[HN Gopher] I was terrified of an eyeball injection
___________________________________________________________________
I was terrified of an eyeball injection
Author : CTOSian
Score : 145 points
Date : 2021-11-04 08:06 UTC (14 hours ago)
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(TXT) w3m dump (www.ctrl.blog)
| justasidenote2 wrote:
| I've been Type 1 diabetic for 10 years. Even though my glucose
| control is excellent over that period (A1C never >6.5%) I've
| never been able to shake the latent fear that it's a matter of
| time before I develop complications like retinopathy. What sucks
| hard is that it's not _just_ determined by insulin and glucose.
| Exercise, stress, activity level, protein/fat intake, illness,
| and more can all cause massive variability in glucose levels and
| insulin sensitivity. Therefore my most successful blanket
| strategy for glucose control is keeping as consistent a routine
| as possible: eating the same foods, doing the same activities -
| at the same time, always exercising regularly, and avoiding
| spontaneity.
|
| While I've always had anxiety, it's only become worse over the
| years given the fear of having issues in both day-to-day blood
| sugar management and in being diagnosed with long term
| complications. Living with T1D often feels like a case study in
| applied stoicism.
| JasonCannon wrote:
| Do you follow the advice of Dr Richard Bernstein at all?
| http://www.diabetes-book.com/
|
| Dr Bernstein is a T1D diagnosed back in the '46. He followed
| the typical diabetes advice and still developed complications
| to his diabetes. He was an engineer and felt like the biggest
| problem (at his time) was that diabetics couldn't tell what was
| happening with their blood sugar so he started doing whatever
| he could to gain access to a blood sugar monitor (rare and only
| owned by doctors at the time) and once he got one he started
| doing what engineers do, testing adjusting and tracking
| results. He realized that complications from diabetes is
| entirely caused by blood sugar, and that carbs are the largest
| thing that affects blood sugar. A low carb high fat/protein
| diet would have minimal effect on blood sugar levels. He tried
| to advocate that everyone should follow this diet and also have
| access to a blood sugar monitor. But the medical industry
| wouldn't give him any mind, because he's an engineer not a
| doctor. So this dude went out and became a doctor, and has
| completely changed the lives of diabetics everywhere thanks to
| his work.
|
| Anyways, tangent about how awesome this guy is aside. He says
| if you maintain an A1C of 5.5 you will not suffer the effects
| of diabetes. The best way to do that, he recommends, is to eat
| a low carb high fat diet in order to minimize spikes in blood
| sugar and avoid needing to take excess insulin.
| justasidenote2 wrote:
| Yep, he's an inspiring guy and I've read his book. The fact
| that he's lived well into his 80s with T1D gives me hope that
| folks people can have a pretty good prognosis.
|
| I also follow a low carb diet, which is how I've been able to
| have good glucose control myself.
| 1MachineElf wrote:
| Reminds me of Issac Newton, who had the total opposite attitude
| towards needles in his eye. He poked holes in his cornea as an
| experiment.
|
| This was discussed recently here on HN, but I couldn't find the
| submission. Here's a link to another story about it:
| https://jsaulburton.com/2014/07/27/isaac-newton-his-eye-and-...
| alok-g wrote:
| Oh my!
| jcutrell wrote:
| As someone who experiences medical anxiety regularly, this
| reminds me of basically every dermatologist visit I've had.
|
| The doctors who cut biopsies out of your skin don't seem realize
| how much you'll think about there words when you leave. "How long
| has that been there? That looks a little concerning. That seems
| strange."
|
| Doctors have to deal with patients of all kinds of mental
| fortitude of course, but it wouldn't hurt to be clearer about
| procedures, concerns, etc.
|
| For example, tell me "I bias towards taking a biopsy if I have
| even a little bit of doubt."
| danepowell wrote:
| > Surely other patients must have asked about [this traumatic
| experience]? Or commented on it?
|
| I find myself having this reaction all too frequently after
| traumatic encounters with the healthcare system.
|
| I honestly don't know the answer. Do other patients really not
| communicate when they have a bad experience? Or do they
| communicate and the system is simply incapable of listening or
| reacting?
| kgin wrote:
| I'm curious why it seems they were seemingly conservative with
| the anti-anxiety meds? A large enough benzo dose would turn this
| from the worst day ever to a relaxing experience in just a few
| minutes.
| d2wa wrote:
| Side effects like addiction and _feeling suicidal_ makes
| doctors quite conservative.
| efitz wrote:
| I've had 4 cornea transplants and PRK (like LASIK but no flap).
| Before I started I was very nervous and sensitive to anything
| touching my eyes. Now it's like, whatever, do what you need to
| do.
|
| The anxiety is worse than the procedures, by far. I don't have
| any helpful advice to give; I just toughed it out. The only bad
| experience I ever had was during my second transplant. They
| conduct transplants under conscious sedation plus local
| anesthesia. The sedative puts you to sleep for a few minutes
| while they nerve block the side of your face with Novocaine and
| then they wake you up a little for the procedure. I found the
| procedure profoundly disturbing psychologically even though I was
| in no discomfort. They use a trephine (like a small razor sharp
| cookie cutter) to remove your cornea; you're awake and can sorta
| see it. It makes squishy noises. Your vision skews all over and
| then goes really blurry and you realize that there's nothing but
| gravity keeping the insides of your eye in. After that I always
| asked the anesthesiologist to sedate me just to the point where I
| was unconscious or at least not aware/lucid.
|
| Most doctors are very caring people and used to addressing
| anxiety. Maybe not surgeons so much, at least in my experience.
| Lev1a wrote:
| I had cataract surgery when I was 15/16 and since I was underage
| I was fully knocked out for the procedure (thankfully) but what I
| find to be a funny aspect about that whole thing is that wheeling
| me in a bed (having already taken some kind of oral anesthetic in
| tablet form) from the patient room to the operating room (down 4
| floors, across, then up a few floors) took up essentially the
| same amount of time as the actual procedure.
|
| After the operations (first one eye, wait a month, then the other
| eye) I had to wait six months to be fitted for glasses with
| "progressive lenses" (having used store-bought reading glasses
| inbetween) and I was done.
|
| Over the ~10 years since then I've had to have my eyes lasered
| two times because that pesky cataract tried to grow back
| otherwise I just have a rather glare-sensitive pair of eyes[0]
| with a fixed focus length (due to the artificial lenses) making
| me both far- and near sighted[1] at the same time. Also the
| glasses are expensive, to the tune of 180-200EUR per lens ie.
| ~400EUR without the frame.
|
| TL;DR: it sucks but it's better than the alternative, going blind
| before or by 20 years old and having seen the difference [2] in
| the month between my initial two cataract surgeries it's well
| worth it.
|
| [0]: outside on sunny days w/o sun glasses has me almost
| constantly blinded if I look anywhere near the sun's direction or
| any sun-reflecting surface (non-matte metal, glass, wet roads,
| water surfaces from puddles to the sea or any sufficiently light-
| colored surface, think paper or white walls etc.); ALSO
| software/websites that don't have a dark color theme genuinely
| become straining to my eyes within minutes if not seconds, so
| take note software engineers and web-devs, dark themes are not
| some hipster fad but a genuine accessibility feature
|
| [1]: near-sighted from childhood astigmatism (extent: fine
| details and separations between objects further than ~50-100m
| become blurry), far-sightedness (extent: without glasses I can't
| read normal documents nearer than my fully extended arm, visually
| becoming just black fog/smudges on the white background) from the
| IOLs (intraocular lenses), IIRC the IOLs were made to make me
| more far-sighted with the idea that I would get more near-sighted
| with age anyway to some extent cancelling each other out.
|
| [2]: the not-yet-operated eye couldn't even see a large
| smokestack ~2-3km away, there was just fog starting at around 1km
| away, the operated eye could see them perfectly fine on the
| horizon
| univalent wrote:
| I can sympathize. I had a seed fall into my eye while out on a
| walk and it wouldn't come out. Had to to to the ophthalmologist.
| She did local drops and took it out with forceps. It was
| uncomfortable and scary but she did a great job at calming me
| down and doing it quickly. I do think eye doctors have this kind
| of thing down and folks needn't worry anymore.
