Totally apart from traveling, I thought I would just update y’all on my eye journey cuz you were here for the start of it back in March 2025. Go get a snack or a cuppa tea, it’s gonna be a long one.

Just to recap, while traveling from Seoul to the US in March of last year (2025)  (a sudden trip to see my sister), the retina detached from my right eye. I didn’t realize anything was really wrong (my vision has been bad for several years due to cataracts and general worsening vision due to age) until I was driving a rental car six hours from Tampa, FL, to Beaufort, SC. I was really struggling to read the road signs and even the car’s gps display. Even with my glasses on.

Something compelled me to cover my right eye while driving, and was like yup, vision is definitely worse than the last time I drove (in June 2023 before I left the US), but okay. Then I covered my left eye and was like WHOA. There was a black opaque quarter circle covering the inside third of my right eye. WTH?

I white-knuckled my drive to SC…mildly panicking when it started to rain really hard and vision got even worse.

Once there and settled in, my brother-in-law told me about his revent wonderful experience with having his cataracts removed. I shared that I had been wanting to do that as well, and expected to do it when I returned to the US after my Korean visa was up. He asked about my vision and I told him about the black circle.

Eeeh.

Both he and my cousin were like that sounds like  a detached retina, you need to take care of that right away.

I couldn’t sleep most of the night, discussing with Dr. Google the horrors of retina detachment. Yes, said DG, you must have it taken care of IMMEDIATELY. Do Not Pass Go. Do Not Collect $200. Go Immediately to the Hopsital Or You Will Go Blind.

Uh. Not so comforting, that news.

In the US, I had no insurance. I was still six months away from being eligible for Medicare. My health insurance was tied to my student visa in Korea, and was only usable in Korea. They kept suggesting I go to the emergency room there in SC but…what was the point? The Internet told me I could not afford reattachment surgey out of pocket in the US. Plus, even if I DID manage to come up with thousands of dollars, you can’t fly for like three months after the surgery, and I had to return to school in Korea or I would lose my visa. And I didn’t want to leave SC and immediately return to Korea to do it cuz I’d gone there to spend some time with my sister…probably the last time as she was quite ill and the doctors were like…”anytime now.”

So I convinced myself that going blind in one eye was just not the worst thing in the world. I could still drive with one eye. It would just be yet another one of Bettye’s Big Adventures. So I stayed in SC…then returned with my daughter to FL…where then my flight back home to Korea was cancelled for three days in a row due to horrible storms and tornados in the midwest and then Florida.

Sigh.

When I finally returned to Seoul and tried to get an appt at the University hospital where I’d had my kidney stone removed in 2024, I was told I first needed a referal from an opthalmologist not affiliated with the hospital. Took a few days to get an appt there…but finally went there, tested tested tested and yes, your retina has detached, you need reattachment surgery (vitrectomy) immediately. I took the letter to the hospital and they were like okay, we can get you in for a consult with the retina surgeon in two weeks. I was like “IMMEDIATELY! IT SAYS IMMEDIATELY.” They were sorry, but.

During all this time I was missing class…I’d already missed ten days from my trip to the US, and I still wasn’t going because I Could Not Read the Textbook! I’d always struggled with the fine, grey print, but now? Nope. I think I went to two classes and then just said forget it. Spoke with the dean, who just said to save all my medical reports and receipts and I would be excused for the absences and would not lose my student visa.

In the interest of time (and your attention span):

  • I had the vitrectomy towards the end of March, stayed two nights in the hospital
  • They inserted silicone oil into my eye to facilitate healing and was told it would have to stay in for 9-12 months
  • Had to stay Face Down for two weeks following the surgery, which was brutal
  • Got a note from doctor saying not to return to real life, including school, for several more weeks
  • At my 4-6 week follow-up they discovered the retina was re-unattaching and
  • I had to repeat steps 1-3 above 🙁  And the silicoine oil clock had to restart for another 9-12 months

The silicone oil makes your vision feel like looking into a distorted funhouse mirrow that’s been smeared with vaseline.

Fun.

By this time I’d missed 3/4 of the school term and decided this was my sign to exchange my Korean student visa for a tourist visa, by traveling to Japan, and re-entering the country as a tourist. I took the ferry from Busan, Korea, to Fukuoka, Japan, because I couldn’t fly yet.

My sister passed away the day before I left for Japan. Added to everything else, it made for a very emotional trip (read more about that here).

When I returned to Korea from Japan, it was mid-May and I had three months left in Korea with no obligations, but very poor vision.

When I left Korea in August 2025, was finally on Medicare, and saw an opthalmologist here in the states, she said my eye was doing well, but that yes, the oil would need to stay in another 6-9 months. So I continued my travels around the US, then to Japan and Thailand. All the while with impaired vision…and a pretty poor level of depth perception. Which made walking both Japanese and Thai streets an absolute HOOT. Walkways there (and in Korea) are old and uneven and in places, a bit treacherous. I fell once in Japan, tripping over a curb, splatting flat out on the sidewalk. THAT was entertaining and Not Embarrassing At All.

Time Jump to April 2026, back in the states. And on Monday, April 27, 2026, 13 months after the initial insertion, I finally had the silicone oil removed. Woohoo. Great! Let’s get on with life!

Not so fast, bucko. The procedure went well, but she had to replace the oil with air. I SO do not understand the anatomy of the human eye. Anyway. vision with air is worse than with silicoine oil!!! MUCH worse. While I don’t see BLACK NOTHINGNESS in my right eye, I’m virtually blind. I can make out the difference between looking into light vs looking into dark, but that’s about it. I can’t see my hand waving in front of my face. It’s like there’s a semi-opaque grey jiggly water bubble on my eye. It’s divided roughly in half horizontally, by a dark arc…which looks suspiciously like the scans of my retina repair I am shown on the doctor’s computer. And it’s all jiggly and annoying and my depth perception is even worse that before.

She’d (eye doctor) told me my vision would be “blurrier” than before, but I would not call this “blurry.” Put three layers of wet wax paper right against your eye and try to see. That’s kind of what it’s like.

The fun continues.

I had my 3-day follow-up yesterday. She said it’s normal to not really be able to see at all – beyond making out the difference between dark and light. I go back in anither week and she said by then my vision “should” be normal.

I am looking forward to this all being over…and then being able to get the cataract removed from my LEFT (aka the “good” eye) eye and finally having NORMAL VISION.

Just thought I’d update you…I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath for my eye update.

“See You” next time (see what I did there??).

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