Grandma Evie and her bubble

Grandma Evie’s eye bubble

If you have a little sore or cut on your finger you put a band-aid on it to stop the bleeding and to hold the skin together while it heals.  Like this

But what if you’re  Grandma Evie and have a little cut or sore on the inside of an eyeball?

The eyeball is like a ball with some gooey, jelly like stuff called “vitreous” inside.  Grandma’s Evie’s sore is on the inside edge of the ball at a place called the “macula”.  You can see where it is on the picture. How can Grandma Evie put a band-aid on the inside of her eyeball to hold the macula skin in place while the sore heals?

Some very clever doctors had the idea of essentially putting a balloon inside Grandma Evie’s eye and the pressure of the balloon floating inside would press against the macula to hold it in place until the sore heals.

Actually, they don’t really put an actual balloon inside the eye but using a needle pump in air into the gooey jelly like stuff in the middle making a bubble inside the eye like this:

But there is a problem. This is like Grandma Evie’s eye when she is sitting or standing up straight. On this picture the left side is what we see on the face and the right side is the back of the eye that is inside the head. Look carefully. The bubble is at the top of the eye, but Grandma’s Evie’s sore is on the macula, which is in the center, back of the eye. The bubble is in the wrong place.

The bubble inside the eye works just like a bubble in a level. The air bubble inside the liquid always rises to the top.

So, if we want the bubble inside the eye to push against the macula where Grandma Evie’s sore is, what should Grandma Evie do? 

Look what happens when Grandma Evie looks down (in the picture the face is down and the back of the eye is on the top)

Looking down the bubble (just like in the level) floats to the top and presses against the back of the eye where is the macula is and, since that is where Grandma Evie’s sore is, it is perfect place for the bubble.

But just like the level, if Grandma Evie looks up, the bubble will go back to the top. 

And this is why Grandma Evie has this special chair to sit in to help her look down.

Grandma Evie also has this attachment to the bed so she can sleep face down. The little white table or ledge is to rest her hands on while see sleeps, but Grandma Evie also uses it to put her book on while she reads.

But how do you get the bubble out of the eye once the sore is healed?  If you have a band-aid, you just pull it off, which sometimes hurts. Lucky for Grandma, this bubble just goes away overtime, just like the air in a balloon or air in your bike tire. After awhile it just seeps out. As sore is healing, the air in the bubble seeps out and by the time the sore is healed the bubble is all gone.

In the meantime, Grandma Evie is a walking bubble level. She can see the bubble and it moves up and down as she moves her face up and down (but she’s supposed to keep her head down). Cool!!