Day 35: Bell's Palsy?

... what's that? THAT, my friend, almost seems like the least of my worries right now. So I'm at work today still thinking about the "non-seeing eye" and I'm wondering to myself what is really going on. LOL OK well let me talk about the Bell's first. I talked to my daddy tonight who is encouraging me to be aggressive about my recovery. And it's so odd because I really don't think about the Bell's at all during the day, until I bite my jaw while trying to talk, *snicker*.

But what DID bother me today was the eye issues. Can you imagine trying to see out of the 'good eye' while trying to see out of the 'bells eye'? So I starting talking to my coworkers, we're good for self diagnosis, about it today and one guy says, "you know it could be a partial detached retina!" I'm like a who what? I immediately called the doctor because that didn't even sound good. The receptionist said, based on what I've described [That I have this dark shadow in my left eye and I can't really read], it does sound like detached retina but we want to rule that out so let's get you on in here. Luckily someone cancels and I was able to get in there today. BOOYAW!

So I get to the doctor, they dilate my eye, again, take a couple pictures, blind me, again, lol... the the doctor says, as she looked into things that, it looks like "central serous" which is commonly associated with recent use of prednazone (steroids that I used for bells palsy) which causes fluid between the layers. She actually said, it's more common in men than it is in woman. She can see some leakage during this session but would have to get me in to see a retinal specialist. So I'll go there on Friday. She gave a warning that the appointment will take 3 hours or so which includes dye in my eye, an IV, lol. I only did a little research on it but I'm interested in "seeing" this process which will determine EXACTLY what's going. My vision has definitely worsened since I was here a few weeks ago. So one of the things I was given to track my progress at home was an Amsler Grid. The grid, literally, allowed me to determine where the blur was because I wouldn't be able to see the lines. So I can use that to see how things are looking tonight and tomorrow, etc.

Anyhoo, good night folks!
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And for those of you that wont click the wiki link up there to read about it (there a lots of big words, lol):
Central serous retinopathy (CSR), also known as central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC), is a visual impairment, often temporary, usually in one eye, mostly affecting males in the age group 20 to 50 but which may also affect women.[1][2] When the disorder is active it is characterized by leakage of fluid under the retina that has a propensity to accumulate under the central macula. This results in blurred or distorted vision (metamorphopsia). A blurred or gray spot in the central visual field is common when the retina is detached. Reduced visual acuity may persist after the fluid has disappeared.

The diagnosis usually starts with a dilated examination of the retina, followed with confirmation by optical coherence tomography and fluorescein angiography. The angiography test will usually show one or more fluorescent spots with fluid leakage. In 10%-15% of the cases these will appear in a "classic" smoke stack shape. An Amsler grid could be useful in documenting the precise area of the visual field involved.

CSR is a fluid detachment of macula layers from their supporting tissue. This allows choroidal fluid to leak into the subretinal space. The build-up of fluid seems to occur because of small breaks in the retinal pigment epithelium.

CSR is sometimes called idiopathic CSR which means that its cause is unknown. Nevertheless, stress appears to play an important role. An oft-cited but potentially inaccurate conclusion is that persons in stressful occupations, such as airplane pilots, have a higher incidence of CSR.