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| No doubt. But how does the learning process for this work and
| what does it look like?
| dirtyid wrote:
| Did anyone else get mentally scarred by the Dali video of woman's
| eye being slit by a razor. Accidentally saw it a few times on TV
| when I was young, big reason I don't have cable anymore. Every
| once in a while I still get get paranoid about accidentally
| stumble across it in gif form. Fingers crossed we'll get ability
| to filter out visuals like words someday.
| jherdman wrote:
| I'm very sympathetic to the author. I had to take a few breaks
| reading this article. Eye damage, things coming close to my eyes,
| or needles near my eyes are pure nightmare fuel as long as I can
| remember. "Fire in the Sky"'s experiment scene really pushed this
| over the edge for me as a child. I still get queasy thinking
| about it.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| This is a pretty common procedure that many are unaware of
| because it largely affects the elderly.
|
| Around 2.5 million ocular injections are performed a year in the
| US and the busiest retina specialists perform as many as 50 per
| day.[1]
|
| As many as 11 million people in the United States have some form
| of age-related macular degeneration. This number is expected to
| double to nearly 22 million by 2050.
|
| Many patients require periodic injections for the rest of their
| lives
|
| https://assets.bmctoday.net/retinatoday/pdfs/0520rt_AMD_MacC...
| globular-toast wrote:
| When I was a child I used to sometimes touch my eyeball with the
| tip of a pencil. Everyone I've told this to is very freaked out
| by it. For me it was a test of my own self control. Could I keep
| my eye open? Could I be steady enough to not stab my eye? You
| can't really see the pencil approaching in any detail. It's
| really out of focus. The eyeball itself doesn't really feel much.
| The key is not hitting your eyelashes because those are super
| sensitive and will cause you to blink and withdraw immediately.
|
| I think the touching the eyeball with a cotton swab thing would
| work. It's not that scary once you've done it a few times. But
| the thought of an injection does still scare me a bit.
| elzbardico wrote:
| > When I was a child I used to sometimes touch my eyeball with
| the tip of a pencil
|
| I really fear you.
| pjerem wrote:
| That's something you learn when wearing contact lenses. One
| day, it'll move and hide under your eyelid. You'll try to get
| it back without touching anything but anyway, in some seconds,
| you'll quickly make it to a point where you don't even care
| anymore touching your eyeball because you will immediately
| notice that it's just waaaay less painful than this folded
| plastic bastard.
| ghostly_s wrote:
| Yeah the white of the eye is really not that sensitive. The
| lens is another story.
| asciimov wrote:
| I've been getting these eyeball injections this year. (1 eye,
| every 6 or so weeks).
|
| Bedside manner of the doctors and technicians is the most
| important aspect of it. I have a Doc who wonderfully calm and
| hires a pretty good staff.
|
| One thing the writer doesn't mention is how long all this takes.
| For me it's usually 2 hours of my time. I go in, get my eye
| scanned, then dilation drops are applied, then I wait 45 minutes
| for them to kick in. After that they, bring me back into a room
| and start applying various things to my eye: antihistamine drops,
| numbing agent, something to sterilize my eye, and an antibiotic
| (I think). All the eye prep takes 20 minutes or so. Then the doc
| steps in to do his thing, and that takes all of 5-10 minutes.
|
| For those curious, you don't see the needle, you end up looking
| toward the bridge of your nose and the doc comes from the
| opposite direction. You don't see it inside your eyeball either.
| You do see the fluid stream in and it dissipates quickly. If
| there is a bubble in the solution you end up with one or a few
| black dots floating around your vision, those dissipate in a day
| or two. You don't feel anything other than a little pressure on
| your eye. Afterward, you might have some eye pain. This depends
| on how good of a stick it was and how your allergies are doing.
| Sometimes you are relatively pain free afterward, but other times
| it feels like your eye got walloped and your eye will be sore for
| a few days.
| Borrible wrote:
| The obligatory reference to Bunuel's and Dali's 'Un Chien
| Andalou' for the ommetaphobe:
|
| https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4cbwvf
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_Chien_Andalou
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ommetaphobia
| fredley wrote:
| I have had a long-term phobia of needles. This is excacerbated by
| the fact that I'm usually in some sort of stressful situation at
| the point at which a needle is being put into me: be it a part of
| a diagnosis with thoughts racing about outcomes, or worse in an
| acute emergency.
|
| I recently took positive action to try and dispel this fear with
| a sort of exposure therapy: I started giving blood. It's a much
| less stressful environment, that feels much more under control.
| So far I haven't had any issues at all, which is a surprise to
| me. It hurts a bit when the needle goes in, but my heart does not
| race, nor do I get a massive hit of adrenaline. I'm on my third
| donation, and next time I need to have a needle inserted for
| something else, I hope I'm a lot less troubled by it.
| nickthemagicman wrote:
| I couldn't even finish reading the article, the prospect sounded
| so horrifying.
|
| This author is a king.
| fernandotakai wrote:
| same. i can't even wear contacts -- i tried but it felt soooo
| bad!
|
| my wife, on the other hand, is a fucking champ when it comes to
| anything eye related. she has keratoconus[0] and not only she
| has to do a ton of eye exams every year, but she has to wear
| rigid contact lenses whenever she's awake.
|
| [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratoconus
| pjerem wrote:
| I'm probably not the first person to say it to you but the
| "fear" to put contact lenses fades very quickly. Maybe not
| the very first time, but from the second or the third time,
| you'll stop to think about it for ever.
|
| > it felt soooo bad!
|
| It shouldn't. You are not even supposed to feel them, in
| fact, some people fall asleep with them even if they know
| they shouldn't. If you suffered, even if it was your first
| try, it's probably due to presence of dust between your lens
| and your eye, and I agree that this is super painful. But
| that's not the normal sensation, and that's not an issue as
| long as you remove the lens and retry after some cleaning.
| frosted-flakes wrote:
| A bigger problem for me is getting them out. At least the
| dailies I've tried recently (various types). I had a pair
| of monthlies 10 years ago and I don't remember it being a
| big problem then.
| davidw wrote:
| I started looking through the comments here and... NOPE, I do
| not need this information in my life right now.
| selimthegrim wrote:
| Going in for a retinal exam (in Metairie) today, I took heart
| from the author.
| tnjm wrote:
| I wonder if some people cope better with knowing less. If the
| procedure for removing the stitches from my eyeball had been
| explained in advance, I'd still have them now.
|
| Going in, I'd imagined the best possible outcome. This, of
| course, didn't bear much relationship to what followed.
|
| No doubt some people would have steeled themselves first given
| more information. (And perhaps been more stoic!)
| kenjackson wrote:
| What happened? I'm intrigued and slightly queasy.
| draven wrote:
| I have a lot of sympathy for the author. I've been thinking about
| getting LASIK (or SMILE as it seems to be gaining popularity in
| France) since friend got it and says it's life-changing, and
| since I've started considering it I sometimes have nightmares
| about the procedure.
