I had Coats Disease and my vision in the affected eye pretty much went overnight too. It’s common in young male children apparently.
It happened in the autumn of first year in secondary school. I was finding it hard to see the blackboard in sixth class so there was a bit of short sightedness happening but I was ignoring it. Some people go on about being bit part players on senior panels at the age of 15…but to score all the points in a U12 county final (2 from play, 1 free) as the late summer evenings were drawing in & my vision was deteriorating rapidly…incredible really. I got glasses then for starting secondary school but things went pear-shaped pretty quickly then & it wasn’t solely related to @Appendage being in my class.
It was hard to verbalise it as a 12-year old but I had this distorted or lack of vision overnight. The vision from the right eye was all blurry and the left eye was trying to compensate. It was kinda freaking out, as the left eye was trying to become dominant so it was a weird sensation. For something right in front of my right eye, my left eye would be straining across to see it and my nose would be in the way! It felt like I was able to partly see things through objects or around corners but it was in reality just things straight in front of me I should have been able to see easily with my right eye but my left might have had an awkward angle to see it but was trying to. Hard to explain and not even sure that makes sense in typing.
So it was optician → GP → consultant in Ardkeen. The disease involves vascular haemorrhaging/leaky vessels in the eye that can impact vision. It can also come with retinal detachment and I’m not even sure if I had that. You can be lucky or unlucky on the impact scale and I was pretty unlucky. I needed laser initially to stop the leaking and that causes retinal scarring. I then had to have surgery soon after under general anaesthetic but this was 1994 and I’m not quite sure what was involved here. I was in hospital for 3 or 4 nights, which seems like a long time. I have peripheral vision but normal straight ahead is useless. I’d compare it to when someone’s identity is being hidden in an expose style tv interview and they make their appearance blurry like the graphics on a 1980s computer game. It’s probably not even as good as that. For example, that basic eye test when the first screen is usually one big capital “A”. I wouldn’t be able to recognise what’s on the screen but would know there’s something on it.
My consultant at the time had retired but I went back to see that Dr Stephen Beattie in around 2010. You might be familiar with the name, he had a profile around then in trying to make hurling helmets compulsory as he was dealing with a lot of emergency eye surgeries in Ardkeen. I just wanted to see if there was any advancements in treatment that may allow me to get some sight back but there wasn’t at the time. I was recently in for an eye test and my optician here in D5 gave me a letter for the eye & ear - she reckons enough time has passed for them to have another look at it.
In practical terms, I wear a contact lens in my left eye and nothing in my right. This saves on contact lens expenses - this could be a massive win for you! I rarely wear glasses, just in the evenings at home to give my eye(s) a rest and it’s similar - strong prescription on the left and just a light/non-prescription on the right. I remember in the early days in the 1990s this meant I’d a big jam jar lens on one side and thin lens on the other one and the glasses would be falling down my nose over to the strong side due to the weight. Over time, lenses have advanced and even massively strong ones are quite neat and pared back. I didn’t take to contact lens as a kid and had a slight fear about touching my eyes after surgery etc so it affected my sport. I pretty much drifted away from playing during secondary school and, looking back now, it probably affected me psychologically more than I realised. I definitely withdrew into myself a bit but I adapted after a while and developed new interests such as bullying weaker children in the class. You’re working through all those phases now - it’s like those stages of grief in a way - but it will settle down over time.