- The speaker had metal in his eye and had to undergo a drilling procedure to remove it.
- He was later diagnosed with advanced glaucoma and started taking medication to reduce pressure in his eye.
- He had cataract surgery in his right eye, but his retina detached a year later.
- He underwent multiple surgeries to try and repair his retina, but they were unsuccessful.
- A new surgeon decided to cut away the damaged part of the retina and use a laser to weld it back together.
- The speaker lost some sight but was able to save his eye.
- The speaker mentions Michael Bisping, a UFC fighter who continued to fight with only one functioning eye.
- The speaker also mentions needing cataract surgery in his other eye, but there was a mistake in adjusting the pressure during the surgery.

The person had cataract surgery but there was a mistake with their eye pressure, causing blood vessels to burst and snow-like vision. They also had a surgery to clear a blocked drain tube, but it caused complications and their eye pressure went up to 62. The doctor had to release the pressure multiple times. The person is now concerned about their retina and worries about a repeat of the previous complications.

Taken from JRE #2041 w/Steve Strope:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6qLcBRldie5UwWPXE7J2hJ?si=a088981c8ba44f24

You know the stem cell thing if he could if von Doom there could get on On the eyeball.

That would have do they let's tell everybody what happened to you because this is a crazy thing.

a real bummer right you yeah just out of nowhere started seeing dark spots right?

No what happened was well little background I had already stage 1 was going into your local doctor I guy because you have metal in your eye oh wow cuz that's some of the fun that happens even when you're wearing safety glasses all the haters calm down we wear safety glasses how do you get in oh it just bounces around you know you're working with a carbide bit spinning at you know 15,000 rpm stuff bounces around but since then I have been using I found this place in France that makes these motor antique motorcycle war 1 aircraft goggles

But it seals to your eyes and it's got little vents in it so they don't fog up.

So, but anyway, I got metal in my eye, which is for those of you who haven't done it, it's Lots of fun.

You hold still, you're wide awake, and they come at you with a Dremel drill bit, and they drill it out.

But you still see the drill bit coming and yet easy easy you can hit The stuff you've been through I'm sure you can handle it.

but so so I've been drilled a couple of times That sounds wrong And it if they came up with a photo of my I'd look like a golf ball little dimples when the drill comes in So anyway, that guy is like, you know when they're in there They're if they're experienced cats there.

Yeah, and he goes hey, I Think you should come back and talk to our other doctor so-and-so and have him do some tests because I saw some stuff Don't know but I think it'd be wise if you blah blah blah So I go in we do the test and the guy goes and this is Wow.

Here we are again with that time portal right he goes you have advanced glaucoma then I go what the hell is that he goes it's like creeping death it slowly takes your peripheral and most Adults don't know that they're going blind till they're 80 and it's moved so slow That you don't you don't notice the change right?

Well, mine's trucking along and so we start with medication that lowers in your eye You basically got a faucet and a drain and if the drains plugged up or if the faucets on overload, it's acting not like a water balloon but pressure builds.

That pressure is think of your optic nerve right your brain is the cable TV company your eye is the expensive flat-screen TV and the cable connecting the 2 of them right that pressure building up is like somebody with a heel of his boot digging on that cable and sooner or later nothing right so you take medicine to reduce the pressure so it doesn't eat away at the optic nerve.

Okay great we got that under control we're killer.

So then probably 8, 9 years ago I have cataract surgery in my right eye and put the cataract lens in and it's like oh my gosh it's a crystal clear and beautiful and incredible you know stoked on it.

About a year passes and I'm at PRI which is the race real serious race version of SEMA It's in Indianapolis so there's no fuzzy dice there.

It's all race car parts and stuff like that.

And I'm walking around and I just, I don't know how to describe it, but it actually moved in stages like a curtain coming down of just gray and then you just saw gray and it was my retina falling off detaching so I'm an Indy And I fly back and get together with the doctors and they're like you got to put that shit up and Instead of doing the long version.

I'll give you the short version 7 surgeries later And every time you have the surgery There's stitches in my eye.

That's way more fun than the drilling and you're laying face down for a week can't move and It just kept falling off.

So I went to another surgeon I also have a buckle permanently sewn Into my eye did they try to change the shape of the eye to promote the retina staying up better?

So anyway Got to new doctor great guy, dr A small e back home in Cali and he's like I got this man there's other guys there were losers we're gonna get it up there we're gonna stick it up that was surgery 6 and it didn't hold and he was more I think He was more depressed than I was.

And so we scheduled 7 and he sat down with me.

I remember before we went into the operating room, he goes, look, I don't think I can, I'm gonna go try to save your eye I'm not gonna save your sight Because and he he did it this way, which I thought was cool He went and did a little research to speak in my language and he goes when you're trying to weld metal if both the pieces are kind of rusty and beat up or whatever that it won't weld very good right I'm gonna go true you go so you got to have clean metal to clean metal to weld I go yes that's true He goes well all the attempts have just taken away the living oh shit out of the Retina so I'm gonna cut away the yucky stuff And I'm gonna have a new edge to They use a laser.

