It all started in...July? June? 2012. I've always been a "high myope" but got by, first with contact lenses, then with Lasik surgery in 2002 or so. That was an adventure, but all in all very satisfactory. Better vision (not perfect),  lighter glasses, no need for contacts.
Then in late spring/early summer of 2012, my vision in my left eye became....interesting. First noticed a little blur in central vision. Saw the optometrist, thought it was just a minor wrinkle on my cornea from the Lasik. Sent to retina specialist. "hmmmm very interesting...."
A small vacuole, or empty space, right smack dab in the middle of my macula. Trial of drops, no change. Amuse myself by squinting closed my normal right eye, making peoples' noses disappear in my little blind spot. Both eyes open? No real problem.
Then, in October/November of 2012, while completely immersed in family issues/tragedy, my vision is a lot worse. A real blind spot; amuse myself by making words disappear on signs, or whole signs disappear. Fatalistic...."oh well, guess that's it then; nothing to be done...."
Frustration with my vision is compounded greatly by work. Trouble reading computer screens (multiple users, so can't increase font size); no depth perception; avoid tasks/patients requiring good vision. Corneal rust ring or foreign body? Nope! Blinding headache by the end of shift; too much effort to read the simplest things. Yes, I have one good eye, but the effort required to block out the distorted image from the "bad" eye take a lot of energy.
See the retina specialist and to my surprise have a well-described (and eminently treatable??) entity: macular hole. My depression/despair at the eye testing ("can you read this line? this one? No?" Christ, I'm legally blind in this left eye!) changes to feverish reading about everything I can find about macular holes. Eureka! High success rate of restoring vision!
Then....yikes, the details of the surgery...are you kidding me? You, what, suck out the vitreous? and stick a bubble of air in the eye? and you have to lie on your stomach for how long? And you are guaranteed to get a cataract in short order, necessitating yet another eye surgery???
Oh, and the whole idea of needles and cannulas stuck in my eye, and the orbital freezing, which sounds painful, and the bruising/swelling afterward for ? weeks, and the "no air travel" for how long exactly???
So here we are, early March 2013. Waiting to see the retina surgeon. My vision is.....pretty terrible. Print completely unreadable with my left eye. Looks like the paper the words are printed on has been twisted up in the center; the letters are a blurry swirl(and some entirely missing). And objects look farther away, and dimmer with that eye. The kitchen clock, for instance, shrinks to a circle about 2/3 the actual size (makes it look farther away), when viewed with just my left eye. People's faces (on tv) via my left eye are grotesque, like a picasso painting, with missing and fragmented features. I could not recognize even a familiar face with that eye.
So will be seeing the retina surgeon in a couple of days. Here's hoping I get all my questions answered.