Central Arterial Retinal Occlusion

[Taco Belle]

Last Thursday night I began having some blurred vision in my left eye.  Within minutes, I lost the vision in that eye, being able only to see a sort of golden glow.  There was no pain at all in my eye, though I had had a headache all that day, and still have it now, a week later.

I went to the emergency room, where a cat scan didn't show anything, and then was sent to the Opthamologist's office.  He referred me to a Retinal Surgeon.

By the time I got there, I wasn't able to see anything at all out of my left eye, it was just completely black.

After an anggiogram, I was diagnosed as having Central Arterial Retinal Occlusion.  

I had never heard of this before, and was hoping to find other people who have had this problem to talk to.

[Ag-i-doc]

its a one time event.  it causes permanent vision loss.  your mistake (although you didnt know this and it wasnt your fault) was going to the ER days later, when you should ahve gone to an EYE DOCTOR (ANY eye doc) asap.  a central retinal artery occlusion is exactly what it sounds like.  something (usually a thrombus thrown from your carotid artery) blocks blood flow to your retina.  it can be treated but ONLY IN THE 1st 15 MINUTES.  after that, your retina dies and you will lose vision permanently, as i'm sure you have.

when you go to the ER, they dont see a lot of that and they make you wait around and do MRIs and things that dont help.  

but the ER certainly didnt make you worse...you really waited too long to see someone.  sudden vision loss in one eye is about as emergent as you can get.

[Tom650]

A related discussion, Loss of Vision was started.