Greetings to all and sundry,
Welcome to the month of love, i am hopeful that this month will bring us lots of joy and glad tidings, even as we celebrate the month of love let's remember to do everything in moderation, and always prioritize your health above all else because without it you do not have life and your hard work would be for nothing.
So I am back to your blogs once again and knowing me and i here to talk about your eyes once again. Your ocular health is important to me because on the daily i see how things could easily go wrong from our petty mistakes and overlooking of things when it comes to the eye and so i seek to address issues so we do not fall within that category.
And so today we would be looking at a condition which comes with one of the poorest prognosis , how it usually comes about and what we could do as individuals for ourselves and for our loved ones in avoiding this situation is possible.
Introduction
The eye is such a delicate organ, fragile even and things that happen to it normally do so quite fast and within a short time period and so most acute situations or conditions of the eye could be deadly or potentially blinding which is why we should not joke with any discomfort or pain of the eye under any circumstance.
Much like any part of our body or system, it has a natural coping mechanism that seeks to resolves issues on its own after a while however the end is what causes problems sometimes. Most often when somethings happen to our eyes and we do not feel a drastic impact at the go we tend to ease up and let it go until it begins to hunt us later by which time it may be too late.
It's like being in an accident and overlooking the need to have a general examination down to ensure that you are actually in good health and that your body is not deceiving you just because you did not bleed like others did or you experienced only a mild headache or concussion. You may have internal bleeding going on and by the time you realize you may be fighting to hold on to life.
Retinal scars are one of the conditions of the eye which could literally creep up on your if you decide to take things for granted. It is also one of the conditions which commonly comes up with patients who seek to do their own treatment for the eye only to come in later when they feel it didn't work. Do not wait till is too late, have an eye examination right away if you feel something has gone wrong somewhere.
Retinal Scars
Much like how scars are formed in any part of the body, it comes about when healing is not properly done or the damage is too extensive for a complete healing to occur even after the right treatment is administered. The only difference here is that whiles scar on your skin may eventually erode or heal completely with time as new layers of the skin come up, the eye may not get this opportunity.
When scars form on and within the eye it tends to be permanent because when it comes to the eye, scars means death of cells and death of cells means irreversible vision loss. And with the retinal which is actually one of the most active tissues within the entire body, death of cells could be quite the bad thing as these cells could sometimes trigger the automated death of nearby cells resulting in a cascade.
Now these scars are mostly associated with inflammatory conditions that occur within the eye and the majority of tend to have some trauma related incident that was taken for granted by patients sometime back in their lives. And now that they cannot see they finally come in for check up. Quite unfortunate, and when they get to know that that little overlook could have caused them their poor vision they feel terrible.
Do not let this happen to you, if you experience any form of trauma to the eye, whether the impact was severe or mild kindly report to the Optometrist for thorough examination. Again, most inflammatory conditions which result in retinal scar tissue formation tend to affect vision before it tries to get better and later forms scars from poor healing. They are also mostly painful during the active stages.
The pain however could be mild or severe, for those that are quite discomforting enough to bring the patient in, they tend to get the needed help, but if it is not so painful or your tolerance for pain is quite high and you overlook it thus when things go wrong. Always see the Optometrist if you have any blurred vision which previously wasn't there or that is not as a result of you losing your glasses. You could be experiencing uveitis, retinitis, toxoplasmosis or other intraocular conditions which has the potential of leaving scars.
If you happen to keep pets at home like dogs or cats beware of the toxoplasma gondii parasite whiles it is not so likely to get directly infected it does happen sometimes especially if you keep a cat because they form part of the food chain or life cycle of the parasite, especially if they go outdoors a lot. Be particular with their fecal matter as they tend to pass them out through this means. They could cause toxoplasmosis which inevitability results in scars in the eye if not caught early enough and treated.
