Picked up a random poetry book From the crowded shelf. Quick easy hour read: Delight and wonder. Then, Found…
Unexpected Blessings Through Emergency Eye Surgery
At the beginning of March this year, I suffered with a head cold as usual. What was not usual however was the dark curtain shadow in my left eye that developed and continued to get worse.
In retrospect, I should have called my doctor at the first sign of the curtain, but I thought I would be okay to wait a month for my scheduled yearly exam.
I tell the following story based on the one my husband wrote up for his co-workers to explain why he’d been absent from work.
Tuesday March 18th, I was all packed and eager to join my aunt at the airport to fly to New Orléans to meet my other aunt and my grandma. Before though, I had to visit my eye doctor for my yearly visit. I had originally scheduled my appointment for that Friday. Not planning on being back from our trip yet, I was able to switch appointments with my mom, who goes to the same doctor.
At my appointment, the doctor began with the usual prescription checking, “1 or 2”, but then under the slit lamp, he saw what he should have checked first.
He said, “Okay, I am going to stop right here. You have a severely detached retina. You should go to the retina specialist [now]. I’ll have my receptionist call over there immediately and get you in. Hopefully, you can get this fixed today, but this is an emergency.”
No getting on an airplane.
No vacation.
No food or drink either.
We waited for a few hours for the retina specialist to squeeze me into his already busy day. The worst part of waiting was not only knowing the truth behind why the curtain was blocking my vision , but also having my eyes dilated and having to sit in the waiting room with a dozen other patients, all twenty plus years older than me at least, and enduring the obnoxious game show “Let’s Make a Deal.” Normally, I enjoy the host, Wayne Brady, but this was just not my day.
This doctor stabbed between my eyelids around my eye repeatedly (in both eyes) with some metal chopsticks I could not see only feel. With a bright light on his forehead, he had me look “Look Up. Okay now down. Look at your toes. Look down at your toes. Okay look up again, at the ceiling please. Look left, look up and left…” I don’t know about you but when someone is digging around your eye socket with metal chopsticks and pointing a blinding light in your eyes, it is very difficult to follow these type of directions. I had been silently crying in the waiting room and now I was just mad at the situation. I was powerless to do anything but what the doctor said, so I had to keep in my feelings.
He rattled off my options, “You need surgery to fix this. We can fix 90% of cases in one procedure. We can fix 95% of cases in two procedures. There’s 5% we cannot fix. Not getting this done will result in total loss of vision in that eye.”
Before I knew it, my husband was driving me right to the hospital, where a room was waiting in the surgery pre-op center for me. A friendly nurse prepared me with an IV and a series of special eye drops. As the aesthetician was wheeling me into surgery, my husband stopped him and gave me a big kiss.
The next thing I remember is waking up groggy, and with very blurry vision in my right eye. There was a bandage and patch over my left eye, which was completely dark. I heard a male and female nurse chatting to me as I slowly woke up. Â I have no idea what they looked like, but I appreciated their care. I was then taken to a patient room for more observation until my husband was able to take me home.
From 8am to 11pm, the whole day turned out to be very surreal.
Since then, I have had to be laying on my right side or face down for two weeks post surgery. My muscles are cramped from getting no exercise, and my brain is anxious to get back to a normal routine again.
Still, I have learned that sometimes you need more than a friendly nudge to get something taken care of for whatever reason.
If my aunt had not invited me to go with her on a trip, and if my mom had not had an appointment at the same place and the same week as me (but earlier), then who knows what would have happened to my vision.
I’d rather not think about it.
Instead, here is my wisdom for you: problems with your eyes cannot be put off.
Our minds and physical bodies can take longer for us to actually seek help (depending on the situation, and of course, call 911 if it is a medical emergency), but when there is something abnormal with your vision, it is most likely an emergency. Do not put off seeking medical attention.
This have been my personal story. My recovery is another one entirely.
If you are interested in learning more about how to repair a detached retina, check out this link: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/retinal-detachment/symptoms-causes/syc-20351344
Thank you for sharing.