What a mouthful, but that is what the paper said when I signed the releases prior to surgery on the 14th.
I couldn't eat or drink after midnight. Just a minor inconvenience. Arrived as instructed at 11:30 a.m. at the outpatient surgery center.
Signed those papers, changed into the "gown" and started with eye drops. Plenty of time to relax for the 1:00 surgery. The nurse put in a port for the anesthesia. I was to have a "conscious sedation. "
About 1:00 the doctor and I went to the OR. I could hear and see, but not sure that any of my muscles would have responded if asked to do so. The surgery was over within the hour. He removed the vitreous fluid and the membrane that was covering my retina.
My recovery was quit easy. I had a patch over the eye. Felt tired and a bit loopy. I think that we left for home about 3:00. I took a nap and generally took it easy.
Kudos and gratitude for husband Don. He is my hero. And my nurse and driver!
And thanks to friends that fed us Wednesday and Thursday night.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Vitrectomy membranectomy--eye surgery
About 10 days ago I had surgery on one of my retinas. I post this in case this happens to any of you and also for my own recollections.
This is the history of my left eye. One year ago at a routine eye exam, I found out that my left eye was slacking and not seeing. My eye doctor did some tests and declared it a macular hole. He referred me to a retina specialist. I was there within the next week. The specialist's testing (apparently more sophisticated machinery) revealed that it was not a macular hole, but a membrane that had formed across the retina. He called it an epi-retinal membrane. I think it is more commonly ( if any of this is common) known as a macular pucker.
The cause is "idiopathic." It means that the medical community so far does not know what caused it, not that I am an idiot. I admit I felt pretty stupid that I hadn't noticed that my left eye was so bad. I could just say that my brain is so smart it just used images from my right eye so I didn't miss a beat.
Now that the diagnosis had been made the doctor said that we would just watch it. The internet is quite useful to learn about these issues. I returned to be checked in November 2012 and we wintered in Florida.
In May I had another check up back here in Iowa. The vision in the left eye was worse. I could also tell that my depth perception was unclear. I was having difficulty seeing the bottom step. That raises the concern of falling. Why do we have to worry about these issues? Anyway,we scheduled the surgery for August 14.
So that is the history of my left eye.
If you want to see if you have this issue, just cover one eye at a time and look at straight lines--both vertical and horizontal. My lines are not straight. When I look at the ocean I don't see a flat horizon. My ocean has little bumps--like small islands out there.
I'll write about the surgery and recovery later.
This is the history of my left eye. One year ago at a routine eye exam, I found out that my left eye was slacking and not seeing. My eye doctor did some tests and declared it a macular hole. He referred me to a retina specialist. I was there within the next week. The specialist's testing (apparently more sophisticated machinery) revealed that it was not a macular hole, but a membrane that had formed across the retina. He called it an epi-retinal membrane. I think it is more commonly ( if any of this is common) known as a macular pucker.
The cause is "idiopathic." It means that the medical community so far does not know what caused it, not that I am an idiot. I admit I felt pretty stupid that I hadn't noticed that my left eye was so bad. I could just say that my brain is so smart it just used images from my right eye so I didn't miss a beat.
Now that the diagnosis had been made the doctor said that we would just watch it. The internet is quite useful to learn about these issues. I returned to be checked in November 2012 and we wintered in Florida.
In May I had another check up back here in Iowa. The vision in the left eye was worse. I could also tell that my depth perception was unclear. I was having difficulty seeing the bottom step. That raises the concern of falling. Why do we have to worry about these issues? Anyway,we scheduled the surgery for August 14.
So that is the history of my left eye.
If you want to see if you have this issue, just cover one eye at a time and look at straight lines--both vertical and horizontal. My lines are not straight. When I look at the ocean I don't see a flat horizon. My ocean has little bumps--like small islands out there.
I'll write about the surgery and recovery later.
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