My eyes are dim, I cannot see

... I have no specs to bring with me.

{ To those unfamiliar with the song, those are lyrics from a song (almost). }

One of the catastrophes that befell me during my hospital stay was damage to the retina in my left eye.  There are several techniques they use to inject liquids into your blood stream or to take blood for testing and I've had them all.  There is an arterial line (or art-line) which is mainly for diagnostic purposes (arterial blood can easily be taken for testing, and arterial blood probably tells a lot more about you than venous blood).  There is a central line (usually inserted into a vein in the neck), a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter) which normally goes into the arm and a simple cannula (which is a flexible plastic tube normally inserted into the wrist).

The differences are many, but the main thing to remember is that the cannula needs to be changed every three or four days, whereas a PICC line or Central Line can last even months.  Mind you, none of my central lines lasted more than a fortnight, and the PICC line, well, that's today's story.

My fourth central line was coming to the end of its useful life, and so I was taken to the procedure rooms to get a PICC line inserted into my left arm.  The process is reasonably painful, but nowhere near as bad as getting a central line put in which involves an incision into the neck while you are well and truly awake.  Lignocaine is used, but it only numbs the surface skin.  Anyway the PICC line was inserted in about 40 minutes and I was taken back to the ward.

Next day my left arm swelled up like a balloon.  The hand became so fat I had to get the identity bracelet replaced as it would no longer fit.  I had developed a blood clot in the left arm, almost certainly due to the PICC line insertion.  These things happen, so I was treated with Clexane (which is a blod thinning drug) which later was replaced with Warfarin.

A couple of days later I noticed a haziness in my left eye.  I would often get cloudiness in the eyes due to my eye drops for glaucoma, and I really didn't think much about it, as it generally clears up and I can see well in a day or so.  However this was still cloudy after four or five days, so an ophthalmologist was sent up to see me.  It turned out I could hardly see a thing with the left eye, with the doctor holding up fingers about three metres away from me, I couldn't make out how many at all.  I could see them moving, however.

A lot of consultations with the hospital ophthalmologist later, I was diagnosed with severe retinal damage due to the blockage from the blood clot.  The retina uses a lot of blood and it flows in and out very quickly.  With a blockage, the drainage stops, and damage happens very soon.  As he put it it was like getting "instant glaucoma".  And unfortunately, he said there was nothing he could do.

I have seen my local ophthalmologist since, and we have started a course of intra-occular injections of (at first) lumix and now avastin (which is an anti-cancer drug primarily used for colon cancer).  This multi-use of drugs intrigues me - for instance I am on methotrexate which is another anti-cancer drug, but I use it to treat my arthritis!

These injections into the eye are something yet again.  My eye is dilated with drops, lignocaine is applied in copious quantities, a sterile disposable fenestrated drape is applied over the eye, then in comes the ophthalmologist, normally tells me a good joke, and then whacko!  Into the middle of the eye with a needle.  It's quite merciless.

These injection treatments are quite expensive and they are not covered much by medicare.  However I am informed if I don't have them, I'll definitely lose what little sight I have left in the eye.  They do offer a glimmer of hope, and I have shown slight improvement after them for a week or two - but the vision reverts to its old ways.  It is slightly better now (I was injected on Tuesday last week) so I hope it will remain this way for once this time.