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Look down. Look waaay down
Dec. 27th, 2015 01:47 pmAnd for those who like to rock... sorry, but the rocking chair has been removed to make way for a vitrectomy chair.
On November 23, I had eye surgery to repair a macular hole in my left eye. The thinning of the macula was forcing away the vitreous gel in the eye and resulting in poor straight-ahead vision in my left eye. If I looked at an image through that eye, the image would appear all broken-up. So the procedure involved scraping away the vitreous residue and injecting a gas bubble, which then was to expand and close the gap. Or something like that - that's a layperson's interpretation of it, anyway!
The good news is that the surgery seems to have been successful. The not-as-good news is that the convalescence has been a little more arduous than I expected.
Although it was just day surgery and I was conscious (though sedated and fitted with an intravenous drip) throughout, the usual pre- and post-surgery instructions still applied. No solid food after midnight the evening before, and only clear fluids the morning of. So I had a cup of black coffee and a glass of apple juice (milk and o.j. were off-limits) before arriving for my 7AM appointment. After surgery I was to spend as much time as possible - at least 45 minutes of every hour - in a face-downward position, for 5 to 7 days. Hence the aforementioned vitrectomy chair. No lifting any weight greater than 20 lb. for at least two weeks, and no strenuous exercise for at least a month.
As it turned out, I didn't use the vitrectomy chair very much. Nor did I need the contraption designed for lying down - a pillow with a hole in the middle, supported by a metal frame. They're clever devices, mind you, and the rental fee was mostly refunded by my supplementary health care plan.
I had initially assumed that I would be required to sleep on my stomach, not a very natural position for me. Not so. I was told instead to lie on my right side, with my chin tucked in towards the pillow. For sitting up, I was instructed to simply look down at my lap as if I was reading. There was no particular requirement to put my nose practically down to my knee. The few times I did use my special chair, I just listened to music or looked down at my laptop (resting it on the little shelf below) so I could deal with e-mails, surf the net and enlarge the font as needed.
What I wasn't so prepared for was the dramatic drop in my energy levels and overall stamina. For the first week, I didn't go out at all, except for my 8AM appointment the next day to get my eye-patch off (enabling me once again to wear my glasses), and then again at the end of the week to return the rented equipment. For a couple of days, about all I felt like doing was flopping in bed, listening to the radio. I gradually started getting up for a little longer each day. In the second week, I resumed my daily morning walks, although I still didn't have much energy. And I wasn't really confident enough to go out alone, since my eyes weren't functioning in tandem - they still aren't, although they're much better than they were and improving day by day.
My first solo foray was on December 7, exactly 2 weeks after my surgery. I went to a library community holiday social at a downtown pub. I also bought myself a new pair of winter boots, with retractable ice grippers in the soles. I'm terrified of falling, since my weird vision is making me into even more of a klutz than usual. Luckily we've been having an unseasonably mild December so far, so there was no ice or snow to worry about that day.
My 2-week post-surgical checkup was two days later, on December 9 at the Retina Centre. I had somehow naively expected that by then, my vision might almost be back to normal but my doctor, although reasonably pleased with my progress, informed me that the blurriness in my left eye would persist for several more weeks or even a few months yet. He also said the pressure in the eye was up a bit, although that wasn't unusual after this operation. He prescribed eyedrops to counteract that. Given that my dad had glaucoma and my mother had macular degeneration (not the same thing as a macular hole), I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best... as well as donating to the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which seems to have funded a few promising research breakthroughs in recent years. Still, when I asked the doctor if my macular hole was an inherited condition, he said no, I was just unlucky. Hmmm.
I made another solo foray on December 16, when I attended a seasonal breakfast at Gibsons (which used to be the Southern Cross). Afterwards, I did a bit of Christmas shopping and returned home about 1PM. It could almost have 1AM, I was so exhausted. I've developed a new appreciation this year for online Christmas shopping!
So far, I'm definitely glad I got the surgery done. I did fleetingly wonder when I signed the waiver if I was signing my life away, even though the odds were certainly in my favour. I was told that in about 10% of cases, the eye will revert to how it was before and that there was a 1% chance of "something really bad" happening. When I asked for clarification of "really bad", he said "well, like an infection or something like that." But it was already starting to heal the next day and progress has been steady if a little slower than I hoped. The staff at the Riverside, the Retina Centre and even Handi-House where I rented the equipment were all very attentive and solicitous.
My next doctor's appointment will be towards the end of January. I mustn't fly anywhere for several months and it will probably be about that long before I can get my eyes tested again and reliably determine what sort of a glasses prescription I need. But in general, the future looks fairly rosy and hopefully not so blurry!