They basically the only thing they know how to do is tack weld it up.

So he goes, I'm going to make new clean edges, I'm going to weld it up, you're going to lose some sight at least because I'm taking away part of the retina but I'm gonna save your eye because if the eye if we can't get something going on in there then your body will kill off your eye it shrinks back it's painful pop it out put a glass eye in I go yeah let's yeah let's not so he did that and He goes I cut away about a third of the retina and I had a visual like a vertical rectangle of sight right not all the way over to here to here here to here, but fast-forwarding scar tissue moved over and pretty much just eliminated they're like we can go in and I'm like no

we're not gonna go in and do anything so this one's basically gone you know that's that for now We'll see if science checks in.

Michael Bisping's 1 of the toughest human beings that's ever walked the face of the

This is what I said, and not just because he was a UFC middleweight champion, but because Michael Bisping fought the last 10 fights of his UFC career, including winning the title blind in 1 eye.

Do you know how gangster you have to be to want to be fighting the best fighters in the world?

Henderson Silva, and you can't see out of 1 eye.

fighting world class fighters, that you can see his right eye is completely missing.

He wears like a little thing that goes over it, like a lens, so it looks normal.

Just to think of fighting with 2 eyes is fucking terrifying.

And fighting against the best guys in the world and he wins the title knocks out Luke Rockhold with 1 eye

I would sit there and practice like basketball into garbage cans just to try to retain the Perception perception

yeah, it's it's difficult, and then also it's it's frustrating when you're So anyway, the the fun I'll interrupt myself to continue with the fun So now I'm where I'm at right and they're like Your other eye is gonna need cataract surgery.

Oh Jesus, and I'm like so I did ask When the retina fell off Hey, did the cataract surgery have anything to do with that possibly, you know and every doctor and every specialist and everybody I talked to all said the same thing I'm paraphrasing well any procedure on your eye may could might possibly have the possibility of

a drug you know so it's like did the operation on your eye cause the retina fall off anything could maybe

so anyway so now I've got to have cataract surgery on this 1 I got a great guy who's 1 of the best in the West Coast etc etc we do the surgery and there is a mistake in because they're account for my pressures they tried to keep the pressures low because my glaucoma well they went a little too far my pressures were down to your normal eyes run Like your eyes probably run at like 20, 22, you know, maybe even a little bit higher, but right around there for pressure inside.

We'll call it, we'll call it air pressure.

You know, it's not the right term, but so mine with medication, we keep it down at like 13 and 12, right?

So when, after the second cataract surgery, the 1 on the 1 working eye they had dropped the pressure so low I coughed and it blew out blood vessels inside my eye, which when you wake up and you look, it looks like it's snowing inside your, it looks like it's snowing.

And at the same time, we did a special little surgery to like drill out the drain tube.

Because in my eyes, the faucet's wide open and the drain tube's plugged.

So the medicine turns the faucet down and clears away the drain tube, right?

I'm over, I'm making this, I'm sure there's eye guys listening, that's not technically, look.

So all the blood goes down and plugs that so that ruined that yay and so they rush me and they basically take a needle and insert fluid into my eye.

Just 2 little, you ever been where the 2 handles under the table?

So they do that and that was miscalculated and the pressures went to like 62 and I I was I was What's the word?

I was so disoriented because it was I mean it was screwing with the deal and So the doc who again great guy.

I'm still I'm not slamming him and he actually met me at his office alike I don't even know when it was 3 in the morning or and and I'm throwing up in his bushes out front right and he did this 3 times head in the thing hands on the handle took a blade lifted my eye and let the let the pressure out let the fluid out so I'm like taking that right so now we get the pressures under control right and so that was 2 to 3 years ago and believe me every day when I wake up and I can see Mike is this the day this retina falls off I'm not gonna have a repeat of the last 1?

Yeah, it's, you know, but it's like anything else.

When someone has something they, when something is always over your shoulder, you can either focus on it and worry about it, or just go to the shop and build some cool cars, you


Speaker 0: The Jorogun experience. You know the stem cell thing if he could if von Doom there could get on On the eyeball. I'd be very appreciative

Speaker 1: That would have do they let's tell everybody what happened to you because this is a crazy thing.

Speaker 0: Oh it's

Speaker 1: a real bummer right you yeah just out of nowhere started seeing dark spots right?

