Now, onto something more serious. I had my eye exam tonight. Things didn't exactly go great. First off, my vision has gotten worse - quite a bit worse. Uncorrected, it's about 20/400 right now. Which means that the smallest letter I could see at 20 feet is something that someone with 20/20 vision could see at 400 feet. Ouch. I could just make out the big E on the chart without my glasses.
Worse still is that I apparently have a small cataract in both eyes. Yeah. The Dr. says it's not affecting my sight at all right now though I need to keep up with it to ensure it doesn't get worse. I also have to make sure I take vitamin E and C and wear sunglasses ALL THE TIME in the sun. I got home and I looked up info on it because I admit, I didn't know much about it more then the fact it's something old people seem to get a lot. Well, I'm right. The factors for cataracts are so outside my life and lifestyle that there's only one thing which could have caused it: UV radation such as the sun (or tanning booths but I don't do that).
Cataracts occur when eye lenses become cloudy. Factors associated with clouding include:
- Aging (age-related cataracts).
- Overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, such as from sunlight, tanning booths, or sun lamps.
- Eye injury. While injury-related cataracts are rare, injury is a leading cause of cataracts in children.
- Diabetes. Diabetes, especially when the blood sugar levels are above the safe range, causes changes in the eye that can result in cataracts.
- Disease inside the eye, such as glaucoma, long-term (chronic) uveitis, retinitis pigmentosa, or retinal detachment.
- Long-term use of steroid medications.
- Frequent X-rays or radiation treatments to the head.
- Family history (genetics). A person may inherit the tendency to develop cataracts.
- Race. Native Americans and people of African-American heritage are at higher risk for developing cataracts.
- Iris color. For unknown reasons, people with darker-colored irises appear to have an increased risk of developing cataracts
- Smoking. People who smoke are more likely to develop cataracts.2 Smoking may damage the lens of the eye by leading to the formation of chemicals called free radicals. Free radicals are produced by normal cell function (metabolism). High levels of free radicals can damage cells, including those in the lens of the eye.
- Alcohol. One study found that people who drank more than one alcoholic drink a day had a 4 times' greater risk for cataracts
I'm young. 26 in fact. Most women who get them are past menopause. Cataract removal is the number one leading surgery for those of Medicare age americans. UV - I'll get to that one. Eye injury - never had any. Just gone nearsighted as I hit my 20's. Disease of the eye - no. Never. And no family history of such. Steroid medication - again, nope. Never. I don't take any steroids or medication besides my birth control pills. X-rays - not at all. I've never even broken a bone, so I've definately not had any reason for x-rays in my life (besides some for braces but that was when I was a young teenager). Family history - not that I know of. And certainly not at 26! Race - I'm neither Native nor African. Very much European. Iris color - I have light eyes that fluctuate blues/greys/greens. Smoking - never have; never will. And no one around me smokes either. Alcohol - don't drink. Just don't have a taste for it. I never do it.
So what does that leave...? UV radiation. Let me pause a minute to explain something to you. Florida is the only subtropical state in the union. We are bombarded with extremely high UV levels on a daily basis - year round. Already, in February, for today, we had a UV index of 7. Most of the county had 2 or 3.
Six risk level categories (0-2 Minimal, 3-4 Low, 5-6 Moderate, 7-9 High, 10 Very High, 10+ Extreme) are used to categorize the calculated skin-damaging UV radiation in agreement with recommendations proposed by dermatologists.
For us, in the summer, we stay 9/10-10+ And for us, summer tends to start late March. For the last two and a half years since I've had my eyes checked (at which time I did NOT have cataracts), I've not worn sunglasses. Why? Because I never had the spare $200 to get a pair of perscription sunglasses. And when I did, I knew I needed to update my Rx first on my main glasses because it was getting too weak. Flash forward until today. We're spending what little we have of a tax return (because I didn't get one because I didn't have any W-2's this year; all my work was under the table or of such a small amount on 1099, I don't have anything to file) to get my exam and me some new glasses. But now I NEED to get sunglasses too. Fuck. That will double the cost. I need ultra thin lenses because of how bad my Rx is - more expensive. I need the anti-glare so it doesn't cause eye-strain - more expensive. And now I need a pair of 100% block UVA/UVB block sunglasses too. UGH!
So.....can I officially say this just terrifies me? My Love tells me I'm getting myself too worked up and that since the Dr. said it's not imparing my sight right now that I shouldn't worry. But I do worry. It can lead to glaucoma, vision loss (extreme) and even in worse cases blindness. Surgery for it is risky and often not recomended. It involves either the insertion of a new, artificial lens or the attempt to break up part of the lens. How horrifying! I could have on-and-off and worsing problems with glare, nightblindess, widly fluctuating prescription and need to update it constantly (something I just can't afford to do), double vision and more. I'm only 26! Why in the world are they developing now? What am I going to do if it's happening now in my life? What's going to happen in another ten years? Twenty?
I'm terrified. This is out of nowhere. I have none of the risk factors. None. Never in my wildest dreams would I have even thought I'd be in this situation. Now it's a matter of it being medically necessary to get sunglasses - and I just don't have the money to get TWO pairs!
I have such a headache. When they dilated my eyes it didn't go down for over three and a half hours. Really good for the already hyper light sensitive person, right? I think I'm going to call it an early night. But I'm so afraid. I know I probably shouldn't be, but there's so much that can happen and so much to worry about (that I never thought I'd have to) that I just keep thinking about it and panicking about everything that can happen. I just couldn't live if I couldn't see. It's bad enough I can't see even a fraction of how I used to be able to when I was a kid (I had 20/10 vision as a child which is the best it can be pretty much) but now this...? I worry about how far downhill it's gotten in such a short span of time; how my perscription has gotten so much worse in such a short period of time and it makes me panic that the same could happen with this. It's like it's all just falling apart - and so fast I can't keep up. It just really, really scares me.
Addendum: about glare...see, one of the problems that everything mentions is issues with glare and nightblindness. But I'm hyper light sensitive. So I've always had problems with glare and lights being distorting/bright at night. If it's consistant light, or it's low-light I can see better then anyone at night. But things like headlights have always been a problem for me. And that's part of what scares me. I don't know where my light sensitivity begins and where my cataracts end, you know? It's hard for me to define if I'm having problems with things like that because I've always had problems with light and changing light sources and certain light sources being overly bright. Which worries me all the more...
~ flowers bloom near Memory and Dream
at 2/27/2004 12:02:56 AM ~
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