Véronique was affected by a thrombosis in her right eye which caused her to lose part of her sight at the age of 54.
- Véronique had a submacular arterial thrombosis in her right eye at the age of 54, causing her to lose part of her vision.
- Although over time, the left eye has compensated, allowing her to recover a good part of her vision, she nonetheless quickly becomes tired when she drives or reads.
- This event also made her realize that she had to change some of her habits: a heavy smoker, she swapped her pack of cigarettes for an electronic cigarette.
“It was August 21, 2016. I was checking out in a small store when I started to feel palpitations accompanied by dizziness.”, remembers Véronique. Prone to dizziness, the fifty-year-old has no idea what is coming next. “I felt faint and, very quickly, had a visual disturbance in my right eye.” Lipothymia is a malaise without loss of consciousness which often occurs in stressful situations. And Véronique admits, she was going through a very anxious period in her life.
“As the visual disturbance persisted, I requested an emergency appointment with my ophthalmologist. He diagnosed me with submacular arterial thrombosis in my right eye with sequelae, part of my retina is damaged.“Arterial thrombosis of the eye occurs when blood flow is interrupted in an artery that supplies the retina, the nervous tissue located at the back of the eye that allows light images to be captured. The most common causes are cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, tobacco, etc.).
At the end of the examination, the ophthalmologist tells the civil servant that he cannot do anything for her eyesight and explains to her that her vision should gradually improve thanks to the compensation of the left eye. . “He gave me a preventive treatment of kardégic 75 and recommended that I have cardiological follow-up.”
The cardiologist “prescribed a battery of tests”
The mother then decided to consult a cardiologist the following September. “He prescribed a battery of tests for me! ECG, brain MRI, Doppler ultrasound of the supra-aortic trunks, Doppler ultrasound of the heart, vestibular examination by an ENT, Holter ECG, Holter blood pressure, stress test and thyroid ultrasound.” Examinations reveal irregular blood pressure and a slight abnormality in thyroid function. The treatment implemented therefore consisted of taking an antihypertensive, kardégic 75 and a mild anxiolytic if necessary.
On the advice of her cardiologist, the woman from the North of France is also taking new healthy lifestyle measures: cigarettes and coffee, that’s it! “I replaced tobacco with electronic cigarettes. I also stopped coffee because I am very sensitive to caffeine”, regrets Véronique a little, who loves this smell in the morning.
I quickly feel visual fatigue, especially when driving or reading.
Over the years, the visual discomfort has faded: “It was quite debilitating in the first years, but as the ophthalmologist predicted, the second eye must have compensated! However, I quickly feel visual fatigue, especially when driving or reading.”
As for anxiety, Véronique prefers “live with it rather than fight it chemically”. His retirement at 62 contributes to this, finally allowing him to breathe and spend more time with his loved ones: “I’m lucky enough to have been free from work for 2 years, so I have much less stress and fatigue. I can thus devote myself to my grandchildren, a great source of happiness and satisfaction!”
-1739366311.jpg "Ellie Bloom: “Seeing the size of the hole in my heart, the cardiologist told me that I had a guardian angel”")
