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Preserving Your Sight - Part II Patients frequently ask, "Doesn't laser treatment cause scars, and don't the scars destroy my vision?" The purpose of the laser treatment is to prevent loss of vision, just like the purpose of the fireman's water is to put out the fire. The laser accomplishes this purpose by destroying unhealthy tissue and making a small scar. The fireman's water makes everything wet, but in so doing puts out the fire. Certainly, you wouldn't worry about your carpeting getting wet if your house was on fire. Okay then, what can you do as a patient? First of all, pay attention to your vision. Close one eye, then the other, and look around. Do things appear the same with each eye? Look at a piece of graph paper or a crossword puzzle with your reading glasses and with each eye separately. When you look at a spot in the center of the paper, do you see all the lines? Do they appear straight or are they wavy? If you see something wrong, go to a competent eye doctor and have your eyes examined! Don't sit at home waiting for the problem to improve on its own. It probably won't and in the meantime you might loose any chance for successful treatment. Even if everything looks normal, you should still have a thorough eye examination every year. There are many eye problems that can lead to loss of vision that can be detected and treated before you experience any symptoms. If the "horse is already out of the barn" and the vision has already been affected, there is still hope. Special surgical techniques have been developed to remove scar tissue and blood from inside the eye and restore vision. Various reading devices, magnifiers and telescopes can aid people with reduced vision to read, watch television and function independently. As the former Chief of Retinal Surgery at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, and a faculty member of Harvard Medical School, I have examined patients from all over the world. The saddest part of my job was, and still is, telling patients that we don't have any treatment to help them, when in my heart I know that they could have been helped if they had been examined sooner. Visual loss can be prevented and in some cases sight restored with the new techniques available today, but this goal is only obtainable with early detection. Please value your eyesight and pay attention to it, because you never appreciate something until it's gone. For more information please call our office or click here to send us an e-mail.
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