Eyes on recovery!
My one week post-op appointment was today and everything looks really good. The doctor said my eye was healing beautifully and the retinal tear was completely sealed and re-attached. So after a week of sitting on the couch, or the floor, or the leather chair and either listening to my kindle or watching TV, I am cleared to read, use the computer and drive as long as I ease into it. I can also start doing some light exercise - spin bike, computrainer, vasa trainer, and walking. I should still be able to compete in Vegas - but that will be my first time back on the mountain bike and back in the water!
The surgery was weird. After getting completely knocked out for long enough to numb my eye and face on the left, I was woken up. I was completely covered in draping, with my left eye exposed. Fully alert and able to talk and hear. Could kinda see, but not. One of the nurses even asked where the music was! So the anaesthesiologist got to choose the music. The doc drained all the fluid from my eye, which was why I couldn't see anything. Then he used a laser to tack the retina down. I could see the flashes from the laser, but nothing else. The laser couldn't quite get to the tear well enough, so he also used a cryowand to freeze the flap so it would fully seal. Once everything looked good, he filled my eye with a gas bubble to hold everything in place. I was wheeled to recovery while he went out to talk to Nick.
And he must have given Nick quite the lecture about the restrictions I had, because Nick was just awesome. I couldn't read, couldn't lift anything. I had to keep my head upright during the day and only lay on my right side at night. Nick had to do everything for me for the first few days. My first day alone was bad - sitting on the couch, not really being able to see out of one eye is pretty scary.
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| The eyeball - this is what happened to me |
So what exactly happened? Who knows, but some how I got a small tear in my retina. The fluid from inside my eye started seeping between the retina and the rest of the eye, forcing the retina to tear away. That was why I had a small "hole" in my vision. If left alone, the entire retina could tear away, causing blindness. So it wasn't an elective surgery - it was have surgery and behave or possibly loose my sight in that eye.
The surgery was weird. After getting completely knocked out for long enough to numb my eye and face on the left, I was woken up. I was completely covered in draping, with my left eye exposed. Fully alert and able to talk and hear. Could kinda see, but not. One of the nurses even asked where the music was! So the anaesthesiologist got to choose the music. The doc drained all the fluid from my eye, which was why I couldn't see anything. Then he used a laser to tack the retina down. I could see the flashes from the laser, but nothing else. The laser couldn't quite get to the tear well enough, so he also used a cryowand to freeze the flap so it would fully seal. Once everything looked good, he filled my eye with a gas bubble to hold everything in place. I was wheeled to recovery while he went out to talk to Nick.
And he must have given Nick quite the lecture about the restrictions I had, because Nick was just awesome. I couldn't read, couldn't lift anything. I had to keep my head upright during the day and only lay on my right side at night. Nick had to do everything for me for the first few days. My first day alone was bad - sitting on the couch, not really being able to see out of one eye is pretty scary.
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