|
| I already had some minor surgery with local anesthesic and I
| didn't have any anxiety, but there's something about having
| something done to the _eyes_ while _fully awake_ that I find
| frightening.
| DoingIsLearning wrote:
| Make sure you understand the clinical outcomes and potential
| side-effects.
|
| When a cornea flap is cut, you are cutting a lot of innervation
| to the cornea surface, this for many people means fairly
| persistent dry-eyes. In addition the scaring of the cornea in
| the incision flap rim, can also create visual artefacts like
| Halos, more visible during nightime as your pupil expands and
| may catch some of the visual distortion of the scar tissue.
|
| I am describing from experience so your mileage may vary. At
| the end of the day I would probably still go ahead with the
| surgery but I genuinely feel that it was not thoroughly
| explained to me, ahead of the surgery, what all the potential
| side-effects could be.
| at_a_remove wrote:
| I was talking to my eye doc while he was performing surgery
| on my eyelids, just sort of chit-chatting. So I was curious,
| my eyesight is pretty good -- but for how long? -- and I
| asked, "What do you think of LASIK?"
|
| Now, this guy has a dry sense of humor so he said, "You may
| notice that I'm wearing glasses ..."
|
| And I guess that was all of the input I needed.
| l33tman wrote:
| A lot of people are perfectly comfortable with wearing
| glasses. All surgical procedures carry some non-zero risk
| and you have to weight the risk benefit ratio which is
| different for all patients.
| loceng wrote:
| There are photos floating around of the doctors attending
| LASIK conferences, where 50%+ of doctors are wearing
| glasses.
| smnrchrds wrote:
| NYT had a good article about this: <quote>
|
| His eyes are so dry and sore that he puts drops in every
| half-hour; sometimes they burn "like when you're chopping
| onions." His night vision is so poor that going out after
| dark is treacherous.
|
| But Mr. Ramirez says that as far as his surgeon is concerned,
| he is a success story.
|
| "My vision is considered 20/20, because I see the A's, B's
| and C's all the way down the chart," said Mr. Ramirez. "But I
| see three A's, three B's, three C's."
| </quote>
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/well/lasik-
| complications-...
| draven wrote:
| As I understand it SMILE implies a smaller cut (3mm) with
| less nerve damage.
|
| Thanks for the heads-up, I'll make sure I'm OK with the
| potential side effects if I go forward with it.
| loceng wrote:
| Look up central sensitization and hyperalgesia, a side
| effect LASIK only recently admitted to, and to which LASIK
| caused me and has made my life hell - and why I know about
| Jessica Starr, the Facebook support group, and the stromal
| stem cell research - all things I had to find on my own as
| the industry is protecting itself, indoctrinated and with
| no real interest in helping those they harm except for
| billing you to treat the purposefully mislabeled "dry eye
| syndrome" - where research not done by LASIK shows up to
| 40% of people have permanent problems after.
| Traubenfuchs wrote:
| I am suffering from moderate dry eye now and was suffering
| from severe dry eye in the past.
|
| I once had a day at work where the pain was so bad I thought:
| This is it. I can't keep on working, I will lose my job and
| live on disability from now on.
|
| After some conversations with healthy people, I learned that
| many can not even imagine dry eye pain. One sentence stuck
| out: ,,I didn't know eyes could hurt."
|
| What I wanna say is: Don't risk it. Lasik can ruin your life.
| loceng wrote:
| Indeed, the idea of "informed consent" is complete non-
| sense because the layperson will have no way to understand
| what the potential consequences entail - and personally I
| was lied to multiple times by LASIK before getting the
| procedure done.
| Traubenfuchs wrote:
| I am bound to my glasses I loath but at least can barely
| stand to wear contacts to go out once a week due to my
| diligent eye treatments.
|
| I would love to do lasik! But any potential worsening of
| my dry eyes is not worth it. I would still sacrifice my
| whole fortune to have healthy eyes again. (to be clear: I
| did not have lasik, but I probably suffer from permanent
| isotretinoin damage)
| DantesKite wrote:
| I developed severe dry eyes, light sensitivity, halos,
| and migraines as a result of corticosteroids.
|
| But I was able to reverse a majority of it and continue
| to do after learning Tribulus upregulates androgen
| receptors in the brain, which seems to control the
| aqueous liquid in our eyes.
|
| I'm not sure what Vitamin A does to the body. From a
| cursory glance, it seems to affect skin androgen
| receptors, which would explain why it affected your eyes
| but if it has a similar affect, you might want to
| consider Tribulus.
|
| Start off with a low dosage. Say 1 pill daily for a week,
| then taper off. On and off for a few months.
| Traubenfuchs wrote:
| To be more precise, androgens (especially DHT) suppress
| inflammation in the meibomian glands.
|
| I strongly recommend dissolving an oral pill of
| hyaluronic acid twice daily -do not swallow the pill
| whole, it won't dissolve and you will shit a tiny
| gelatine egg.
|
| Besides that eye heating masks and lid-hygiene (e.g.
| blephacura) do wonders.
|
| As for AR expression, I believe L-Carnitin should also
| improve it. Creatine should increase DHT.
|
| But I am afraid to haphazardly increase my androgens or
| receptor expression because of my AGA.
| ghostly_s wrote:
| I am curious what is "life-changing" in anything but the most
| quotidian sense about no longer having to wear contacts or
| glasses?
| [deleted]
| hrydgard wrote:
| Consider ICL instead of LASIK if it's an alternative for the
| level of vision you have. Super happy, and the procedure was
| really no big deal.
| wccrawford wrote:
| I had ICL and then Lasik as part of the same planned procedure,
| and I had the same thoughts beforehand. The doctors actually
| made it sound worse than it is.
|
| For ICL, they'd say things like, "You'll feel a little pinch"
| before they did something, and I _barely_ noticed that anything
| was happening.
|
| For Lasik, it was _nothing_. The most uncomfortable part of the
| procedure was while they were prepping me, and even that wasn
| 't anything worth talking about unless you have some phobia.
|
| It's been a few years now and I barely remember anything about
| the procedure beyond the room layouts and remembering thinking
| it went much easier than I expected.
| buu700 wrote:
| I had an ICL procedure as well, about seven years ago. I
| can't say I had anywhere near OP's level of anxiety about it
| beforehand, but I was concerned about potential
| pain/discomfort and my ability to keep my eyes still enough
| to not ruin the procedure and blind myself.
|
| Unfortunately I have no memory of the procedure itself, so I
| can't comment on any discomfort or lack thereof. I don't
| _think_ I was ever told I 'd be put under general anesthesia,
| so it seemed a bit odd at the time to walk in and out with no
| memory of in-between. Does anyone know if this is a common
| side effect (or intentional effect) of drugs commonly used
| during ICL implantation surgery?
| param wrote:
| I was always iffy about LASIK and got it done to appease my
| wife & I can tell you it was way simpler than I was imagining.
|
| I can't even put contact lenses in my eye myself, but getting
| operated was a breeze. I have been glasses free for 8 yrs now -
| its great!
| Buttons840 wrote:
| How old are you, if I may ask?
|
| I'm very nearsighted (I can't see distant objects clearly
| without glasses), and I know people's ability to see close
| objects or read diminishes with age. My plan has been to
| remain nearsighted in hopes I can always read without
| glasses. Many people have their far sight improve as they
| approach 40 or 50.
| loceng wrote:
| Listen to the nightmares - it's your subconscious trying to get
| a message/warning through to you.
