Sad story ...

[Joann Raytar]

Many folks who come to OptiBoard seeking advice about what could be wrong with their vision, what surgery should they get or if wearing their contacts against recommendations will hurt them often get mad at the moderators and members who tell them that we cannot give out medical advice here on OptiBoard. I think those who get angry don't understand what the consequences of not seeing a local eyecare professional or getting a second local opinion and following those individual's directions might be.

Today a woman came in to pick up her sunglass clip-on. She and her family have been coming to our office for at least ten years. We dispensed her clip on and were saying goodbye to her when she broke down in tears. Both her husband and two sons have had detached retinas and for the last three years, her youngest son has undergone surgery after surgery on his right eye. After the last surgery, I believe pneumatic retinopexy, they thought everything was going to be fine. It wasn't. This weekend blood and pus started coming out of the15 year old's eye. He is going to loose his eye and has to have a prosthetic eye made up. He's a -12.00 in the other eye so he will be at a serious disadvantage.

The young man is humourus, charming and has never shown anything other than tremendous will power to get over his health problems and be just like the rest of his friends. His school pulled him out of sports and wouldn't even let him use the stairs with his friends while he has been going through all of his surgery. Now, the school has determined that his new disability will seperate him permanently from many peer activities and must have special books and tests printed out; we can tell he is crushed by this. He doesn't want to be treated any differently. When the young man was asked about how he feels about losing his eye his comment was "look at it this way, if I decide to get contacts it will only cost half as much as everyone else pays." A brave little guy, he can still crack a few jokes but he has a whole different obstacle course to face in the near future. He must have really loved it when I mentioned getting a sport goggle even if he wears a contact to protect his left eye.

Sorry, I am upset about our young friend but I wanted the public to know that there is a reason we keep telling people see their doctors and follow your doctors' instructions. I am sure I am not the only one in this business that has a story that breaks their heart but at least folks should try not to be the patients we have to get upset over.

[For-Life]

I run into this every day. I used to post at another forum, but I grew fed up with the consumers. Not because the forum was mainly consumers, but because they would ask about wearing their contacts too long, or not getting surgery, and then another consumer would tell them that it is okay to over wear your contacts or something like that. Even today I had someone say that they wanted new glasses but did not want an exam, because he felt that his rx has not changed. After finding out that it has been years since his last exam, I told him that there are many other reasons to have an exam, and that we recall patients of ours who we know will not need glasses because it is we need to look at the health of the eye.

I think we should collect stories like yours and any time we have someone who feels discouraged we need to help them understand that we are only trying to help.

[chip anderson]

I sympathize with your story, I have hundreds like this being an ocularist, but fail to see what this case has to do with regular eye exams. Did they go long periods without eye exams, did they have eye exams and this would have happened anyway? I know that retinal detachment has nothing to do with wearing contact lenses reguardless of period of time. It seems to be just a sad story.

This week I had a 6 year old in with a heavily scarred face, one eye missing (which I have to replace) and dead 3 year old brother. I suspect that the seat belts were not used in the head on collision but don't intend to ask the bereaved parents.

Chip

[Joann Raytar]

Chip,

It has more to do with going straight to a doctor when you think something is wrong with your eyes. I mention contact wearers and everyone else because folks don't seem to understand that serious diseases and eye injuries do happen and shouldn't be ignored. Don't go online and ask folks at all the websites what to do, go to your doctor if you have any doubt wether something is normal.

We have another patient, an older male, who is now wearing a prosthetic eye because of cancer. It was caught during an eye exam. No, the gentleman did not have annual exams; he would always wait until he felt the strength of his prescription needed changing.

We have a middle age woman, a single mother of two, who kept getting what looked like black eyes and she ignored it because she thought it was just sinusitis. She was just diagnosed with a tumor.

Another young child is wearing lenticulars because he is aphakic due to cataracts.

I had an older woman break down in tears at the dispensing table because she would be able to see what the purse she bought for her little granddaughter's birthday looked like and could read a large print magazine which she couldn't do before because of macular degeneration. She still can't see signs and objects that don't have high contrast - even the red on black exit sign in our store was still blurry.

