Macular Dystrophy
I’ve been having trouble focussing my eyes for the past week. Turns out I have some kind of macular dystrophy. My right eye has a blurred and displaced area (about the size of my thumbnail at a range of 30cm) which makes bits of text bend and blur when I try to look directly at them. My left eye is fine but seems unwilling to help my right eye out - presumably after years of laziness.
Apparently I’m too young for it to be conventional macular degeneration. I think that’s supposed to be a consolation of some sort. It’s all a bit freaky given that I spend about 80% of my waking time staring at a screen. Can’t do that right now for more than about half an hour without getting a headache.
The good news is that it happened once before about five years ago and either went away or my brain got used to processing the distorted image. This in spite of having been told it was both incurable and degenerative. Of course right now I’m using the eye-power I have reading whatever I can find about the condition.
So I guess I might be a little less always-on than usual. The effect is much less pronounced when I focus near infinity. That’s an excuse to get out more if ever I heard one.

April 23rd, 2007 at 1:52 pm
That sounds rubbish Andy :(
Hope it magically sorts itself out.
April 23rd, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping. Or at least doesn’t get much worse for a while and I’ll get used to it. I can sort of focus through it if I concentrate but I can’t currently keep that up for more than a few seconds at a time.
April 25th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
EEP! That’s not nice :(
Take a break from the computers dude!
April 26th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Andy - sorry to hear that mate. Hope either a) medical science or b) some kind of armstrong-esque recovery gland sorts you out. I didn’t find surfing the ‘net for medical stuff anything less than very alarming :(
May 10th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Ahhhhhhhhhh!!, Sorry to hear about that Andy. Hope it either clears up or as in the past your brain adapts. Or your left eye pulls its finger out :-)
May 10th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
The idea of my left eye pulling its finger out makes me think of Dali for some reason :)
Looking on the bright side (hah) I’ve got a nice big monitor out of it.
May 16th, 2007 at 11:36 am
How does a lizard help?
May 16th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Bored Bez? :)