On Monday I had my appointment with the retina specialist. I wish I could say that she’d taken one look at my eyes, told me exactly what was going on, and gave me a sure-fire cure. Unfortunately she couldn’t tell me the things that I most wanted to know, which are why my retina is breaking down and what is likely to happen to my vision. She did at least confirm and elaborate on some of what I’d read online: retinoschisis does sometimes have a genetic element (she told me to ask my parents if anyone in the family was blind or had suffered major vision loss), it is common in people with myopia (but, as I’d suspected, I’m not nearly as myopic as would be considered typical for this kind of problem), and there is a surgical procedure that can be used (but only if a hole develops in my retina, at which time they’ll “try to put it back together again”).
I have an appointment to see the specialist again in two months, but at a different office, where they have the capacity to do genetic testing. I do want to know why my retina’s breaking down, but I’m not sure how much the genetic testing will help with treatment. Maybe knowing if it’s genetic might give them some clue as to how it will develop? In the meantime, I’m supposed to use prescription eye drops twice per day. This medicine is, according to the literature, also used to treat glaucoma. The hope is that it will reduce pressure in my eye and get the fluid out of the area between the layers of my retina–to “settle it down,” so to speak. Though the problem is much worse in my right eye than my left, I need to treat both eyes.
I put off starting the eye drops for a couple of days, because I hate taking medicine, especially in eye-drop form. But, surely blindness must be worse than eye drops, I reasoned, and I started using the medicine on Thursday. It stings and makes my eyes red, and it causes a nasty smell/taste behind my nose that slowly works its way down into my mouth (yuck!). I’m getting used to it, though, which is good, because I’ve got to do this twice per day for another two months at least.
I called my mother after the appointment to ask her about our family history. I figured I should do it while the thought was still fresh in mind. A surprising number of people in the family have suffered vision loss, but all from other causes. My mom seemed really worried about me, so I told her that the doctor hadn’t given me any indication that the situation was dire. That seemed to make her feel a little better, and it is true, of course. I don’t much care to lie, even to make my mom feel better. But it’s also true that doctors usually try not to worry their patients, and the very fact that she asked about family blindness suggests that blindness is a likely outcome. I try not to think about that, though. I don’t know enough right now to be either optimistic or pessimistic, so I’m aiming for neutral, with just a slight edge of irritation because my eyes are so red and sting-y.