Homebound

Thanks, Dan. Just got back from the ophalmologist - retinal tear. Laser surgery in the morning to "spot-weld" it, as the ophalmologist put it in layman's terms. Good success rate with the procedure, experienced surgeon, I'm looking forward to having it done.

Great! Always nice to avoid invasive procedures if you can.

Hope you are doing better, Steve. By the way, the description of your profile picture was interesting. I know what you mean about the microscopic vision of being near-sighted. Not quite a 10x loupe, but good nonetheless. Unfortunately, I probably will soon follow down the path of cataract surgery (a legacy of a life afield). I have heard it does quite well these days, but am forewarned I will need to go back to readers. After Presbyopia set in when I reached mid 40s, I had to add them to my contact use. Then I ditched both the contacts and readers to go to progressive lenses- which also allowed me to easily take my glasses off and use my micro superpower! All the best to you in your quest for all that you observe and identify. I am happy to join that quest on iNat and appreciate your ID of the California barrel cactus on my page.

To update, after the flood of red blood cells cleared up a bit the retina specialist found some small tears. He did some laser repair work, which felt like being repeatedly punched in the back of the eye and induced a remarkable light show. Now I'm left with a persistent floater in my left eye (joining the pre-existing persistent floater in my right eye). I'm no longer homebound, but am left with a significant reduction in overall vision. The "cloud" is present most of the time, especially when looking down. Hope it clears up over time.

Further update for those interested. Follow-up consultation with another specialist, this one specializing in vitrectomy (replacement of vitreous with either gas or liquid). It was a remarkable education in eye anatomy, physiology and disease. My most troublesome floater is not really a "floater" - it's attached at one end to the retina. If I understand right it's called a "duet". Vitrectomy would also correct some posterior vitreous detachment. Chances of success are good, with a 3% further loss-of-vision outcome; most trouble happens in recovery due complications of overexertion before healing. I've decided against the procedure, partly because I'm the one who would pick up the damned box or whatever and move it before thinking. Also I have enough vision that I can do photo IDs here, though I do have trouble in the field (the looking-down part).
One issue the surgeon noted was the increased propensity of the lens capsule to cloud up after cataract surgery where multifocal lenses rather than monofocal lenses are used. She didn't quote numbers, but mentioned that in passing (I chose multifocal lenses). This is a separate issue than floaters, but it is worth noting that laser surgery is successful in correcting that problem.
I also learned a bit about maintaining ocular health; things like keeping the organ in the lower eyelid (meibomian glands) happy; keep the area around your eyes clean and apply gentle heat for ~20 min/day.