Yesterday while I was riding I became aware of a “spider web” effect crawling across my vision. After a couple of minutes I closed my left eye and the effect disappeared, so it was clearly something wrong in my left eye. Once I got home and got busy doing stuff, I sorta forgot about it but then, at coffee last night, it reappeared. Only this time it wasn’t the black squiggly lines creeping across my vision but flashes of light like lightning coming down from the top of my eye.
Understandably I was more than just a little concerned so I made an appointment with my optometrist (who I see every year, religiously, for a check-up). Fortunately they were able to fit me in and a the young lady ran me through a heap of tests, most of which were uncomfortable and a little painful (a bit like having a truck with a light bar on the front coming down the road towards you on high beam on a dark night!)
It seems that I am suffering from Posterior Vitreous Detachment which actually sounds a lot scarier than it really is. As one ages, and the young lady assured me that the condition IS a function of increasing age, the vitreous, jelly-like substance in the eye begins to get watery and it sometimes lifts a tiny little bit off the retina to which it is normally attached. This is what causes the strange things that float across one’s vision. Incidentally, if you are having “floaties” they are also a symptom of the same condition.
While it sounds scary it is normal and there is nothing that a person can do to make it any better. Usually, after 6-8 weeks it heals itself so I have another appointment late in October just to check on my progress.
I don;t mind telling you, it was a bit daunting but it proves that one should seek medical advice when something happens that you don’t understand.
Now, there is a RIDICULOUS story floating around on social media tonight that Valentino Rossi will announce his retirement at Misano this weekend, his proposed place in the Petronas Team for 2021 being taken by the about to be out of work Andrea Dovizioso. Make of it what you will, but I reckon the usually rabid Italian Press are totally behind this one 🙂