Speaker 0: No what happened was well little background I had already stage 1 was going into your local doctor I guy because you have metal in your eye oh wow cuz that's some of the fun that happens even when you're wearing safety glasses all the haters calm down we wear safety glasses how do you get in oh it just bounces around you know you're working with a carbide bit spinning at you know 15,000 rpm stuff bounces around but since then I have been using I found this place in France that makes these motor antique motorcycle war 1 aircraft goggles

Speaker 1: that seal use for duels

Speaker 0: I don't know that 1

Speaker 1: you don't know but it

Speaker 0: But it seals to your eyes and it's got little vents in it so they don't fog up. So, but anyway, I got metal in my eye, which is for those of you who haven't done it, it's Lots of fun. You hold still, you're wide awake, and they come at you with a Dremel drill bit, and they drill it out. Oh, Jesus. And the instructions are, hold still.

Speaker 1: Don't move. Right.

Speaker 0: Oh my God. I mean, they put a numbing drop in. But you still see the drill bit coming and yet easy easy you can hit The stuff you've been through I'm sure you can handle it.

Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why

Speaker 0: but so so I've been drilled a couple of times That sounds wrong And it if they came up with a photo of my I'd look like a golf ball little dimples when the drill comes in So anyway, that guy is like, you know when they're in there They're if they're experienced cats there. They just happen to look around right? Yeah, and he goes hey, I Think you should come back and talk to our other doctor so-and-so and have him do some tests because I saw some stuff Don't know but I think it'd be wise if you blah blah blah So I go in we do the test and the guy goes and this is Wow. This is a while ago 14 15 years ago. Here we are again with that time portal right he goes you have advanced glaucoma then I go what the hell is that he goes it's like creeping death it slowly takes your peripheral and most Adults don't know that they're going blind till they're 80 and it's moved so slow That you don't you don't notice the change right?

Well, mine's trucking along and so we start with medication that lowers in your eye You basically got a faucet and a drain and if the drains plugged up or if the faucets on overload, it's acting not like a water balloon but pressure builds. That pressure is think of your optic nerve right your brain is the cable TV company your eye is the expensive flat-screen TV and the cable connecting the 2 of them right that pressure building up is like somebody with a heel of his boot digging on that cable and sooner or later nothing right so you take medicine to reduce the pressure so it doesn't eat away at the optic nerve. Okay great we got that under control we're killer. So then probably 8, 9 years ago I have cataract surgery in my right eye and put the cataract lens in and it's like oh my gosh it's a crystal clear and beautiful and incredible you know stoked on it. About a year passes and I'm at PRI which is the race real serious race version of SEMA It's in Indianapolis so there's no fuzzy dice there.

It's all race car parts and stuff like that. And I'm walking around and I just, I don't know how to describe it, but it actually moved in stages like a curtain coming down of just gray and then you just saw gray and it was my retina falling off detaching so I'm an Indy And I fly back and get together with the doctors and they're like you got to put that shit up and Instead of doing the long version. I'll give you the short version 7 surgeries later And every time you have the surgery There's stitches in my eye. I'm and that's fun. That's way more fun than the drilling and you're laying face down for a week can't move and It just kept falling off.

They couldn't they couldn't go up. So I went to another surgeon I also have a buckle permanently sewn Into my eye did they try to change the shape of the eye to promote the retina staying up better?

Speaker 1: Oh boy.

Speaker 0: So anyway Got to new doctor great guy, dr A small e back home in Cali and he's like I got this man there's other guys there were losers we're gonna get it up there we're gonna stick it up that was surgery 6 and it didn't hold and he was more I think He was more depressed than I was. And so we scheduled 7 and he sat down with me. I remember before we went into the operating room, he goes, look, I don't think I can, I'm gonna go try to save your eye I'm not gonna save your sight Because and he he did it this way, which I thought was cool He went and did a little research to speak in my language and he goes when you're trying to weld metal if both the pieces are kind of rusty and beat up or whatever that it won't weld very good right I'm gonna go true you go so you got to have clean metal to clean metal to weld I go yes that's true He goes well all the attempts have just taken away the living oh shit out of the Retina so I'm gonna cut away the yucky stuff And I'm gonna have a new edge to They use a laser.

They basically the only thing they know how to do is tack weld it up. That's what they do, right? So he goes, I'm going to make new clean edges, I'm going to weld it up, you're going to lose some sight at least because I'm taking away part of the retina but I'm gonna save your eye because if the eye if we can't get something going on in there then your body will kill off your eye it shrinks back it's painful pop it out put a glass eye in I go yeah let's yeah let's not so he did that and He goes I cut away about a third of the retina and I had a visual like a vertical rectangle of sight right not all the way over to here to here here to here, but fast-forwarding scar tissue moved over and pretty much just eliminated they're like we can go in and I'm like no

Speaker 1: no

Speaker 0: we're not gonna go in and do anything so this one's basically gone you know that's that for now We'll see if science checks in. Do you know

Speaker 1: who Michael Bisping is?

Speaker 0: No, sir.