|
| There's a Facebook group called LASIK Complications Support
| Group that has 3-4 people joining it daily desperate for help
| from the pain they're left with. LASIK as an industrial complex
| has done well to suppress the problems. In 2011 one of the FDA
| expert advisors who voted to approve LASIK wrote a public
| letter to FDA asking them to immediately recall LASIK, as he
| said there was data they were ignoring that they shouldn't have
| been ignoring, and that it should never have been approved.
|
| A story of suicide post LASIK (actually specifically she did
| "SMILE") of a news reporter Jessica Starr - many articles on
| her, but here's two: https://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/families-deal-
| with-repercussions-a... + https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/in-
| her-own-words-jessica-st...:
|
| ""She looked at me and she said, 'Dan [her husband], it's like
| my eyes and my brain aren't communicating like they used to. I
| can't process like I used to. I'm not visualizing things like I
| used to,'" Dan said.'
|
| My hypothesis is that the more creative and sensitive a person
| is (therefore less redundancy in neural networks) the more
| fragile and detrimental damage/injury caused by LASIK.
|
| The cornea is the most sensitive tissue in the body with
| 300-600 times the density of pain receptors than your skin, and
| LASIK lies - your cornea doesn't/can't heal on its own.
|
| At least wait until the stromal stem cell treatment available
| clinically. Human clinical trials in India were fast tracked
| under compassionate grounds, the original research on animal
| models from University of Pittsburgh, that were highly
| successful healing/regenerating deep/severe scarring and
| chemical burns. It'll likely take anywhere from 2-5 years, with
| the pandemic delaying things, for it to be available in
| India/US with FDA approval.
| foobarian wrote:
| My problem with LASIK is the rare issues. It looks like it
| works fantastically when it works, but it seems to also cause
| fantastic problems when something goes wrong. Given my high
| negative prescription I just can't bring myself to do it.
| DantesKite wrote:
| Excellent thinking.
|
| I've read enough horror stories to know it's not worth the
| risk, especially when my optometrist told me my vision would
| worsen anyways in 10 years.
| glxxyz wrote:
| I had LASIK almost 20 years ago and for me it's been
| wonderful. My vision settled down to a small (about -0.5)
| prescription which hasn't changed since then. Legally I can
| drive without glasses but I basically only wear them for
| driving and the cinema. Multiple optometrists in the years
| since have told me that I have no corneal flattening, no
| scarring, and I've had no dryness.
|
| Relevant to the OP it was quite a procedure to experience.
| I was a little concerned before but it was quite
| interesting to watch the corneal flat be cut open (with no
| feeling at all) and peeled back, then see the little laser
| flashes accompanied by (weirdly) a smell of burned hair.
| When they dropped the flap back down my vision was
| instantly corrected, although initially a bit cloudy.
| deepspace wrote:
| Yes, even if I could overcome my phobia of things touching
| my eye and bring myself to have LASIK done, I would never
| do it, for the simple reason that my prescription keeps
| changing year by year.
|
| The glasses I was prescribed a few years ago are almost
| useless today, so I cannot help thinking that LASIK would
| just correct my vision at a point in time, and then a
| couple of years later it would be back to glasses. Not
| worth the risks in the slightest.
| glxxyz wrote:
| Yes a stable prescription is one of the recommendations,
| mine had been unchanged for about 10 years before LASIK,
| and hasn't changed in the 18 or so years since then.
|
| I'm not big on the idea of touching my eye but the
| numbing drops are amazing- after I'd had a couple of
| eyeball pressure tests I got used to the odd sensation of
| things touching my eyes without me flinching.
| cosmojg wrote:
| > We briefly discussed my anxiety, but his immediate solution was
| the anti-anxiety drug. I made it clear that I was worried about
| the procedure and wanted to know more details about it. He didn't
| want to explain the procedure beyond "we'll inject medication
| that will help preserve your vision", and he avoided answering
| repeated questions. Maybe he tried to shield me from the details
| and not confirm my worst fears.
|
| Based on stories I've heard from emotionally immature doctor
| friends and my own experience being a little more confrontational
| with my doctors, he most likely didn't know the answers to your
| questions and was too proud to say, "I don't know."
|
| It seems many forget that, at the end of the day, doctors are
| people, too, with just as many flaws and emotions as the rest of
| us. It's unfortunate that this affects quality of care, but it's
| a fact of life in every industry.
|
| The best thing you can do for yourself in such a situation is to
| prepare yourself before appointments and remember the humanity of
| doctors during appointments. If your doctor is being dodgy about
| answering questions, let them know that it's okay if they don't
| know and that you won't think anything less of them for it. If
| it's an urgent matter, suggest looking it up together so that
| your doctor can provide context for whatever research you manage
| to find.
|
| A doctor is like a contractor you've hired to inspect and
| maintain your body. As with any contractor, if you want them to
| do a good job, you have to work with them, as a team.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| Alternatively, if you think your contractor is unfamiliar or
| underprepared for a job - find one you like!
| cjbprime wrote:
| Perhaps worth mentioning that medical malpractice lawsuits are
| a devastating possibility for doctors (because of license
| suspension), especially in the US, and so they may have
| sensible reasons to specifically avoid the phrases "I don't
| know" or "I'm sorry" even if they're empathetic people.
| nightfly wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAjQQG_uT_E
| AceJohnny2 wrote:
| There was an interesting observation that practitioners optimize
| for themselves, not the patients[1]. When you're seeing dozens of
| patients a day, each of them reacting differently, it's hard to
| empathize fully with, and adapt to, each of them. The one you can
| optimize for, as the practitioner, is yourself.
|
| [1] Dan Ariely, in the intro of his must-read book "Predictably
| Irrational"
| UI_at_80x24 wrote:
| I've had 2 cornea replacements. In 5-10 years I'll need them
| replaced again, (and repeat until I die or go blind).
|
| I was freaking out for 6 months about the entire operation. The
| more research that I did, didn't help. Even support groups that
| had gone through it didn't help. I was terrified.
|
| The first eye: I took Xanax before the procedure, and they gave
| me something to calm me down. I was partially aware of life for
| 10 minutes after I was almost home.
|
| The second eye: I didn't take Xanax, and partway through the
| procedure I woke up enough to be able to feel them working in my
| eye. I was calm and not bothered by it. It felt more like a
| tugging and pulling (like how your foot associates your shoe-
| laces being tied); but I was calm. The doctor told me to stop
| moving my eye. They must have given me something more, because I
| don't remember anything else.
|
| It's an out-patient procedure.
|
| If you are in a similar position and have ANY questions, I'll
| talk to you about it.
|
| There will be a hundred people who say: "If I can do it, anybody
| can!" I don't want to be dismissive about your feelings. I was in
| horrible shape before the procedure.
|
| But I will be honest with you and talk about it if you want.
| mam4 wrote:
| Try watching a cataract operation on YT without being OMGOMGOMG
| lurquer wrote:
| Makes me shudder...
|
| I had some systemic inflammation behind my retina that would
| flare up every year or two, causing my retina to warp and make
| everything look like a fun-house mirror. (At least with the good
| eye closed... with both open, the brain sorts it all out and
| provides a good image...)
|
| To reduce the swelling, I needed steroids shots towards the BACK
| of the eyeball! Speculum goes in, then the doc puts his thumb on
| the eyeball and rotates it so that I'm looking into my own brain
| (it seemed) and injects something... aargh!
|
| Didn't help they he was 76, had shaky hands, and would say things
| like "now don't move or you'll go blind... haha."