As i already mentioned, the prognosis for the condition is quite bad and yet in most instances could have easily been avoided. The key or solution is to not hesitate or assume when it comes to the eye, do not try to be your own eye care provider, leave the care to the professional and follow advice and guidelines and you would likely get to enjoy your sight to the fullest at all times throughout your entire lifespan.
Conclusion
When it comes to sight i am reminded of Passenger's song let her go, maybe because it is the month of love? But you only know you how precious your sight is when you loss it or even a part of it or how good it was before something went wrong somewhere. Do not let the avoidable happen to you, take charge of your ocular health.
When in doubt consult a professional, do not assume, always ask, have regular checkups, avoid over the counter medication without proper consult and diagnosis as the end result could be potentially devastating and remember to share this article with your colleagues that they may also learn something from it. As always, it is a pleasure serving you and i am grateful for your time and for reading.
Further Reading
Butler, N. J., Furtado, J. M., Winthrop, K. L., & Smith, J. R. (2013). Ocular toxoplasmosis II: clinical features, pathology and management. Clinical & experimental ophthalmology, 41(1), 95–108. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9071.2012.02838.x.
Hamichi, S. E., & Oubaaz, A. (2016). Macular scar secondary to congenital toxoplasmosis. The Pan African medical journal, 24, 325. https://doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2016.24.325.8981.
Spaide, R. F., & Byun, S. S. (2022). RECURRENT ACUTE RETINAL NECROSIS. Retinal cases & brief reports, 16(6), 667–669. https://doi.org/10.1097/ICB.0000000000001107.
Gupta, M. P., Herzlich, A. A., Sauer, T., & Chan, C. C. (2016). Retinal Anatomy and Pathology. Developments in ophthalmology, 55, 7–17. https://doi.org/10.1159/000431128
Great post about the importance of taking care of our eyes and the dangers of retinal scars. Your emphasis on the need to prioritize our ocular health and seek professional help immediately when experiencing any discomfort or pain is very well noted. The information on the causes of retinal scars and the measures we can take to avoid them is also very helpful. Keep up the good work! @nattybongo
Thanks, senior, it is a pleasure seeing you around, i would continue to give my best always
This is totally new for me, always with your posts I learn new things, I like this.
I never thought this could happen before. I do know that there is even a clinical situation such as retinal detachment, but healing had never been considered, and it is logical, everything in our body has that capacity to restructure itself.
I have a question. In the case of diabetic patients, the healing of any wound is particularly slower than in people without diabetes. In this case, is the healing process of the retina also affected if it presents any lesion?
Retinal detachment is actually considered and ocular emergency which requires surgery to be done within 24 hours if not permanent vision loss results, the eye cannot heal itself from retinal detachment even if surgery is performed later after the safe period elapses.
And to answer your question, yes please, diabetics also tend to suffer from slow healing when it comes to the eye too, even before complications set in that results in scar formation they tend to suffer from a myriad of ocular issues secondary to their underlying glaucoma condition including, diabetic cataracts formation, diabetic retinopathy, dot and blot hemorrhages, death of optic nerve cells, etc. Diabetes is just a very bad disease...
Like you've just indicated, the eye indeed is a very fragile organ and to me, I believe it's the most abused sense organ nowadays and it's quite unfortunate that only a few spare some part of their time to do eye check up. I think it's high time we pay serious attention to the eye's health. With the Retinal scars you've just discussed, I could remember my step mom was diagnosed with it or something similar and it was due to the fact that, an un qualified person performed an operation on the eye.
That's quite sad and unfortunate, quacks out there are causing many individuals to loss their sight, i remember in the pas hears i read a BBC article about a quack in Nigeria who used to cause lenses to subluxate and claim he is doing cataract surgeries for people in a very terrible environment making them prone to infections that would even cause loss of vision before the bad procedure sets in. I pray we all stay safe from such individuals
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Thanks for this great article, sir, I have been experiencing some defects in my eyes I think I have to follow your advice and visit the clinic for checkup before things become critical.
Please do and you can always chat me up for further clarifications
Okay sir, noted