Postby AmansinCali » Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:08 pm
I had no warning whatsoever.
My health is good, not overweight, never a smoker, I do not drink, I have never taken recreational drugs, I have been a gym rat, runner and swimmer all my life and I am not diabetic. I was not at the time, but now I am a pescatarian.
All doctors consulted, 3 ophthalmologists, a retina specialist, a renown optic neurologist and my internist agree the cataract surgery had nothing to with the anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. The best guess is a piece of plaque broke off someplace in my body and blocked the blood vessels to that portion of the optic nerve which died. The blood vessels in your eye are extremely small and it does not take much to block them. I go to my ophthalmologist every three months and have ever since my loss of vision. They take a scan of retinas each visit, you can see in the scans the portion of the optic nerve that died is gray in color whereas the healthy parts are nice and pink as is my left eye. I go every three months to monitor my good eye.
My disk is shallow, more so than normal, which may have had something to do with my loss of vision, but they really don't know for sure that is a factor.
I am not totally blind in the affected eye. I see in facets; I have small areas that have perfect vision, IF I am allowed time on an eye chart vision test, I can move my eye around until the next letter comes into focus and I can see one letter at a time. I have developed some astigmatism since my cataract surgery and with a corrective lens on that eye given time I can read the chart at 20/70, but it is a struggle.
As I have said previously, the doctors cannot say for sure the ED oral medications caused my loss of vision, but there is a documented association. All doctors have told me that taking the ED oral medications is not worth the risk of losing my good eye. I agree.
In the late '90's I had an internist tell me how great the new Viagra was and how great it works; he gave me some samples. I took the samples even though I did not need them at the time, I was about 50 at the time. Anyone who has taken Viagra will tell you it makes your dick feel like it is 18 again and it hooks you and after a while sex is not as good unless you take the pill. I started taking Viagra way too early. After my loss of vision, I went cold turkey off the ED medicines and was able to have a normal sex life of a 60 something, but in my mid-70's my dick would not stay up for penetration. After one very frustrating time I told my wife I will get it fixed. I had already been a reader of FT, so I went to a urologist and told him my story and said I wanted to be on tri-mix. I am now 76 and I have been on tri-mix for about a year and a half. I don't like it, but it is worth it to be able to have sex a couple times a week.
Now I am a patient of Dr. Yafi at UC Irvine Medical, he has told me I would not regret getting an implant. He told me it is a very simple procedure, an outpatient procedure that takes only 45 minutes and he does 4 each week. He gave me some names and phone numbers of his patients willing to answer questions for new patients. Now I have to make that decision.
I am no doctor, but from what I know if I was having bleeding from ED oral medications I would move to tri-mix. It is scary to find out how little they really know about the effects of oral ED medications. One factor is we are all a bit different. I am told the tri-mix injections are local and do not affect your system so they do not pose the same risk to your eyes.
Used Viagra & Cialis until lost vision in one eye due to AION, therefore can never use pills again, then tri-mix 1 1/2 years until unreliable. Implanted 9/20/22 at 77 years old by Dr. Yafi, UC Irvine. Married 55 years wife 76. 20cm Coloplast Titan.