchers hitting this: if you have any questions about these procedures, please visit diabetesforums.com or one of the many other online user communities, and ask away! ***
The eye is a beautiful and intricate organ. Enjoy!
This is quite a focussed shot of my macula. But you can see some of my laser burns around the edge. The dark spot is scar tissue from them. If you have the stomach for it, browse through google's images
I'm on my 34th year as a type 1 diabetic. I suffer from Diabetic Proliferative Retinopathy. The procedure I had was called panretinal photocoagulation. It is a simple yet insideous treatment. The problem is from the very tiny blood vessels in the eye getting damaged and clogged. They stem from the optic nerve, that bright spot, and spread throughout the eye. Eventually the peripheral tissue starts complaining about not being fed and emit proteins. These proteins signal the brain to grow new blood vessels. They grow, but they don't grow where they are supposed to. They branch out into the vitreous like a tree. As they are unsupported, they are weak and eventually hemmhorrage. That's where the blindness you read about happens. Blood will form scar tissue on the retina which is inherently unstable. It will eventually breakaway pulling the retina with it. Torn retinas are not easy to fix; though medicine has advance very far. What PRP does is basically kill much of the peripheral, the proteins stop, and the vessels shrivel up. This works very well. Some peripheral vision is sacrificed, but it's not that bad. Better than losing central vision!
www.optimedica.com/pascal/fundus_images.aspx
I did have a major hemmhorrage in 2006. I was legally blind in the eye for about six weeks. A clot formed and kept growing, right in teh bloody center of my vision (pun intended). I had an operation called a vitrectomy to hoover out all the blood and fix the damage. While in there they gave me even more laser. My left peripheral vision is much less than my right now. Both eyes have a few floaters too.
Left Retina 8/2007
*** For the many google searchers hitting this: if you have any questions about these procedures, please visit diabetesforums.com or one of the many other online user communities, and ask away! ***
The eye is a beautiful and intricate organ. Enjoy!
This is quite a focussed shot of my macula. But you can see some of my laser burns around the edge. The dark spot is scar tissue from them. If you have the stomach for it, browse through google's images
I'm on my 34th year as a type 1 diabetic. I suffer from Diabetic Proliferative Retinopathy. The procedure I had was called panretinal photocoagulation. It is a simple yet insideous treatment. The problem is from the very tiny blood vessels in the eye getting damaged and clogged. They stem from the optic nerve, that bright spot, and spread throughout the eye. Eventually the peripheral tissue starts complaining about not being fed and emit proteins. These proteins signal the brain to grow new blood vessels. They grow, but they don't grow where they are supposed to. They branch out into the vitreous like a tree. As they are unsupported, they are weak and eventually hemmhorrage. That's where the blindness you read about happens. Blood will form scar tissue on the retina which is inherently unstable. It will eventually breakaway pulling the retina with it. Torn retinas are not easy to fix; though medicine has advance very far. What PRP does is basically kill much of the peripheral, the proteins stop, and the vessels shrivel up. This works very well. Some peripheral vision is sacrificed, but it's not that bad. Better than losing central vision!
www.optimedica.com/pascal/fundus_images.aspx
I did have a major hemmhorrage in 2006. I was legally blind in the eye for about six weeks. A clot formed and kept growing, right in teh bloody center of my vision (pun intended). I had an operation called a vitrectomy to hoover out all the blood and fix the damage. While in there they gave me even more laser. My left peripheral vision is much less than my right now. Both eyes have a few floaters too.