09/07/2025
“Life is like a box of chocolates…”
There are many great quotes from TV and film, but this is one of my favourite sayings and for me the saying resonates true. So many times I just never know what I’m going to stumble across, both in and away from work.
I enjoy working Saturdays. The practice has a different “vibe”. The patients are generally a different demographic and generally it’s a day I see the same nice people. It’s funny, but once you’ve had a patient in your care for a length of time they are almost a “work friend”, become part of the “work family”.
So there I was enjoying my Saturday with a member of the “work family” chatting bowls and rugby (of only 1 I know anything about 🏉😃) when I got “gumped”.
There were no particular concerns, maybe his distance vision was a little worse and had a “floater earlier in the year but always had a few so it’s no biggie” and I was set to work “my magic”.
So off I set, chatting and testing, 1s & 2s, reds or greens, you know the patter, you’ve heard it before I know, but the vision wasn’t quite as good to start with, not terrible mind, but I just couldn’t get it quite as good as the last visit.
I looked inside the eye, then at the tremendous eye images we’d taken.. and back inside the eye again and then at more amazing pictures. In the centre was an epiretinal membrane, a fairly common change we find, that can sometimes blur or distort the vision and sometimes just sits there for us as professionals to look at, making that particular eye a little more interesting in an otherwise routine day.
However, lurking out in the corner was this other “little rotter”, sitting there, just waiting to cause a ruckus at some point in the future, when the chap was going to least expect it (probably whilst on holiday miles from me and great care).
The jovial chat suddenly changed a little as after finding a retinal tear I wasn’t expecting, in a patient who had no specific concerns apart from what was to him, a normal change in vision, “but I’m a couple of years older Pete, so that’s to be expected”.
I quickly tried to decide how to switch the conversation from “you’re great, see you in a year or two” with a shake of the hand, to a moment of Dads Army’s ”don’t panic..” and Apollo 13s “Houston.. we have a problem..”.
Thanks to our ultra wide field imaging capturing 80% of the retina in one image and upto 95% in 5 images, there was no question what we were seeing. If a tear is caught early, laser treatment can be performed ensuring “the rotter” can’t get upto mischief which at its worse, a retinal detachment may develop and its visual outcome much more uncertain. With the aid of the advanced imaging, we could diagnose, discuss, explain the next steps and reassure the patient.
With the help of the advanced retinal imaging we had in practice, in less that 0.5 seconds we had captured the retinal tear and in less than 0.5 seconds through the wondrous world of the internet,the referral and images had reached the hospital in Bath near where he lived, and within the blink of an eye my patient was having laser treatment at 2pm on Monday.
I believe in great care and can only provide this with the latest equipment which we invest in. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have symptoms or problems, or if you had the imaging performed last time and it was all fine then. This chap had it performed and all was great then, but we werent expecting the retinal tear this visit.
You never know when you’re going to be “gumped”. This is the reason we encourage all our patients to ask for the best we can offer and to undergo advanced imaging and as part of their eye care, because “you never know what you’re gonna get next”.
Have a great week
Peter 👀🤓👓
