My Retina Detached And This Is What It Looked Like "Through My Eyes"

A vitrectomy is a surgical operation where the vitreous humor gel that fills the eye is extracted before retinal surgery and then re-introduced into the eye. Retinal detachment occurs in 1 in 10,000 people and one of the reasons is a very stretched-out retina.

My retinal detachment journey was a long one and this collection of artwork depicts (to the best of my abilities) what I saw “through my eye”. Nobody’s eyes will heal the same way, but this was my experience.

I created this collection to spread awareness about retinal detachment as well as the surgeries that follow, and what people go through from pre-op through recovery and after, each finding their “new normal.”

I want to tell you what happened: I was working on a craft project and while tearing a piece of cardboard, it hit me directly in my right eye. At first, there was no pain, just shock at what had just happened. A few minutes later, however, I started to see flashes of light, and dark shadowy areas in my vision were settling in. I went straight to the ER and they didn’t see any retinal tears so they sent me home with eyedrops and told me to see an eye doctor within 3-5 days. I saw an eye doctor a few days later, and he sent me home with some more drops.

A few days later, the vision was not improving and it was just getting worse. I went to a retinal specialist, the best in the city, and he confirmed what I had feared the most. I had multiple tears in my retina as well as a detachment. I was scheduled for emergency surgery and was told to not move my head at all (as much as humanly possible) as it could make the detachment worse. I went home in tears, terrified of what was coming. I sat in bed for the next day watching Netflix and praying I would be ok.

Operation Day: October 29, 2021The last thing I remember in pre-op was the nurse telling me they were giving me something to sedate me before they administered the anesthesia. The next thing I knew, I woke up in the recovery room, with the nurses around me smiling and saying it was finally over. The doctor reattached the retina and used the laser to close up the retinal tears.

After a few hours of seeing flashes of light in the affected eye, I was left with a shadowy-silver curtain covering the top left part of my vision, with a rainbow ring around it. Also, black dots floating all over my vision.

After waking up from the anesthesia, my vision was almost completely impaired by a gas bubble that was inserted into my eye to keep the retina in place.

Phase 2 of the gas bubble, a week later, the bubble was going down, but introduced black dots floating around my vision.

Phase 3 of the gas bubble, a few days later, decreased bubble and it broke into smaller bubbles floating around.

Phase 4 of the gas bubble, a few days later, a smaller bubble formed in the shape of a heart with a little tail behind it. It floated around in my eye for another few days.

The gas bubble was gone, but left me with 4 black circles of varying sizes, with rainbow rings around them, and my vision was clouded. Since the doctor had told me that my cataract would worsen because of the surgery, I thought it must be the cataract, but it was not. Just part of the healing process.

A few months later my vision was still hazy but the bubbles had broken up into small black dots floating around my vision.

Extra light sensitive, my eye will retain “sunspots” or sun reflections from passing cars or reflective surfaces. The reflective light will remain in my vision for a few minutes before disappearing completely. Some days it takes longer to disappear than others.

Sometimes when looking sideways quickly, I’ll see a black border at the bottom right of my vision.

Everyone meet Dot. A small circular floater that has taken permanent residence in my vision, so I named it. It moves with the motion of my eye and it doesn’t really bother me all the time, but sometimes it’s more noticeable than other times.