|
| Not all that painful, though... the anesthetic drops numb
| everything. But, the most disturbing medical experience I've had.
|
| (Of course, I'm a guy... I doubt it's as disturbing as squeezing
| a baby out of a small orifice in your groin, so there's that...)
| RHSeeger wrote:
| I have double vision because of previous eye surgery, and the end
| result is going to be a surgery where they
|
| 1. Put me under
|
| 2. Disconnect the muscles from the back of the eye sockets and
| reconnect them temporarily in a better location
|
| 3. Wake me up and make sure the locations are correct
|
| 4. Push the eyes to the side and reach in with a tool to
| permanently attach the muscles
|
| The doctor was telling me the last part and I was staring at her
| like she was insane; "wait.. while I'm awake?!?". My plan is to
| just schedule a psychological appointment for later the same day.
| coryrc wrote:
| Play Tetris after!
|
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32293830/
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| Strabismus Surgery?
| Zababa wrote:
| There's a surgery for strabismus? I've always heard that it
| was basically untreatable outside of wearing glasses.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Indeed there is! I had it in the mid 80s when I was a
| child. They put me completely under. My understanding is
| that today it's not uncommon to do it under a local
| anesthetic so they can test the correctness of the
| alignment in real time.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| (obligatory not a doctor, not your doctor)
|
| Apparently yes:
|
| https://eyewiki.aao.org/Strabismus_Surgery,_Horizontal
| snuxoll wrote:
| Had it when I was a child! Twice, even! (18mo and 10yr
| old). Mine was so bad my left eye basically hung out in the
| corner - so incredibly thankful for the awesome pediatric
| ophthalmologist I had looking back on how much different my
| vision could have turned out (it's still far from perfect,
| my left eye is mostly used for periphery, but it's much
| better than the alternatives).
| Zababa wrote:
| I've had it since birth I think, on my right eye, and
| while my left eye vision is great, I have trouble reading
| even very big text with my right eye. I'm a bit mad that
| I've never heard about this surgery until now.
| snuxoll wrote:
| I'd be a bit mad myself in that case, any board certified
| ophthalmologist should be well aware of the use of
| surgery as a treatment for strabismus; especially ones
| specialized in pediatric ophthalmology since it's better
| to take care of it at a young age while there's higher
| neuroplasticity (so a higher chance of the brain properly
| adapting to the corrected vision).
| Zababa wrote:
| Maybe it's less of a thing in France, or it was at the
| time (early 2000)? You're right about neuroplasticity,
| even if I get it fixed now I don't know if my brain would
| adapt to it.
| snuxoll wrote:
| > The doctor was telling me the last part and I was staring at
| her like she was insane; "wait.. while I'm awake?!?
|
| Holy hell, NOPE. I'm very glad I was under the whole time when
| I had my strabismus surgeries as a child, because I'm pretty
| sure I would be psychologically scarred for life.
| david422 wrote:
| Technology today is both amazing and terrifying all at the same
| time.
| Tronno wrote:
| This reminds me of a fun internet rabbithole. Feeling a little
| too comfortable? Need a little spice in your life? Why not watch
| some... surgery videos?
|
| In the wake of having multiple surgeries myself, I became
| interested in watching procedures like the one in the article
| actually being performed. For example:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQfRKTKmq80 (warning: may be
| disturbing).
|
| I don't consider myself squeamish, but just try finishing a video
| of, say, knee-replacement surgery. Imagine carpentry, with
| someone's _living bone_. Yikes.
|
| Massive respect for the people who successfully do this every day
| without being completely overwhelmed by the complexity, the high
| stakes, and, especially, the cringe-inducing gore.
| saulpw wrote:
| Surgeons and CEOs have a higher rate of psychopathology than
| the population at large.
| inetsee wrote:
| I have diabetes. My glucose control at home is fairly good
| because almost everything I eat has a nutrition label, and I can
| calculate somewhat accurately exactly how much insulin I need to
| take. When I travel, eating in restaurants regularly, I have to
| make wild ass guesses as to how much carbohydrate I'm consuming.
| On a recent trip I had some health issues, including a
| significant spike in my glucose readings. My A1C went from 6.9 to
| 8.4 and I had noticeable vision problems. I went to my
| ophthalmologist and he told me that I had serious retinal bleeds,
| and I would need injections in both my eyes. It was serious
| enough that he gave me the first injection in one eye that day,
| and the second injection in the other eye the next day. My
| ophthalmologist is very good and I trust him implicitly. The
| procedure involved antibiotic drops in my eyes, anesthetic drops,
| and betadine on my eyelids before the injections. The needles
| used were very small gauge (they looked like 32 gauge). I didn't
| feel any pain; just a slight feeling of pressure.
|
| If you have a good ophthalmologist, nowadays there is little
| reason to fear getting injections in your eyes.
| JasonCannon wrote:
| T1D also, with not great control. I've had about a dozen
| injections over the last two years. A couple laser treatments
| and a full on surgery. The laser treatments are uncomfortable
| mostly because of the time it takes. The injections don't hurt
| at all and I barely notice them, but the little clamps they put
| on your eye lid to keep them open makes me uncomfortable as
| shit. Easily the worst part of the entire experience.
| inetsee wrote:
| My opthalmologist doesn't use clamps; he uses his fingers to
| keep my eyelids from blinking. The injection only takes a few
| seconds to complete. I suppose it depends on your doctor's
| training. I've been fortunate that my opthalmologists have
| all been very good.
| samstave wrote:
| >>My A1C went from 6.9 to 8.4
|
| Whats good vs. bad?
| valenceelectron wrote:
| Higher is worse. There may be different ,,schools" of thought
| or opinions but according to my doctor 7.5 is a threshold you
| should not cross (type 1).
| inetsee wrote:
| The [A1C] goal for most people with diabetes is 7% or less.
| [1]
|
| [1] https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/managing/managing-blood-
| sugar/a...
| wing-_-nuts wrote:
| My mother accidentally put mosquito repellant in my eyes as a
| child (my father had put it in an eye dropper to carry hunting
| and didn't label the bottle)
|
| To this day _anything_ that messes with my eyes freaks me out.
| That little puffer thing at the eye doctor? That thing is my
| nemesis. I won 't wear contacts. Lasik is out of the question
| because on top of this phobia I also have CP and I get super
| spastic when stressed.
|
| Having to get monthly injections in my eyeball would be pure
| nightmare fuel for me. I'm not sure which I'd fear more, that, or
| going blind.
| deepspace wrote:
| Oh god, the puffer. Pure torture.
|
| I tried contacts many years ago, and after two months of
| struggling, it still took me over an hour every day to get them
| in, so I gave up on that.
|
| I still remember the day I first heard about Radial Keratotomy
| in the 70s. I could not imagine how anybody could consciously
| allow a scalpel anywhere near their eyeball.
|
| Even today with LASIK/PRK, the whole idea of voluntary eye
| surgery is just a total nope for me.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I sympathize, that must be terrible. Your story reminds me of
| something my wife did a long time ago. She wanted to put
| sunscreen on our baby daughter's face, and she had the bright
| idea to blow in her face so she'd close her eyes, and then
| quickly spritz with the spray.
|
| That worked out exactly like you are probably thinking.
| Fortunately there doesn't seem to be a resulting phobia, 11
| years on.
| danpalmer wrote:
| As someone who isn't far off this level with regular injections
| in regular places, I have a lot of sympathy for the author. Based
| on my past experience I'd expect it to take me a couple of years
| to get to the point of being able to do this, and I have no real
| anxiety about my eyes.
|
| Well done to the author for not giving up.
