BRVT......cont.

[Marty]

Those of you who don't really have a life and read everything on this website every day may recall that last January I had a branch retinal vein thrombosis in my right eye .Yes, I had a thrombosis when my INR was near 3.5. The retinologist says he has seen it before. The thrombosis in my case was probably caused by an arteriosclerotic artery occluding a vein at a "crossing point". I don't have the usual risk factors of hypertension, diabetes, or high cholesterol. But he said 50% of his patients don't have these risk factors. He recently saw a 52 year old fit jogger who had a central vein thrombosis which causes complete blindness.Today I could barely see the big E which means I am at 20/400...not good. Still have a lot of blood in the eye and edema of the macula.The warfarin apparently doesn't protect from the thrombosis but once the vein bursts the warfarin keeps it bleeding. So Doc said we have to do something that may help or may not. He shot a steroid, Kenalog, directly in my eye! Hopefully this will reduce inflammation around the macula and maybe next month he can try laser. He did this procedure without taking me off warfarin and the white of the eye is just a little blood shot at the puncture site.

 

[Nan]

Marty, I really hope that the injection of Kenalog will help. It sounds like he is working with you and really trying to find a way to make the eye better! And without the risk of taking you of Warfarin.

It must be very frustrating for you to have this going on.

Wishing you good luck.

 

[bvdr]

Gosh, Marty, I'm sorry you don't have this behind you yet. Hopefully, the kenalog will do the trick. Did he just anesthetize the eye topically before he injected it? It makes me feel a little squeemish. How is your vision in the other eye?

 

[Guest]

Marty, best of luck. Too bad that it hasn't cleared.

Kinda makes you wonder who was the first participant in the clinical trial for this doesn't it? "Don't flinch, I just gonna stick this needle in your eye. It might help."

Makes freezing the prostate seem like nothing doesn't it?

 

[Nancy]

Marty-

Joe's favorite expression for when he doesn't want to do something is, "I'd rather stick a needle in my eye", so I guess he thinks that a bit of a bad thing. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but I really hope that it helps with the condition.

And I am also glad to hear that there are a couple of procedures which might help you.

You'll be in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[Marty]

There is an old Hoosier expression -after something bad happens to you, you say, "Well its better than a sharp stick in the eye!" He numbed the eye with some drops. I still felt sort of a sickening pain but it was fleeting. As to the other eye- it still corrects down to 20/15. I can drive and yes ,still read Xrays including mammograms. I do go a little slower than I used to, so I may be better today than before the thrombosis. No lawsuits anyhow.

 

[Nancy]

One of my cousins was an Ob/Gyn and lost one of his eyes to cancer. After recovering from the surgery, he went back to work, not sure if he did any surgery, but he did continue with office visits, and drove as well.

 

[Guest]

Marty, You could probably read 'em better with your bad eye than some of the others with 2 good eyes.

Remember the Latin, "Illegitimi non carborundum"?

 

[Marty]

Thanks,Al, Nancy, Betty, Nan, et. al. I havn't been ground down yet. I learn a lot at this website and just trying to pass a little knowledge on. Frankly, I never heard of BRVT until I got it. When I was told I had a thrombosis I thought, how can that be? I'm on Coumadin INR3.5.