On November 23, I had eye surgery to repair a macular hole in my left eye. The thinning of the macula was forcing away the vitreous gel in the eye and resulting in poor straight-ahead vision in my left eye. If I looked at an image through that eye, the image would appear all broken-up. So the procedure involved scraping away the vitreous residue and injecting a gas bubble, which then was to expand and close the gap. Or something like that - that's a layperson's interpretation of it, anyway!
The good news is that the surgery seems to have been successful. The not-as-good news is that the convalescence has been a little more arduous than I expected.
Although it was just day surgery and I was conscious (though sedated and fitted with an intravenous drip) throughout, the usual pre- and post-surgery instructions still applied. No solid food after midnight the evening before, and only clear fluids the morning of. So I had a cup of black coffee and a glass of apple juice (milk and o.j. were off-limits) before arriving for my 7AM appointment. After surgery I was to spend as much time as possible - at least 45 minutes of every hour - in a face-downward position, for 5 to 7 days. Hence the aforementioned vitrectomy chair. No lifting any weight greater than 20 lb. for at least two weeks, and no strenuous exercise for at least a month.
As it turned out, I didn't use the vitrectomy chair very much. Nor did I need the contraption designed for lying down - a pillow with a hole in the middle, supported by a metal frame. They're clever devices, mind you, and the rental fee was mostly refunded by my supplementary health care plan.
I had initially assumed that I would be required to sleep on my stomach, not a very natural position for me. Not so. I was told instead to lie on my right side, with my chin tucked in towards the pillow. For sitting up, I was instructed to simply look down at my lap as if I was reading. There was no particular requirement to put my nose practically down to my knee. The few times I did use my special chair, I just listened to music or looked down at my laptop (resting it on the little shelf below) so I could deal with e-mails, surf the net and enlarge the font as needed.
What I wasn't so prepared for was the dramatic drop in my energy levels and overall stamina. For the first week, I didn't go out at all, except for my 8AM appointment the next day to get my eye-patch off (enabling me once again to wear my glasses), and then again at the end of the week to return the rented equipment. For a couple of days, about all I felt like doing was flopping in bed, listening to the radio. I gradually started getting up for a little longer each day. In the second week, I resumed my daily morning walks, although I still didn't have much energy. And I wasn't really confident enough to go out alone, since my eyes weren't functioning in tandem - they still aren't, although they're much better than they were and improving day by day.
My first solo foray was on December 7, exactly 2 weeks after my surgery. I went to a library community holiday social at a downtown pub. I also bought myself a new pair of winter boots, with retractable ice grippers in the soles. I'm terrified of falling, since my weird vision is making me into even more of a klutz than usual. Luckily we've been having an unseasonably mild December so far, so there was no ice or snow to worry about that day.
My 2-week post-surgical checkup was two days later, on December 9 at the Retina Centre. I had somehow naively expected that by then, my vision might almost be back to normal but my doctor, although reasonably pleased with my progress, informed me that the blurriness in my left eye would persist for several more weeks or even a few months yet. He also said the pressure in the eye was up a bit, although that wasn't unusual after this operation. He prescribed eyedrops to counteract that. Given that my dad had glaucoma and my mother had macular degeneration (not the same thing as a macular hole), I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best... as well as donating to the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which seems to have funded a few promising research breakthroughs in recent years. Still, when I asked the doctor if my macular hole was an inherited condition, he said no, I was just unlucky. Hmmm.
I made another solo foray on December 16, when I attended a seasonal breakfast at Gibsons (which used to be the Southern Cross). Afterwards, I did a bit of Christmas shopping and returned home about 1PM. It could almost have 1AM, I was so exhausted. I've developed a new appreciation this year for online Christmas shopping!
So far, I'm definitely glad I got the surgery done. I did fleetingly wonder when I signed the waiver if I was signing my life away, even though the odds were certainly in my favour. I was told that in about 10% of cases, the eye will revert to how it was before and that there was a 1% chance of "something really bad" happening. When I asked for clarification of "really bad", he said "well, like an infection or something like that." But it was already starting to heal the next day and progress has been steady if a little slower than I hoped. The staff at the Riverside, the Retina Centre and even Handi-House where I rented the equipment were all very attentive and solicitous.
My next doctor's appointment will be towards the end of January. I mustn't fly anywhere for several months and it will probably be about that long before I can get my eyes tested again and reliably determine what sort of a glasses prescription I need. But in general, the future looks fairly rosy and hopefully not so blurry!