Speaker 1: Michael Bisping's 1 of the toughest human beings that's ever walked the face of the

Speaker 0: Earth.

Speaker 1: This is what I said, and not just because he was a UFC middleweight champion, but because Michael Bisping fought the last 10 fights of his UFC career, including winning the title blind in 1 eye. And he didn't tell them. He hid it. Oh, I heard about that. Yeah, he hid it.

Speaker 0: He didn't tell anybody.

Speaker 1: Do you know how gangster you have to be to want to be fighting the best fighters in the world? Dan Henderson.

Speaker 0: And not being able to see

Speaker 1: over here. Henderson Silva, and you can't see out of 1 eye. Like his 1 eye is gone, man.

Speaker 0: Yeah, I understand. Which is

Speaker 1: fighting world class fighters, that you can see his right eye is completely missing. It's like, it's just foggy. He wears like a little thing that goes over it, like a lens, so it looks normal. But he's a fucking stud. That guy fought 10 fights with 1 eye.

Just to think of fighting with 2 eyes is fucking terrifying. And fighting against the best guys in the world and he wins the title knocks out Luke Rockhold with 1 eye

Speaker 0: Yeah, well it took a lot. I would sit there and practice like basketball into garbage cans just to try to retain the Perception perception

Speaker 1: and the real issue right

Speaker 0: yeah, it's it's difficult, and then also it's it's frustrating when you're So anyway, the the fun I'll interrupt myself to continue with the fun So now I'm where I'm at right and they're like Your other eye is gonna need cataract surgery. Oh Jesus, and I'm like so I did ask When the retina fell off Hey, did the cataract surgery have anything to do with that possibly, you know and every doctor and every specialist and everybody I talked to all said the same thing I'm paraphrasing well any procedure on your eye may could might possibly have the possibility of

Speaker 1: like 1 of them commercials for

Speaker 0: a drug you know so it's like did the operation on your eye cause the retina fall off anything could maybe

Speaker 1: anything could maybe

Speaker 0: so anyway so now I've got to have cataract surgery on this 1 I got a great guy who's 1 of the best in the West Coast etc etc we do the surgery and there is a mistake in because they're account for my pressures they tried to keep the pressures low because my glaucoma well they went a little too far my pressures were down to your normal eyes run Like your eyes probably run at like 20, 22, you know, maybe even a little bit higher, but right around there for pressure inside. We'll call it, we'll call it air pressure. You know, it's not the right term, but so mine with medication, we keep it down at like 13 and 12, right? So when, after the second cataract surgery, the 1 on the 1 working eye they had dropped the pressure so low I coughed and it blew out blood vessels inside my eye, which when you wake up and you look, it looks like it's snowing inside your, it looks like it's snowing. And I'm like, what the hell's going on?

And at the same time, we did a special little surgery to like drill out the drain tube. Because in my eyes, the faucet's wide open and the drain tube's plugged. That builds the pressure. So the medicine turns the faucet down and clears away the drain tube, right? So we drill out the drain tube.

I'm over, I'm making this, I'm sure there's eye guys listening, that's not technically, look. They drilled the damn.

Speaker 1: Like you're describing mechanic work.

Speaker 0: Right, they drilled the damn tube open. So all the blood goes down and plugs that so that ruined that yay and so they rush me and they basically take a needle and insert fluid into my eye. I'm wide awake, mind you. Just 2 little, you ever been where the 2 handles under the table?

Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you grip

Speaker 0: on them? Yeah, motherfucker. Do they have

Speaker 1: your head secured or anything? No, you

Speaker 0: just put it in the little foamy breeze.

Speaker 1: Oh boy.

Speaker 0: So they do that and that was miscalculated and the pressures went to like 62 and I I was I was What's the word? Terrified. No, I I was Throwing up. I couldn't stand up. I was so disoriented because it was I mean it was screwing with the deal and So the doc who again great guy.

I'm still I'm not slamming him and he actually met me at his office alike I don't even know when it was 3 in the morning or and and I'm throwing up in his bushes out front right and he did this 3 times head in the thing hands on the handle took a blade lifted my eye and let the let the pressure out let the fluid out so I'm like taking that right so now we get the pressures under control right and so that was 2 to 3 years ago and believe me every day when I wake up and I can see Mike is this the day this retina falls off I'm not gonna have a repeat of the last 1?

Speaker 1: 0 my god, I have clammy hands. I really do.

Speaker 0: I'm the 1 living through it. You don't have to worry about it. You're good.

Speaker 1: Yeah, but still, it's for you.

Speaker 0: Yeah, it's, you know, but it's like anything else. When someone has something they, when something is always over your shoulder, you can either focus on it and worry about it, or just go to the shop and build some cool cars, you

See all PowerfulJRE transcripts on Youtube

7 Eye Surgeries Later - Steve Strope's Crazy Story of Having His Retina Fall Off