| user_7832 wrote:
| Well I was nervous after reading the title. Reading the article
| as a diabetic-of-fifteen-years with suboptimal glucose/health
| management made me positively queasy. I'm taking this as the sign
| that I need to get my shit together, and I recommend anyone else
| who's also procrastinating like me to take this opportunity.
| iamjdg wrote:
| Not to brag, but to brag, this is nothing. I've had a gas bubble
| injected into my eye to repair a detached retina (pneumatic
| retinopexy).
|
| https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/w...
| morelisp wrote:
| Things people I know have had in their eyes I didn't know could
| be in eyes:
|
| - The aforementioned gas bubble
|
| - The same but an oil bubble, when you need the pressure to
| remain there for longer (and a second surgery to remove it)
|
| - A _1mm bypass stent_ to reduce intra-ocular pressure
| garren wrote:
| The bypass stent is interesting. Was that relatively recent?
| I heard of ALT and SLT, both laser therapies as I understand
| it, for iop conditions. I'm wondering about the effectiveness
| of laser therapy versus a stent.
| Asooka wrote:
| I actually have IOP problems and have discussed these
| treatments with my dr. The answer is really it depends. In
| my case, the problem is that the little channels which
| drain the fluid are too small and get clogged by debris
| from my flaky retina (so it's two problems coming together
| to make one big problem). I could get a laser treatment to
| burn and widen those channels, but it generally lasts for a
| year or two and then you have to do it again. The high
| powered laser additionally can burn your retina as it
| diffuses through the vitreous. A stent doesn't have those
| problems, but it does come with some chance of
| complications. For now I'm managing just fine with
| eyedrops. It's annoying to have to put them in every day,
| but they definitely work. One side effect is that my iris
| might turn brown after some more months, sadly.
| morelisp wrote:
| Several years ago. Germany is extremely strong in
| ophthalmologic surgery - I've heard something like 3 of the
| top 10 eye clinics in the world are here in Berlin, though
| I doubt such broad measurements are really meaningful - and
| I think several MIGS devices were approved here a few years
| before elsewhere in the world.
|
| I think laser therapies were avoided in this case because
| the patient was young.
| [deleted]
| zwieback wrote:
| Awesome - here's an instructional video:
| https://www.aao.org/clinical-video/pneumatic-retinopexy-rhem...
| Tokyolunch wrote:
| I can relate to this story a bit.
|
| I had an Avastin injection in my eye 10ish years ago in my mid
| 20s. It turned out that I had a central retinal vein occlusion
| which caused me to suddenly lose vision in one of my eyes. There
| was lots of hemorrhaging and swelling of macula which made me
| lose vision.
|
| One of the suggested ways to treat some of the swelling was by
| injecting Avastin into my eyes. The ophthalmologist said that
| there weren't really anything else to do at that point besides to
| let the eye naturally heal so I did take the chance to take the
| shot.
|
| I experienced all of that anxiety that the author wrote about as
| just the thought of a needle injection into the eye is truly
| gruesome. But what everyone else on here have said is correct in
| that, they put all this stuff on you, antibiotic drops,
| anesthetic drops, and betadine and then they have you look up in
| the upper right hand or upper left hand corner as they inject
| into the white of your eye.
|
| I remember this being the excruciating part as once the needle
| goes in, you shouldn't move your eye at all and keep it in that
| position or risk blindness (as the ophthalmologist put it). What
| was seconds seemed like minutes. Due to all the anesthesia, you
| feel no pain but you do feel this discomfort of pressure as the
| needle gets inserted into the eye.
|
| Thankfully, I only required just one injection but I knew a lot
| of other elderly with macular degeneration and such who needed
| these injections regularly in order to not lose vision. The whole
| process was pretty professional but I don't know if I would want
| to go through that all again but I know that if it was between
| that or lose my vision, I think most people would decide to get
| the injections.
| scop wrote:
| I had to have my tonsil biopsied a few years back. With my mouth
| agape and a six-inch needle down my throat, my ENT quipped:
|
| > I did this once, I learned a lot.
|
| Surprisingly that was the most comforting thing I could hear. To
| know that the ENT had enough confidence and presence-of-mind in
| his procedure to crack a joke told me I was in good hands, even
| if those hands were holding a six-inch needle down my throat.
| stevebmark wrote:
| Many of us will face eye injections as we age and develop macular
| degeneration, where eye injections are currently the best
| treatment to slow and stop age based macular degeneration.
|
| Type two diabetes can be reversed with diet, maybe those facing
| this procedure will get more motivation to try stricter dietary
| interventions.
| RHSeeger wrote:
| Type two diabetes MAY be able to be reversed with diet,
| depending on the person. That being said, the article didn't
| indicate if the author was type 1 or type 2 (or both).
| d2wa wrote:
| The author is a type 1.
| gdebel wrote:
| (Ophthalmologist): To any future HN reader scared by those
| intraocular injections: don't fear them. I'm on my way to the
| operating room and going to perform cataract surgery under
| topical (=eyedrops only) anesthesia, as I always do, and as most
| surgeons today do. Patients won't feel anything except water
| slightly flowing on the eye surface. The surgical knife is 2.2mm
| wide : the 25 Gauge needle is 0.260mm wide. Anesthetic eyedrop
| work amazingly. Patients can actually feel the eye speculum (pro
| tip: open wide both eyes++, it will be less disturbing) and the
| itchy feeling of Betadine, and the touch of the needle : that's
| usually all.
|
| Don't postpone eye injections because of fear: if it is
| indicated, there is usually some degree of emergency.
| dirtyid wrote:
| This is reassuring but does not remotely allievate my
| irrational fear of eye based trauma.
| jmnicolas wrote:
| Counter point: a few years ago my mother had a botched cataract
| surgery, she now sees worse than before.
|
| Don't act like you don't take a chance on every medical
| procedure. Most of the times it's OK, but sometimes it's not.
| Then what?
| edgyquant wrote:
| You might be right but I'm too much of a wuss to put eye drops
| in without flinching, let alone a needle
| spicybright wrote:
| Tip: If you tilt your head back and squirt it in the corner
| of your eye (near your nose), it'll flow into your eye
| perfectly every time.
| cortesoft wrote:
| You can't tell me not to fear it. I have a HUGE eye phobia; I
| can't even open my eyes under water. It doesn't matter what
| anyone says, it isn't a rational thing.
| fossuser wrote:
| Pre-surgery benzodiazepines might fix that and are given to
| particularly anxious patients - I was terrified going into a
| surgery and was given those, ten minutes later there was
| total relief. I can easily understand the addiction risk (and
| haven't had them since), but for acute anxiety it was wild
| how much of a relief it was.
|
| I went from nervous with fairly intense physical symptoms to
| being totally chill.
| rblatz wrote:
| This is so bizarre to me, to be an adult and just unable to
| control your own body? I guess I'm lucky to not have this
| issue, but man it's so foreign to me that you can't even open
| your eyes under water.
| cortesoft wrote:
| I think you might be overestimating what I mean by "can't"
| open my eyes under water. I think the 'touching a hot
| stove' metaphor is a good one. It feels like that to me.
| randcraw wrote:
| Phobias are very common. Almost everyone has one, like fear
| of heights or being trapped in a small space. The fear is
| not rational, and the phobic is well aware of that, but
| simply knowing it's irrational doesn't help rid you of it.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_phobias
| burnished wrote:
| Would you also not struggle to touch a hot stove? I think
| it is a similar feeling. Genuine question too - I've got a
| friend who is comedically brave and doesn't experience pain
| the way that other people do who might express a similar
| idea. He just already knows that its unusual and not the
| default.
