Patrick Gower is opening up about requiring emergency surgery after nearly losing his eyesight.
The Kiwi journalist has spent the last ten weeks recovering from a detached retina operation on his left eye.
Gower had developed a 'detached retina' - where a part of the eye pulls away from the supportive tissue "literally tearing away your sight" and allowing fluid to seep inside.
Symptoms include flashes of light, visual disturbances, epic eye pain and a looming grey curtain slowly blinding you.
Retinal detachment is an emergency and prompt medical treatment is needed to save vision in the eye.
"It's not fun," Gower tells The Project on Monday.
On February 5, Gower was walking his dog when he noticed a small blind spot on his left eye.
"Because I've had a lot of eye trouble, I went and had it checked out immediately and they said that my retina was detaching," he says.
"I was sent to Wellington Hospital where I had that brilliant operation to seal it back in there."
But this was not the first time it had happened. Gower's right retina detached in 2014 and he had the same operation then.
"It's been a pretty brutal time but I feel really lucky to be able to see at the moment," he says.
Gower says he was reluctant to share his story but believed it was important to get the message out there.
"I actually wasn't going to talk about it tonight because I felt - stupidly - that it's a sign of weakness to have, sort of… sight loss and it's despite me knowing a lot about it and I just sort of didn't want to do it," he says.
"But I know my 180,000 friends out there who are blind and low-sight Kiwis - I know how important it is to them that people know that you can't get help if you immediately go and do it.
"You've got to act fast or else it will be gone."
