A bit of background.

As a long term T-1 diabetic I have to have my eyes dilated and my retinas scanned once a  year.  I had it done in Sept 2019.  The Doc said my eyes were extremely healthy and that if I had not told him he would not know by the condition of my retinas that I had been diabetic for nearly 39 years.

About 12 weeks ago I noticed a cloud of floaters in my Rt eye when I got out of bed one AM.  It dissipated over the next 12 hours or so.  Most people get an occasional floater circulating around in an eye upon occasion.  The usually absorb in a few days.  4 weeks ago I had the same thing happen. A cloud of floaters in my Rt eye when I woke up in the AM that dissipated over about 12 hours.

A week ago I woke up to another cloud of floaters in my Rt eye.  I was not alarmed though I made a note to call for an appointment with my Ophthalmologist. A couple of hours after I woke up with the floater cloud I noticed a slice of pie shaped wedge of dark red creeping up from the bottom of my field of vision.  It was obviously blood inside of my eye.  My vision in that eye was horrible with the combination of the cloud of floaters and the blood.  I could not drive safely so I called my DW and asked her to give insurance a call for an in network ER and Ophthalmologist.  We changed insurance in Jan of this year.

She picked me up and drove me to the ER that is taking all non Covid emergencies in our city.   

Over the next hour and a half or so I had waves of blood flowing into my eye.  There was no longer any mystery about what the clouds of floaters were.  My eye had been bleeding periodically for a few months.  It had just not happened while I was awake to see the blood before it coagulated and broke up into the floater clouds.  

The ER was great. I was in and registered in less than 15 mins, through triage and vitals in another 5mins and face to face with the ER doc in another 10mins.  There was no pain or discomfort other than the strain on trying to see clearly.  The ER Doc did an ultrasound on my Rt eye, an interesting experience. I have had several ultrasounds but never one on an eye.  He Dx'd either a ruptured blood vessel or a partially detached retina.  The ER made an appointment for me at the local Ophthalmalgic Surgeons practice for 2.5 hours later.  I was out of the ER within an hour of arriving.  

Meanwhile 2.5 hours late and at the Retinologists office they dilated my eyes and prepped me for another round of retina scans.

The Tech who did the prep, my glaucoma test, etc... was a young Vietnamese woman. She was very competent but we had a lot of fun trying to communicate when she asked me what I was there for.  She could not understand my description of clouds of eye floaters and waves of blood inside my eye.  After about 10mins of completely missing what each other was saying I asked her for a pen and a tablet of paper. I wrote out my symptoms, she freaked about the blood, I calmed her down and told her that it was slowing down . We both ended up laughing over the communication problems and she and I bantered while the meds to dilate my my eye did their thing.  

Eventually the Doc came in and ran my eyes through the ringer.   No detached retina.  That was great news.  I have a vitreous hemorrhage in my Rt eye.  A small spot on my retina has been hemorrhaging periodically over the past 3 or so months.  I have an appointment on the 8th for a LASER procedure to seal the blood vessel that is hemorrhaging.  The Doc wanted to wait 2weeks for the floaters to clear  up and for my eye to heal from the recent hemorrhage.  Unlike the previous 2 incidents the cloud is taking a long time to dissipate.  The volume of blood from a week ago created several notably larger clouds of floaters that are dissipating but are taking their sweet time.

The good news is that the Doc saw no evidence of diabetic eye disease (retinopathy) in either eye and said if I had not told him I was a nearly 40 year T-1 diabetic he would not know it by my retinas.  The hemorrhaging could be diabetes related but he indicated that it happens to non diabetics as well and based on his scan he was not ready to call it either way.

I have had a few eye issues over the years but never in my Rt eye.  I have persistent corneal erosion in my L eye and had to a LASER procedure to fix that in 2011.  I had a micro clot in my L retina in 1998 which damaged a tiny part of my retina.  Though it is healed and I recovered 98% of the vision in the damaged section of that retina I have a tiny puzzle piece missing out of the field of vision in my L eye.  In 2012 I was Dx's with a thinning retina in my L eye and had to have an injection in that eye with a med that thickens the retina.  None of that was visible in my exam a week ago Friday.

Waves of blood forming amorphous tentacles inside an eye is not something I wish on anyone even if it is not in the least painful.  

Wish me luck on the 8th.

I hope that my success in avoiding diabetic eye disease continues.

Thanks for letting be get this out here.  I freaked my DW out last Friday and she has enough on her mind with the extended tax season. She will of course drive me to my procedure next week but I am trying not to freak her out any more than necessary.