I recently had to make an unexpected visit to my eye doctor due to these really obnoxious things called floaters that just started showing up in my left eye one day. I vaguely remembered eye doctors always telling me during visits that if I ever all of a sudden noticed things that appeared to be floating around in my vision that I needed to get to the doctor to have it looked at. So, I emailed my eye doctor about it and she fit me into her schedule first thing the next morning.

Once there, luckily, she told me what I was experiencing was common and I didn’t need to be too concerned about them. Turns out a huge amount of “floaters” accompanied with seeing flashes of light in that same eye is a sign your retina is detaching, which is considered a medical emergency, and is what I had remembered eye doctors warning me about previously.  This wasn’t happening for me. I just had enough of them floating around to be annoying to me, especially when at the computer when they are really apparent. I see them as I’m writing this actually.

So now that I have given the back-story behind how I came about having this photo done – please – check it out. It’s my left eyeball. Isn’t it AWESOME?!??! My doctor had her assistant take it so she could show me what she was seeing when she examined my eye, and I gotta say, I think it is one of the coolest photos of me I have ever seen.

That thing in the center that is the brightest with all the blood vessels radiating out from it – that’s my optic nerve. That thing is what sends visual information to my brain to be processed, so personally being able to see it is pretty ironic to me. It’s just awesome for me to think about. The distinct darker spot just below the three o’clock position to my optic nerve is the macula. Dr. Still told me that’s where we see our detail and color vision, and that it is darker like it is due it having a higher blood supply and more pigment. And the field of reddish stuff down below it is the blood supply (choroid) showing through in that particular area because there was more light from the flash on the camera there.

As a photographer, I think the idea of a camera to photograph the inside of your eye is pretty great. Photography exists because of our eyes and our ability to see. Combine this with me having always been interested in medicine and yeah – I’m geeking out a little bit over this photo of my eye. One of my favorite assignments in high school was getting to dissect a cow’s eye. I remember it being sooo beautiful inside. Now, thanks to this photo, I get to see the inside of my own eye. Thank you for that, Dr. Still.

I also should take a minute to brag about my eye doctor being better than your eye doctor: I first saw Dr. Still just over a year ago when I had a really unpleasant experience with my left eye. She was absolutely awesome to me. It was clear that she knew what she was doing, and truly cared about her patients. She took the time to educate and explain what was going with you from a medical standpoint, rather than just making you feel like she was wanting to get you on out the door as quick as possible to get somebody else through it to pad her wallet. I don’t recall having felt as cared about by any doctor of mine in the past as she made me feel. I was impressed with her then, and I was impressed with her on this visit too.

She will soon be buying a private practice in her hometown, which is near Savannah, GA.

I love Savannah.

So now, my need for an annual eye exam will be a good excuse to make a trip down to Savannah to see Dr. Still, hang out in one of Savannah’s beautiful squares for several hours with nothing other than a book to read,  camp out on Cumberland Island for a few nights, and take some photos for fun while I’m there.