Doggone it, there goes my day.
Here I am happily being slapped around firing 45-70s and 25-06s, plus a 44 Mag. rifle. Not a care in the world. Then I read this thread.
Major Bummer. Four years ago I had each eye go out via detached retinas. I originally had lens implants to correct cataracts. Before the operation I had to watch a video
that warned that in rare cases, the operation could result in detached retinas.
Yeah sure, I'm bullet proof. The left eye lasted four months and the right one five months.
The right one blew so bad I had to go to a Big Name hospital in Atlanta where they had interns come in, in a "Geez, look at this" scenario. I felt like charging admission. I ended up having "buckles" wrapped around my eyeball, which made they slightly egg-shaped and thus shot my long-range vision without glasses.
I guess I have been lucky, but am taking this warning to heart. Either I shoot round ball loads in those lovely big bores, or go to pistols.
BTW, the doc had a neat way of explaining it.
It's like putting a Baggie in a brandy snifter and filling the Baggie with water. When there is a tear in the Baggie, water seeps between it and the glass. Viola, detached retina.
The first indication I had was that it suddenly a bunch of swirling tiny black dots appeared, (painless). Then a tan-colored opaqueness very slowly started to come in left to right. Since I had gone through this drill before, I hotfooted it to the Doc, who said that, if left unattended, I'd have gone blind in that eye.
Don't take this thread lightly folks, or think it can't happen to you. Detached retinas are supposed to come from blows to the head like in boxing, but in my case it was a genetic defect. WalterGAII is dead right. That operation is pure crap, and something I would not want to go through again.