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Jordan Pysz / ifoundmydoctor.com
Thomas required treatment for coronary artery disease before he could undergo cataract surgery.
Before Thomas Insley retired in 2016, he sold mattresses for a Tampa retailer for nearly 17 years. The Washington, DC, native viewed the job as a calling to “help people sleep better.” But selling mattresses was a far cry from the work Thomas did in his previous vocation as a gemologist.
“My father was a watchmaker, and we decided that once I graduated from school we would open a small jewelry business in Crystal City, Virginia,” recounts Thomas, 64. “That’s where I started my career. I worked for 19 years as a jeweler in our store.
“After that, I traveled as a salesperson to Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee wholesaling diamonds, precious stones and jewelry.”
After several years on the road, Thomas decided to stop driving and settle down in one location. He and his wife had a choice of communities to call home.
“We had the opportunity to go to New Hampshire or Tampa,” he recollects. “My wife said she wasn’t going to go up north and listen to the seats crack in the wintertime, so we came down to Florida. That was in 1998, and I soon began selling mattresses.”
Thomas is thankful that his traveling sales days are far behind him because health issues, including one that greatly affected his vision, began to intensify.
“Initially, I had a problem with diabetes,” Thomas describes. “My average blood sugar (A1c) over three months was 12, which is extremely high. (The goal is less than seven.) My primary care doctor started me on diabetes medications and my blood sugar eventually went down.
“Then last March, I suddenly realized I couldn’t see clearly out of my left eye. I was already having trouble seeing out of my right eye, so I wasn’t able to drive anymore. When I went to my primary care doctor to see what was wrong, he referred me to Dr. Taylor.”
Lead Detective
Lawrence C. Taylor Jr., MD, is a board-certified ophthalmologist at Brandon Eye Associates. While evaluating Thomas’ eyes, Dr. Taylor discovered a mature cataract in his right eye and a partial cataract in his left eye.
Cataracts develop as a result of protein deposits building up in the lens. They are a common issue related to aging, but they were actually the least of Thomas’ problems.
The greater concern discovered by Dr. Taylor was a right homonymous hemianopsia, (pronounced hem-ee-uh-NOP-see-uh), which causes a person to see only one side of the vision field – left or right – in both eyes.
“The only way patients can get blockages in the same area of their vision in both eyes simultaneously is from a brain defect, either a tumor or a stroke,” Dr. Taylor educates. “The vast majority of times it’s a stroke, which can be confirmed on a brain scan.”
To verify the defect, Dr. Taylor ordered an MRI, which showed that Thomas had unknowingly suffered a stroke. Dr. Taylor then referred Thomas back to his primary care physician.
“My primary care doctor told me that before I could have cataract surgery, I had to get checked out by a neurologist and cardiologist,” Thomas remembers. “The neurologist said, Go ahead and get your eyes done. Best of luck! My cardiologist had different ideas.”
During a vascular examination, the cardiologist learned Thomas had significant coronary artery disease, a buildup of clogging plaque in the walls of the arteries that supply the heart.
“I told him I got cramps in my legs when I cut the grass and felt a little pain in my chest,” Thomas says of his visit with the cardiologist. “He scheduled me for an angioplasty to place stents in my clogged arteries to improve blood flow through my heart.
“But when they were checking my heart for that procedure, they quickly removed the catheter and sent me upstairs for open heart surgery. I received a triple bypass. That was last May. It wasn’t until October that I was able to finally get my cataracts out.”
Back to Cataracts
Studies show that by age 65, more than 90 percent of people develop a cataract. However, factors other than aging, including diabetes, can cause the condition at a younger age. Dr. Taylor believes diabetes was a major factor in the formation of Thomas’ cataracts.
The only treatment for cataracts is surgery to remove the affected lenses, a common procedure typically performed on one eye at a time a week or two apart.
Cataract surgery starts with the breakup and removal of the clouded lens, which is replaced by an artificial intraocular lens (IOL) that permanently corrects the vision.
After being forced to wait several months for his surgery, Thomas was eager for Dr. Taylor to remove the cataracts. He was impressed by the ease of the surgery and very pleased with the results.
“The surgery didn’t take very long, 15 to 20 minutes at most,” Thomas says. “Afterward, they put a patch on my eye and placed a protector around it so it didn’t get hit. The procedure didn’t hurt; it was pretty painless.
“Dr. Taylor tested my eyes at my follow-up visit. My left eye was 20/20 and my right eye was 20/25, so my vision improved significantly. I can see better now than I ever could. I can see to drive and do pretty much anything else I want to do.”
Thomas couldn’t be happier with Dr. Taylor’s work, for the cataract surgery and for alerting him to the more serious issue affecting his heart.
“Dr. Taylor is very nice and very capable,” Thomas raves. “He did a steady job of removing my cataracts. He actually talked to me when I had my surgery, so I was very relaxed. He really put me at ease.”
Dr. Taylor says he was just one part of a team of doctors who worked to resolve Thomas’ more serious health issue.
“This is an example of a routine exam revealing a larger problem, which could have been fatal,” he concludes. “Essentially, I was the lead detective in this case because I uncovered Thomas’ stroke. His primary care physician and cardiologist took the case from there and performed the treatments that may have saved his life.”
