Over 40's thread....

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

Detached retina is one of my major fears concerning my eyes. That would be bloody scary.

We are very lucky living in 2019.

Mine was pretty bad. Once it was diagnosed they had me in the hospital and getting operated on within a day. All on Medicare.

The recovery is more annoying than the operation or the overnight stay in hospital. They don't even knock you out for the operation. You basically need to keep your head in a specific position for 18 hours a day (at least) for about 5 days, and wear a special bracelet that reminds you to avoid changes in atmospheric pressure (no airplanes or trips to the mountains) until the gas bubble in your eye is gone (which takes a few weeks).

Just watch out for a couple of things. One is a sudden appearance or increase in dark floaters in one eye. The other is when straight lines start looking bent - that means that it is affecting your macular and you need to get it seen to pronto.

At least I was better off than the other guys in my room. One was an immigrant who had a detached retina that was years old and beyond fixing. Apparently they had noticed it during a standard medical check at his job. The other was a young teacher who had major ongoing problems with both eyes.

[renaeden]

I would want to be knocked out for the operation!

I had eye surgeries when I was a kid, last one was when I was 5. Six in total, the last 5 trying to fix what the first one got wrong. When I was born both eyes were turned in. The first operation turned them both out too far. Because of that, I lost stereo vision. They kept operating until there was too much scar tissue to do any more. I was told by an ophthalmologist that if I lost my right eye (which is the strongest despite being short-sighted) my vision wouldn't be very good because my left eye was so weak. I wore a patch over my right eye when I was a kid to make my left eye work harder but to no avail. Mum tells me I was always falling over things.

I can't sue the surgeons because they're both dead, heh. And I suppose it could be a lot worse.

Thank you for telling me about those warning signs, I never knew about the bent lines being a symptom. My mum and dad both have good eyes though my mum has the early stages of a cataract. I vow to get hospital cover by the time I'm 60 so I don't have to wait like my mum has to to get surgery.

[odeon]

I've been terrified of that sort of things for years and years - the bent lines, the floaters, etc. At times my OCD was in overdrive and it was all I could think about. And my eyes are crappy. I've got plenty of floaters.

Not sure I should have continued reading this.

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

Once you start seeing bent lines get to an emergency room ASAP. You can check for it by looking at a grid of lines, if you have a problem with your macular (which can be due to fluid leaking behind it due to a detached retina) then you need it seen to pronto.

I've always had a lot of floaters so I never thought much about it when I noticed that I had more than usual one day, but my eyesignt was still fine. When my eyesight started to rapidly deterioriate a few weeks later I didn't make the connection.

I had a cataract when I was 47 years old. I just went to bed one night with the vision being fine, and woke up next morning unable to see out of that eye, I could only see light and dark. I went to an eye surgeon and they didn't believe me that it had happened overnight, as cataracts normally take many years to get that bad.

For the surgery they give you some stuff intravenously that relaxes you. Still isn't much fun.

[Phoenix]

When I first came to I2 (under my first username) which feels like a bazillion years ago, but in reality I've known a lot of you for over a decade, I didn't expect so many of us to remain and this thread is like I2 the middle aged years. Informative for sure, but also hilarious when you think about where we used to be and where we are now.

[renaeden]

When I joined, I was 29. That's a sobering thought!

[DirtDawg]

When I joined, I was still "spry" at a young fifty something (I had muscles back then and more hair) and I did not know that I had two other grown children by women with whom I had had intimate relations.

One woman died many years ago and never informed me of our offspring, due to her "going Christian" and turning her back on our lifestyle of the time. It was another family member of hers (her nephew, the son of a man I had had many battles with over the years due to my relation with his sister. I won.) who figured it all out and came forward to me first. I can not express how that felt at the time. The son of my worst enemy reaching out to me. Fucking new stuff to me.
I actually crippled his father by trying to kill him, since he was trying to kill me. Long involved story. Just read back. It is all there.

The other "new child" was with my EX- wife, who I spent years trying to get back to and breaking up, again and again and finally becoming hostile toward each other. Hence, no notification of the coming child, who came out looking just like me and my brother and my other children and all my uncles. He is obviously my child. I just never had a hand in raising him or the other one I was "protected from knowing."

Relationships between all of us now are as good as can be expected. The two have met, finally. I do not post much about this anymore since it has become very emotional over the years.

My son by my ex-wife has taken to my son by my present (real) wife online and they talk all the time, play some kind of games together and "Go Pokemon" when they can.

It has been a long time, here, for me. Longest I have ever spent at one forum site.
I was well over forty when I first showed up, here. Peaguy saw stuff in me that he wanted to experiment upon, apparently. He invited me to join here. I am now living a Beatles' song,  "When I'm Sixty Four!"  and loving every minute of my life more than I have ever been able to before.

[odeon]

When I first came to I2 (under my first username) which feels like a bazillion years ago, but in reality I've known a lot of you for over a decade, I didn't expect so many of us to remain and this thread is like I2 the middle aged years. Informative for sure, but also hilarious when you think about where we used to be and where we are now.

Wait for a couple more years! 

[Icequeen]

Hard to believe it's been 12 years.

I was 40, mom had just started having health problems and SO left for a 2 year hiatus with the new "flavor of the month".

I've never stuck around anyplace this long. 

[Phoenix]

I was still married at the time and the monkeys were 2 and 8. The oldest had just been dx'd as an aspie and I was 32. Now the monkeys are 14 and almost 21 and the oldest is working at a job he loves and has a girlfriend he loves as well. Life is good.

[rock hound]

Going shopping in the morning, dodging the geriatric motorists and shopping cart aisle cloggers...............then I stop and mildly reproach myself and say to myself..........."I ARE ONE!"     Now, get off my lawn!!!

[Phoenix]

Going shopping in the morning, dodging the geriatric motorists and shopping cart aisle cloggers...............then I stop and mildly reproach myself and say to myself..........."I ARE ONE!"     Now, get off my lawn!!!

[odeon]

I was still married at the time and the monkeys were 2 and 8. The oldest had just been dx'd as an aspie and I was 32. Now the monkeys are 14 and almost 21 and the oldest is working at a job he loves and has a girlfriend he loves as well. Life is good.

My daughter is about to move from home. Time flies.

[Phoenix]

I was still married at the time and the monkeys were 2 and 8. The oldest had just been dx'd as an aspie and I was 32. Now the monkeys are 14 and almost 21 and the oldest is working at a job he loves and has a girlfriend he loves as well. Life is good.

My daughter is about to move from home. Time flies.

Gah!! Seriously!?!? She's still a young teen in my head.

[odeon]

I was still married at the time and the monkeys were 2 and 8. The oldest had just been dx'd as an aspie and I was 32. Now the monkeys are 14 and almost 21 and the oldest is working at a job he loves and has a girlfriend he loves as well. Life is good.

My daughter is about to move from home. Time flies.

Gah!! Seriously!?!? She's still a young teen in my head.

She's still five in mine.