| rblatz wrote:
| That's an interesting idea. I think I'd be able to touch
| it, I know I'd dislike it immensely though.
|
| But this question helped me clarify my thoughts around
| this more. It's the distinction between rational fear vs
| irrational fear. Assuming clean water the fear of opening
| your eyes underwater is irrational, it's not going to
| hurt you or do any long term damage. The example from the
| story about getting an injection on your eye is maybe
| someplace in between, needle in the eye is much more
| invasive, but also deemed medically necessary where the
| risk of not doing it is greater than the risk of doing
| it.
|
| Not having the ability to override your own emotions in
| cases where they are irrational is interesting to me.
| It's like giving agency to an "external other" that you
| have no control over.
| cortesoft wrote:
| If I absolutely needed to open my eyes under water for an
| important reason, I likely could. That is just not a
| common situation and I haven't encountered it.
|
| I don't think not opening my eyes under water is THAT
| irrational, really. My reason for keeping my eyes closed
| (my fear and not liking the feeling of water touching my
| eyes) is greater than my need to open my eyes under water
| (which has been no real reason so far).
| doliveira wrote:
| I seriously doubt you can rationally override your own
| emotions at any situation. And you should doubt that too,
| it can make you biased to think you're being rational
| without noticing you're not.
| rblatz wrote:
| It seems like you are stretching my words here.
| anon9001 wrote:
| The trick is to take the entire day off of work, take xanax,
| and do the motions without panicking.
|
| The feeling you're describing is literally panic from an
| anxiety disorder. If it it's interfering with your adult
| responsibilities (like going to the doctor), that's the right
| time to use medication to get through it.
| cortesoft wrote:
| My toddler recently scratched my cornea with a finger, and
| while I was completely traumatized, I was able to go to the
| doctor and allow them to treat me. The phobia is not quite
| debilitating, just strong.
| bobobob420 wrote:
| Yeah if you are afraid to open your eyes underwater there is
| no way your letting a needle come near your eye when you are
| conscious and can see it. I have never heard of this eye
| phobia very interesting
| ignoramous wrote:
| I don't open my eyes either but mostly in swimming pools
| full of chlorine. Didn't know it was a phobia, because all
| I'm trying to do is avoid annoying eye irritation.
| hinkley wrote:
| Talking about eye surgery is like nails on a chalkboard to
| me. I don't want to talk about yours, let alone think about
| mine.
|
| I have joked with my friends and family about giving them a
| limited power of attorney that in the case of eye or
| testicular surgery they can dose me with tranquilizers or
| anti anxiety meds without my knowledge and deliver me to the
| surgeon, having not told me that my surgery is today.
|
| They're not sure if I'm kidding, and neither am I.
| randcraw wrote:
| Have you tried watching videos of surgeries to see if you
| can acclimatize your fear? Starting with something trivial
| like a skin suture or mole removal might be tolerable.
| Exposure therapy is an established way to gradually
| inoculate yourself against a fear that seems inescapably
| overwhelming.
| ignoramous wrote:
| > _Have you tried watching videos of surgeries to see if
| you can acclimatize your fear?_
|
| If you're anxious enough already, then: Don't. Ever. Do.
| This. Videos don't help, at all. And your brain is
| constantly thinking about ways things might have gone
| wrong, while simultaneously looking (no pun) for comments
| from people explaining how exactly things went wrong for
| them!
| scruple wrote:
| I'm the same way. I even have a hard time with drops despite
| using them regularly for years. I understand perfectly well
| that it's completely irrational yet I have not found a way to
| gain control over it.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| >You can't tell me not to fear it.
|
| They didn't. They said don't postpone your treatment and
| suffer irreversible vision loss, due to fear.
| jamincan wrote:
| >To any future HN reader scared by those intraocular
| injections: don't fear them.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| Missed that, thanks.
| joshlemer wrote:
| What happens if a patient accidentally looks left or right
| during the surgery? I would be afraid of
| subconsciously/accidentally looking one way or an other during
| the surgery, but would that not cause a catastrophe?
| randcraw wrote:
| The needle they use is short and does not extend very far
| inside the eyeball. (No, you can't see the needle.) If the
| eye jerks while the needle is inserted, it won't move far.
| Eyeball tissue is thick and strong and the presence of the
| needle will limit the eye's motion to only about 2-3 mm,
| doing no damage. The needle enters the side of the eyeball,
| peripheral to the sensory part of the retina.
|
| An eye flinch is exactly what happened to me when I got my
| latest injection of VEGF-inhibitor to counteract macular
| degeneration due to 20+ years of diabetes. It was no big
| thing, just a little disconcerting.
| iKnowKungFoo wrote:
| I've had multiple eye surgeries. Prep includes putting
| lidocaine jelly over the eye, which will immobilize your eye
| from movement during the procedure.
| aeternum wrote:
| This is also my greatest fear. The lidocaine isn't much
| consolation as it seems like it could easily wear off or
| they don't get the dose right and you move you eye.. the
| stuff of nightmares.
| saruken wrote:
| Thank you for this. That's the primary thing I wanted to
| know from this post too.
|
| Although I will say having my eyes immobilized also sounds
| scary. And I feel like I would constantly be "checking"
| that I still can't move them.
| ignoramous wrote:
| Don't stress-test stuff in prod.
| hodgesrm wrote:
| Same here. I've had surgeries for cataracts and detached
| retina (2 of each). Eye surgery has outstanding outcomes
| and involves virtually no physical discomfort.
|
| I'm profoundly grateful for modern medical technology, as I
| would otherwise likely be blind in both eyes.
| sedatk wrote:
| We call those happy little accidents.
| Taylor_OD wrote:
| Good lord just reading your description made me feel very
| uncomfortable.
| mcguire wrote:
| One of our friends has been having monthly eye injections for
| macular degeneration for a couple years. At this point, I'm
| more freaked out than she is.
|
| Better than the alternative.
| notJim wrote:
| No offense to you, but this attitude is exactly the problem
| here. I _know_ it 's not rational to be very concerned about
| this, but I also know that the entire duration of that
| procedure, I will be thinking "KNIFE. IN. EYE." In the world I
| normally inhabit, knives should not ever be in eyes, so this is
| an incredibly stressful thought, stressful enough that I might
| do something crazy like MOVE WHILE A KNIFE IS IN MY EYE. This
| thought is even more stressful.
|
| The best advice for me personally is probably to breath deeply
| and try to relax.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| I like their attitude, gives me more confidence that they
| know what they are doing since they can explain it.
| xattt wrote:
| Anything can be dissected (pun intended) to the point of
| disgust.
|
| Milk? That's just cow blood that goes through one weird sweat
| gland. Honey? That's bee vomit.
| ignoramous wrote:
| Thanks. I hate you.
| lisper wrote:
| This. I have an extremely strong blink reflex which I cannot
| overcome. The one time they tried to put contact lenses in my
| eye it took them 15 minutes to get them in and another half
| an hour to get them back out. It was one of the most
| stressful experiences I have ever had. It was over 30 years
| ago and it still makes me shudder to think about it. There is
| no way that I can possibly rational-ize my way out of that
| stress and convince myself that injections or surgery would
| not be ten times worse.
| Jxl180 wrote:
| Blink reflex doesn't really matter. If it's anything like
| my Lasik surgery, they insert devices (like Clockwork
| orange) to make it impossible to blink -- who wouldn't have
| the urge to blink when something is approaching their eye?