[Cowboy]

It is unfortunate for the young lad, and do hope that he continues his strength to put up the good fight for the duration of his agony. I think what is most unfortunate, is people, regardless of advice and even education will continue to make the mistake of not visiting the doctor for advice. Any small aillment can be the start of a large one. However, I contribute the lack of doctor visits to the security of insurance. Unless it will be paid, they won't go. For example, just as I was writing this, a young lady came in with her daughter and wanted to know if I accepted their insurance. It wasn't until I called their insurance company directly did i find that did not have any coverage for routine or materials. i offered a discount for stopping in and could have glasses made in a half hour, they walked. The little girl has a -6.00 ou and no glasses. At what point do we put aside the security blanket and come into reality of necessity?! Could you imagine what the medical industry would be like without insurance, there would still be loyalties, lower costs (although inflation does take its toll!), and less objection to visits. Just my thought and my good will to the young man and others who have had to endure the sad situations.

Cowboy

[jediron]

Jo said:
After the last surgery, I believe pneumatic retinopexy, they thought everything was going to be fine. It wasn't. This weekend blood and pus started coming out of the15 year old's eye. He is going to loose his eye and has to have a prosthetic eye made up. He's a -12.00 in the other eye so he will be at a serious disadvantage.

I m not trying to take anything away from this story and it's grave
consequences, but what were the instructions from the Doctor and his medical staff? The boy should have been told, 1. that for at least a week he should not bend over and pick up anything 2. he should not pick up anything over ten pounds and in his case
not more than three pounds. 3. All activities that include any amount of bumping or jostling around has to be curtailed. 4. Since his family has had a history of detached retinas this should have been stressed to the highest degree. After this type of surgery the head has to remain fairly stationary, there are few a movements that are allowed but every precaution must be taken.

:(

[Darryl Meister]

In my first year as a dispenser, I took care of a little girl (probably around 7) who had recently lost one eye after falling into her brother who had a pencil in his hand. (I don't recall whether she had a prosthetic or not, but I do remember that the consequences of the damage were quite severe and quite obvious.) She was actually looking forward to getting glasses because, as she put it, "The other kids won't be able to recognize me and make fun of me anymore."

She was a sweet little girl, but she obviously came from a disadvantaged family, and I got the impression that she never really fit in at school in the first place. And now she had to deal with a veritable "deformity" on top of everything else. She saw her new eyewear as a potential disguise that would somehow render her invisible to the other children. It was very saddening.

Best regards,
Darryl

[Joann Raytar]

jediron said:

I m not trying to take anything away from this story and it's grave
consequences, but what were the instructions from the Doctor and his medical staff?

I guess that demonstrates the value of second opinions. The mother begged to have a buckle on the other eye; it took two months and a second doctor before that was done. Unfortunately, I think part of the long delay between everything had to do with how busy the first doctors office was. Too far between being able to get in to have things done initially. I think the kid may have also been a bit too quite about his eye this past weekend out of fear of having to go in to the doctor as well. He seemed to be getting more frustrated about all of the doctors visits as things went on. Every time he went in he was given promising information only to have to go through another procedure.

[jediron]

Jo said:
I guess that demonstrates the value of second opinions. The mother begged to have a buckle on the other eye; it took two months and a second doctor before that was done. Unfortunately, I think part of the long delay between everything had to do with how busy the first doctors office was. Too far between being able to get in to have things done initially. I think the kid may have also been a bit too quite about his eye this past weekend out of fear of having to go in to the doctor as well. He seemed to be getting more frustrated about all of the doctors visits as things went on. Every time he went in he was given promising information only to have to go through another procedure.


Jo I m sure your aware, this procedure and many office visits are part of the procedure. the Doctor has too keep a watch on the eye so complications don't set in. But again I go back to my other
point, what was he told about the risks and how to handle the procedure after the surgery was done? What is done after the surgery is sometimes more important than anything else. This is
not a surgery to be taken lightly and I m not saying he or his famlily did. But you must take all the precautions seriously and
that includes what is done after surgery when your home. He should have been advised about certain precautions to take. I hope he see's a good prosthetic guy. There is one if you need his name e-mail me and I will give it to you. He is from around western N.Y. and has a huge reputation for doing great work.
. Good luck:bbg:

[Joann Raytar]

It sounded like he was told more of the pros than cons; also, none of the other family members ran into as many complications. As far as how well he followed post operative direction, that I don't know. I also believe his mom didn't want to believe something could go this wrong.

He has been referred to someone in New York City for the prosthetic; I don't know who.