Strange Side Effects

I don't have swollen feet.  I didn't have months of terrible morning sickness.  I haven't been dizzy or faint, or plagued by several of the stereotypical side-effects of pregnancy, especially in the third trimester.  Perhaps that's because it's just not my body's style to go with something so mainstream.  No, instead I have been diagnosed with Valsalva Retinopathy.  Two words that hadn't entered my vocabulary until now.

On Saturday morning, I woke up with a blind spot in my vision, specifically in my right eye.  I figured if I ignored it, it would just go away, but by 9pm it was still there.  The same shape and size, annoyingly in my way.  That's when I hit the computer and started researching, which is never a good idea when you have absolutely no handle on the field of medicine.  After calling the midwife and ruling out preeclampsia, I scheduled an eye appointment Monday.  

I went to a nearby ophthalmologist because I don't have an eye doctor.  I don't have an eye doctor because I don't wear glasses or contacts, nor have I ever had any eye problems, which was pretty obvious by my excessive flinching every time the ophthalmologist got anywhere near my eyes.  After my check-up, he referred me to a retina specialist that same day.  A very apologetic me with dilated eyes headed downtown for round two.

Round two was a nightmare.  So many drops, bright lights, poking, prodding.  Even the pictures covering the exam room walls were disturbing real life renderings of corneas and capillaries.  I wondered where they'd managed to find a calendar covered in creepy eyeball pictures.  

When all was said and done, the specialist brought me to another room and said he'd return to explain his diagnosis and go over the photos.  Then, I realized as other younger staff members entered the room and stood around, that this must be pretty interesting.  

The specialist returned to explain and show everyone in the room including me, that intra-abdominal pressure from the pregnancy had helped cause a retinal hemorrhage.  It was most likely brought on by a simple cough, and will probably resolve itself after I have the baby.  He showed me the photo collage of my eyeball, pointing out the hemorrhage.  I have to admit, while it was as disturbing as those photos on the wall, it was also kind of cool.  Maybe I'll even make next year's calendar.

I've taken the liberty of making a rendering of what the inside of my eye looks like, for those of you who are interested in the science behind what's going on in my eyeball and would like a visual aid.

 

Overall, in the past nine months I've been on more doctor visits than the past 20 years, and have seen and learned more about my insides than I'd retained from any biology class.  While this latest adventure was a little scary, I'm still confident that I will get through the last obstacle of labor and delivery just fine.  Even if I have to do it practically blind-folded.