| It's an involuntary reflex for self preservation. They also
| put a ring in my eye that made it impossible for me to move
| my eye whatsoever regardless of my urge to look away.
| lisper wrote:
| Yeah, I get that. The issue is not that it wouldn't work,
| the issue is that I think it would be more traumatic for
| me then a normal person, and I base that assessment on
| the fact that putting contacts in is more traumatic for
| me than a normal person (like "extremely traumatic" vs
| "something so non-traumatic that they voluntarily do it
| to themselves on a regular basis").
| ses1984 wrote:
| Sometimes they also give you something for anxiety, like
| valium.
| Avshalom wrote:
| To be fair the topical anesthetic is cocaine.
| sdenton4 wrote:
| My fun fun eye surgery was to remove a stye that had hardened
| into a chalazion. This didn't involve any actual needle/scalpel
| work on the eye itself, but did require flipping my eyelid
| inside-out and cutting into the back with a scalpel. The local
| anaesthetic worked great. A side effect of the eyelid-flip (I
| think) was that my eye rolled into a position that wasn't
| seeing anything.
|
| Overall, it was kinda like going to the dentist, but I could
| keep chatting with the doctor through the whole thing. The
| ability to keep communicating was great for keeping things
| chill. (However, one must be careful not to laugh while there's
| a scalpel near one's eye.)
| metabagel wrote:
| I used to experience blepharitis and occasional sties, but of
| all things what cleared everything up was tea tree shampoo
| and face wash with tea tree oil.
|
| https://www.healthline.com/health/eyelash-mites
|
| Keep any tea tree oil product well away from the eyelashes.
| It's not actually necessary to treat it there, and you'll
| regret it if you get any of the product in your eyes.
| sdenton4 wrote:
| Mine was caused by doing stressful grad school things,
| keeping ridiculously bad sleep schedules, and staring at a
| too-bright monitor for dozens of hours per day. These added
| up to rubbing my eyes a lot, which led directly to styes.
|
| After reducing my monitor brightness, the problem went
| away.
| ignoramous wrote:
| Had that one myself. Looks way scarier in the videos:
| https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/phWKZTsy2dg In
| reality, it is a not a big deal at all.
| closetohome wrote:
| Thanks, I'd never really thought about eye surgery before and
| now am deathly afraid of literally every aspect of it.
| axegon_ wrote:
| Thanks for this! Mind you, as much as I understand the
| importance and need of such procedures, that doesn't make me
| any less terrified. I've had all sorts of absurd injuries over
| the years all over my body and I am in no ways frightened or
| disguised of any bodily fluids. That said, I am terrified of
| the idea of such a procedure. Same with dental work - I abhor
| the feeling of anything being done to my teeth. Getting a
| wisdom tooth pulled out was arguably the most terrifying thing
| I've ever experienced. A needle going into my eyeball wouldn't
| feel any less terrifying.
| olegious wrote:
| As someone that had cataract surgery on both eyes in my early
| 30s, I just want to thank your profession for what you do.
|
| The experience was entirely painless, tooth cleaning at the
| dentist is more uncomfortable.
| mahathu wrote:
| I fully believe your professional assertion that eyeball
| injections won't hurt but this is probably the worst thing I
| ever read on HN.
| bigfudge wrote:
| I had one of these and while it was awful to think about, the
| sensation was actually minimal. I wouldn't hesitate in
| future...
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| A couple questions:
|
| How are you using the surgical knife in your intravitreal
| injection procedure?
|
| Any thoughts on how often patients can see the needle? I always
| thought it was out of the visual axis, but some reports in this
| thread mention seeing it !?
| randcraw wrote:
| I've had eye injections three times now and never saw the
| needle. I can't imagine you you could, since the eye can't
| focus on the needle since it's _inside_ the lens which is
| necessary to focus what you see outside the eye onto the
| retina. I don 't see how the fovea could receive a focused
| image of the needle without help from the lens.
| coffeefuel wrote:
| I was born with cataracts and had the natural lenses in my eyes
| removed when I was days old. Fast forward to 2018 and I had
| intraocular lens implants (I believe it's called) under general
| anaesthetic. Went fine for the most part, however I had to go
| to A&E because the pressure in one of my eyes was ~65. The
| cause was blood leaking into the back of one of my eyes (if I
| remember correctly), and they had to use the drops you
| mentioned. At the time I was a bit concerned with what they
| were going to do, but obviously was willing to have whatever
| done to get back to normal.
|
| I'm still impressed by how well those drops worked. And, yeah.
| All I could see was red (blood), and all I felt was just a
| prick of something sharp. Was done within probably 10-15
| minutes.
| 4ad wrote:
| Jesus Christ, you have managed to make it worse than I thought
| it would be (and I expected it to be very bad). This is the
| stuff of nightmares, I would never do this while I was
| conscious. Hell, it would be better if there was pain.
| [deleted]
| wjamesg wrote:
| I had a detached retina a couple years ago and it was super
| scary experience. I am back at 20/20 with some wonderful work
| by my doctors (and some intraocular injections, for sure),
| although I am terrified of it happening again with permanent
| vision loss
| rob74 wrote:
| I personally hope I will never need an eyeball injection. Then
| again, there are people who volunteer to having their eyes not
| only immobilized and then poked and prodded repeatedly, but also
| bombarded with laser beams, to be able to see better:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LASIK#Operative_procedure - I have
| a lot of respect for anyone who is brave enough to go through
| this...
| BasilPH wrote:
| A close relative needed cortisone to manage an eye infection post
| eye surgery. The insurance stopped paying for the cortisone drops
| after a while, the only thing they would pay for were injections.
| The procedure consisted of a large syringe that was used to
| inject a literal pellet that would float around in the eye and
| slowly give off cortisone over multiple weeks. My relative said
| they could sometimes see the pellet float through their eye as it
| intercepted light on its way to the optical nerve. It manifested
| as a circular shadow in their field of vision. They called it
| their "satellite".
|
| The thing that struck me the most, is that a human eye seems to
| be pretty puncture tolerant before it starts to leak. Also, the
| insurance's decision is hard to understand: The injections cost
| $2k compared to a couple hundred for the eye drops. And once the
| pellet is in, you can't get it out to reduce the dosage.
| MadameBanaan wrote:
| I had 3 shots of Avastin to fix a neovascularization in my retina
| [1] around the end of 2010.
|
| I have to say, it's not a very pleasant treatment. I vividly
| remember the image of the needle inside my eyeball and the liquid
| squeezing in (Avastin has a refractive index slightly different
| than the vitreos). But at least now I have a cool icebreaker when
| I get my flu shot every now and then :D
|
| [1] - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17011951/
| el_benhameen wrote:
| Yikes! I had a similar experience with cataract surgery. I was
| conked out for the initial portion, but I regained a state of
| half-consciousness about halfway through. I was drugged up
| enough that I could sit calmly while listening to the surgical
| team and watching them stick stuff in my eye, but it's
| unnerving to remember it.
| fitzroy wrote:
| I had a laser iridotomy a few weeks ago for "narrow angles".
| Other than feeling like you're in a staring contest with Locutus
| of Borg, it was quick and painless.
| wheybags wrote:
| Is there no way they can do this while you're unconscious?
| JacobDotVI wrote:
| Many patients need these injections regularly (every 4-6 weeks
| on some treatment protocols). My understanding is that it's not
| safe to give some general anesthesia that often for as long as
| patients need these treatments (years).
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| It may be possible (I don't know), but anesthesia comes with
| its own risks, and one has to balance that against what seems
| like an otherwise very low risk procedure.
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