Carotid

I know what it feels like to be completely blind in one eye for a period of time. We should all thank the good Lord for our vision. When it’s gone, there’s just blackness. Here’s the story as it happened to me.

Carotid

 

In June of 2005, my brother and I had booked an 11 day Alaskan cruise for us and our wives which included four days touring Alaska on shore and a seven day cruise back to Seattle. We flew to Anchorage and checked into a nice Hotel. The next morning as we were preparing to leave on a train to central Alaska, I suddenly went blind in my right eye. Every thing was pitch black when I closed my left eye. Needless to say, I was extremely concerned and didn’t know what to do. After a couple of hours, my sight in the right eye came back just as suddenly as it had left me. I was still concerned, but not nearly as much now. So, we went on and enjoyed the Land portion of the Cruise. We boarded the Cruise ship in Homer, Alaska. Along about midway on the Cruise, Craig and I took one of the excursion trips to go salmon fishing. We went on a 25 foot fishing boat and I was lucky enough to catch a 20 pound King Salmon. When we got back to the ship, my vision went black in my right eye again just like it had done before. Now I was getting very worried, The vision returned in about two hours again. I decided to call my daughter, Kristi, and give her the symptoms and let her research it on the internet to see if she could find any clues. She called me back later and told me she thought she knew what the problem was. Her research indicated that when the Carotid Artery in your neck is partially blocked, some of the material may slough off and travel to the eye with the blood. When this happens, the blood to the iris is blocked off and the sight is lost. If the blockage is not to severe, it may clear itself and the vision will return. This sounded exactly like what was happening to me so I was relieved to know what was causing it. Then the she told me the rest. If the material flows with the blood into the brain, then you will likely have a brain aneurism and die. Well, this didn’t sound too good. I enjoyed the rest of the cruise the best I could under the circumstances. I scheduled an ultrasound test on my Carotid Arteries the day I got back from the cruise, and they found the right side artery was indeed blocked. I had surgery to clean it out the next day, and I’ve never gone blind again.

Our Celebrity Cruise Ship the “Summit”

Bill, Pam, Rhonda, and Craig on the deck in the sunset.

Pam and I and some friends of mine on the ship

Thank you for reading Carotid,

Hawg Jaw Bill