I visited my optician last week for the first time since my ruptured aneurysm…um…that was in 2006! Not good.

So, understandably, I was nervous about my eyes. I knew my eyesight has been on the decline as I’ve had to start holding small text away from me to see it and starting to squint to see things far away. Ah, the joys of getting older!

The good news is that my eyes looked healthy and no significant issues that can’t be resolved by getting a stronger prescription. The Dr. was alarmed to hear about the aneurysm and pleased that I was doing so well. He showed me the photos/xrays of my eyes that he took and pointed out that on my right eye there appeared to be what I believe he called a watermark on my eyeball. He indicated it was caused by the pressure on my eyes from the ruptured aneurysm! Kind of like when the ocean pushes sand and debris onto the shore but when the wave goes back out to see it leaves an edge of “stuff” on the shore, That “stuff” was on my eyeball…or at least an impression of the “stuff” remained.

#1, I found it quite interesting and it kind of made sense and #2, I was surprised he said it was my right eye and had to ask him to confirm it was my right eye. He said it was and that the opposite of the brain issue was where that would occur. My aneurysm is behind the left eye. The watermark doesn’t cause any issues and wasn’t a problem, he was just pointing it out on the photo, which was interesting.

The bad news is that I need bifocals or progressive lenses. I am NOT looking forward to that adjustment. I’ve had glasses since the 4th grade and know that any major prescription change can take some time to get used to and can cause headaches and often times an upset stomach. I was debating whether to get them before our trip to the UK in May or after, but I supposed I’d rather SEE what I’m looking at than have to guess what it is….so……I’m off to make my appointment for old-lady glasses….errr…..progressives.