Posterior Vitreous Detachment

The other day we were sitting around waiting for an appointment when Donna said, “I’m seeing stars.” She hadn’t bopped her head or made any sudden moves, she was just sitting there and the stars went away, so we thought nothing of it.

This morning at work she came to me and said, “There is something in my eye.” I pried open her eye lids and had her look up down and all round, but I didn’t see anything. She described it as a bright curved thing just off to the right in her field of vision. I asked, “Do you think it is a big floater?” Maybe came her reply; let’s see if it drifts out of the way. I checked in with her after about an hour and she said it wasn’t as bright, but it was still there, so we agreed she should call the eye doc. They said if she came over around lunch they would fit her in sometime this afternoon.

The doc dilated her eyes and shined his aircraft landing light brightness instruments in there. He came out with some good news, there was nothing sight threatening going on, but she did have a posterior vitreous detachment. The stars she noticed on Tuesday were the moment when the vitreous separated from the retina.

Do you think that is what happened to Dave Bowman aboard a Discovery One EVA Pod as he entered the TMA-2 monolith? When he said, “The thing’s hollow – it goes on forever – and – oh my God – it’s full of stars!”, was he just having a PVD?

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 391