by Sheila Schnauzies

Created on: January 20, 2009

When we think of strokes, typically we think of them occurring in the brain. Actually they can occur in any artery in the body, including the retinal artery in your eye! That is exactly what happened to me in September 2008 when I experienced a Branch Retinal Artery Occlusion (stroke) in my right eye.

i was just sitting in my chair watching TV. I touched the corner of my right eye because it felt strange. Then I had a flash of a feeling of dread, just had time to think "Uh-oh..." and then suddenly part of my right eye's vision went bright purple. I later said that if the stroke had to choose a color, at least it was a good one! I froze in my seat waiting to see what would happen next - would all the sight go? Was I going to get paralyzed, die, or just go blind? Or better yet would the "splotch" in my vision clear up in a few minutes?

I am at a high risk for strokes and blood clots because I have a blood disorder called Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome, which makes a person prone to clotting. I take blood thinners to try to avert this risk. Apparently at the time of the stroke my INR (the blood measurement of how thin or thick one's blood is) was too low to prevent the danger and my retinal artery developed a clot.

When the splotch didn't clear up within a few minutes, I ran to the computer to start researching what could be the problem. Because of my high risk, I was already familiar with the fact that if you develop a clot in your eye you have a very limited window of opportunity in which to get the clot removed before losing vision.

I quickly determined that it probably was some type of clotting event in my eye and started making phone calls to get help. I live in a rural community which has no opthalmologists so my nearest hope was a hospital in St. Louis, eighty miles away.

Unfortunately, my experience at the ER involved waiting over five hours before I was evaluated by a physician. Then when the Opthalmology resident finally examined me seven hours after I arrived, I was told it was nothing serious, sent home with no treatment and referred to see the opthalmologist four days later. At this point, my vision loss had become permanent.

Four days later when the opthalmologist looked in my eye for a few seconds, he wheeled his chair back and said "Well, you've had a stroke in your eye."

"A STROKE?" I exclaimed. How could the ER doctors have missed that? The opthalmologist couldn't figure that one out either.

I went through vision field testing and was referred for angiography which showed a very obvious clot in the branch retinal artery.

While I must now deal with the reality of the loss of the lower half of the vision in my right eye, I am much more aware of the need for immediate treatment should this occur again. I want other people to be aware of this urgency as well.

If you have ANY loss of vision or what looks like a spot or splotchy area over your eyesight, please seek immediate treatment in an ER or call your opthalmologist. If you're told it's not serious, please seek a second opinion. Time is of the essence to reverse clots anywhere in the arteries of the eye.

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