Design Flaws

It was hard for me to figure it out. I watched clips on YouTube. I google image searched. Finally I decided the miracle cherry pie from theTwin Peaks diner appears to be a plain double crust and therefore would not be the perfect image for today’s post. Instead, you can probably find it near you now.

It borders placemats. It creates decorative privacy fences and stark chain link ones. It’s the twists of plaited hair. It’s the pattern of gingham ribbon. And yes, it gives some fruit pies a fancy look. If you look for it, designs with lattice appear all over the place.

A crisscross pattern appears in my retinas, too. It’s an inherited condition called lattice degeneration. It rests at the peripheral edges of the delicate tissue translator necessary for sight. Weak axes of membrane adjacent to unaffected areas form a sort of grid across the territory of my photoreceptive cells.

Treatment for retinal tears is usually favorable. However, for people like me who are myopic (near-sighted), we’re more likely to encounter retinal tears and holes. And we have a greater chance of complications like retinal detachments despite laser treatments to repair holes and tears. Larger eye shape (myopia) plus weakened retinas (lattice degeneration) equaled thin ice in my case. Break a nail, it grows back. Break a retina, there’s no regeneration. You hope a surgical tailor fashions the scraps into sight for sore eyes.

As we age our eyes expand like a baking pie. The retinal crust accommodates the increased surface area. My eyes are built like a cherry pie with dough rolled too thin. Expansion reveals weakness. When your retinas have lattice degeneration, failing to seek treatment with vision changes allows your intraoccular fluid to run amok like burst fruit and ooze everywhere on your retinal crust. It saturates what’s supposed to stay dry to conduct the electric impulses for the optic never and permanently alters the delicate balance in your eye. Not ideal.

Eye doctors advise people to seek treatment immediately for flashes of light, floaters, or patterns like spiderwebs in the visual field. As a little girl, my eye doctors told me the same thing. I credit my remaining vision in part to the urgency I felt to seek treatment with any vision changes. It matters. So check your eye’s oven window and keep watch on your vision pie with regular eye exams.

Do you have lattice degeneration? Have you had retinal holes or tears treated with laser coagulation? Are you a pie or cake person? Are you going to watch the new Twin Peaks series this year? Did the original Twin Peaks freak you out, too? Tell me about it.

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