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A medical warning-
Recently, when driving, I would notice that as telephone poles passed me on the right side, they would wiggle, twist, and bend in my peripheral vision. The would be straight if I looked directly at them, but usually there were distortions to the side. So I went to the eye doctor.
Initially, they thought that the distortions were caused by the natural aging process. I'm 32, and at that age the vitrious fluid in the eye is transforming from a gel to a liquid. They thought this transformation barrier was causing the distortions. However, they noticed some white lesions on my retina, so they did a florescent angiogram. Basically, they put an IV in your arm, and pump in a vegetable based dye that is used to take a picture of the inside of your eye, mapping the blood vessels. That's when the discovered the damage. I have a large blind spot in my right eye, just to the right of center. This is caused by a bug in the soil and water of the Mid-West and Ohio Valley. It's called histoplasmosis. There is nothing you can do to detect this, nor is there a cure. Some 80% of the people in this geographic region have been exposed.
The virus starts out as a cold, but can migrate to other parts of the body. In the eye, it causes blood vessels to grow abnormally, and this destroys the retina.
I was lucky in that my damage is not on the macula, the center of the retina. Had it been there, I would be completely blind in my right eye now. As it is, the damage is not repairable. It can be stopped from spreading by laser coagulation, but never repaired. I have to daily look at a grid, a white center square, black background, and white lines. I see distortions where the lines could be straight. Again, this can never be fixed, and could get worse. There is no prevention.
Why all this on a biker forum? I'd hate to see anyone lose their vision and not be able to enjoy this sport. This creeps up on you without you even noticing. I've always had perfect vision, better than 20/20. Now that I know the damage is there, I see it all the time. Really irritates me. My blind spot is bad enough that if I look down and to the left when driving at night, and close my left eye, I cannot even seen oncoming headlights until they are just about to pass me. Just FYI.
Scary.
Recently, when driving, I would notice that as telephone poles passed me on the right side, they would wiggle, twist, and bend in my peripheral vision. The would be straight if I looked directly at them, but usually there were distortions to the side. So I went to the eye doctor.
Initially, they thought that the distortions were caused by the natural aging process. I'm 32, and at that age the vitrious fluid in the eye is transforming from a gel to a liquid. They thought this transformation barrier was causing the distortions. However, they noticed some white lesions on my retina, so they did a florescent angiogram. Basically, they put an IV in your arm, and pump in a vegetable based dye that is used to take a picture of the inside of your eye, mapping the blood vessels. That's when the discovered the damage. I have a large blind spot in my right eye, just to the right of center. This is caused by a bug in the soil and water of the Mid-West and Ohio Valley. It's called histoplasmosis. There is nothing you can do to detect this, nor is there a cure. Some 80% of the people in this geographic region have been exposed.
The virus starts out as a cold, but can migrate to other parts of the body. In the eye, it causes blood vessels to grow abnormally, and this destroys the retina.
I was lucky in that my damage is not on the macula, the center of the retina. Had it been there, I would be completely blind in my right eye now. As it is, the damage is not repairable. It can be stopped from spreading by laser coagulation, but never repaired. I have to daily look at a grid, a white center square, black background, and white lines. I see distortions where the lines could be straight. Again, this can never be fixed, and could get worse. There is no prevention.
Why all this on a biker forum? I'd hate to see anyone lose their vision and not be able to enjoy this sport. This creeps up on you without you even noticing. I've always had perfect vision, better than 20/20. Now that I know the damage is there, I see it all the time. Really irritates me. My blind spot is bad enough that if I look down and to the left when driving at night, and close my left eye, I cannot even seen oncoming headlights until they are just about to pass me. Just FYI.
Scary.