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Sunday, June 29, 2014

Personal Update

(If you must have politics, please scroll down)

As regular readers of this blog know, I suffered a detached retina in September 2013 and had a very difficult and painful surgery on October 2.  The pain is gone now after several months of misery, but my vision in the operated eye is still somewhat compromised in that (1) lines which should be straight on a page or computer screen are wavy and (2) visual acuity for distance is not 20/20.  On the other hand, I can read with the repaired eye without a glass.

Both my ophthalmic surgeon and my retinal surgeon have constantly told me, "Full recovery takes up to seven years."  A long, long road!  I'm trying to be patient — not my strong suit.  However, the reality is this: it takes time for the epithelial cells of the retina to grow back; typically, they do not grow back in perfect alignment.  I have recently noticed some reduction in waviness, so I'm encouraged that growth is indeed occurring.

On July 26, I will again visit my ophthalmic surgeon for an evaluation as to the feasibility of repositioning the intraocular lens placed during my 1984 cataract surgery.  Because that IOL is slightly out of position, my visual acuity cannot be as good as I previously enjoyed.  At that same doctor's visit, my ophthalmologist will evaluate the other eye, which, in late May, suffered a stye-related infection requiring emergency medical treatment. Even now, that right eye has episodes of profuse tearing. **sigh**

Also on July 26, Mr. AOW will be evaluated for possible cataract surgery.

As my father-in-law wryly quipped upon suffering his own retinal detachment a few weeks after mine, "The eyes have it!"

26 comments:

  1. Before I got my eye put out –
    I liked as well to see
    As other creatures, that have eyes –
    And know no other way –

    But were it told to me, Today,
    That I might have the Sky
    For mine, I tell you that my Heart
    Would split, for size of me –

    The Meadows – mine –
    The Mountains – mine –
    All Forests – Stintless stars –
    As much of noon, as I could take –
    Between my finite eyes –

    The Motions of the Dipping Birds –
    The Morning’s Amber Road –
    For mine – to look at when I liked,
    The news would strike me dead –

    So safer – guess – with just my soul
    Opon the window pane
    Where other creatures put their eyes –
    Incautious – of the Sun –


    ~ Emioy Dickinson (1830-1886)

    Our friend Emily suffered a great deal too with incipient blindness, but she had another kind of vision –– the poet's ability to see –– and then to use her gift for verbal imagery to paint –– "Landscapes of the Soul."

    "Sweet are the uses of adversity."


    "ALL things work together for good to those who love God."

    He works in mysterious ways, indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. .

    Good luck on your recovery. Allow time to heal by not straining your eyes. Take a breather from reading and writing.

    Ema Nymton
    ~@:o?
    .

    ReplyDelete
  3. __ "PEEKABOO,
 I Almost See You" __
     
    Middle-aged life is merry, and I love to
    
___ lead it,
    
But there comes a day when your eyes
    
 ___ are all right but your arm isn't long
    
____ enough
    ____ to hold the telephone book where you can read it,

    And your friends get jocular, so you go
    
____  to the oculist,
    
And of all your friends he is the joculist,
    
So over his facetiousness let us skim,
    
Only noting that he has been waiting for you ever
    since
    
____ you said Good evening to his grandfather clock
    under
    
____ the impression that it was him,
    
And you look at his chart and it says SHRDLU
    QWERTYOP,
    
____  and you say Well, why SHRDNTLU QWERTYOP?
    and he
    
____ says one set of glasses won't do.
    
You need two.
    One for reading Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason
    and
    
____ Keats's "Endymion" with,
    
And the other for walking around without saying Hello
    
____ to strange wymion with.

    So you spend your time taking off your seeing glasses
    to put
    
____ on your reading glasses, and then remembering
    that your
    
____ reading glasses are upstairs or in the car,
    
And then you can't find your seeing glasses again
    because
    
____ without them on you can't see where they are.
    
Enough of such mishaps, they would try the patience
    of an
    
____ ox,
    
I prefer to forget both pairs of glasses and pass my
    declining
    
____ years saluting strange women and grandfather
    clocks.

    ~ Ogden Nash (1902-1871)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. FT,
      That poem by Ogden Nash is a gem!

      Delete
    2. It's interesting that Ogden lived from 1902 to 1871.

      Delete
    3. Well, Ed, I can only hope you got a little more out of Nash's work of genius than my silly typo. ;-)

      AOW knows what I have gone through with seven operations on my own eyes these past twelve years, and the acute infection that recently blinded my one good eye from which I am still struggling to recover, so I'm sure she at least will forgive the grievous error on my part. Whatever the odds against us, we must keep trying to do our best till one fine day we can try no more.

      Nash's remarkable humor has helped me maintain a better sense of perspective on the problems of aging and the genetic deficiencies from which I suffer. Life without humor would be intolerable, because its much too serious a thing to be taken too seriously.

      Cheers!

      Delete
  4. I once heard a rumor
    That without a sense of humor
    Life is apt
    To be more tedious and boring
    Than being trapped
    With a spouse who's prone to snoring
    In a costly hotel room
    When you'd prefer The Silence of The Tomb,
    And then feel guilt,
    As you writhe beneath the quilt,
    Because this expensive venture
    From which you long to run
    Chafes like a poorly fitted denture
    When the two of you intended to have fun!


    ~ FreeThinke - 6/29/14

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. FT,
      With a spouse who's prone to snoring

      You've met Mr. AOW? **wink**

      Delete
  5. Avis Herz said

    Tunajatihidi sana!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Eye pain is quite awful. I injured my eye many years ago (poked a hole in it) and so I have some idea of how miserable it can make you.

    Keeping up prayers for you and Mr. AOW

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am so sorry... :-( I cannot imagine the annoyance and disappointment for both of you.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Patience must be difficult but I hope continued improvement helps your spirits.

    Or maybe think of the alternative.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Perhaps the most irritating and the saddest part of my eye situation is my having to see my Mustang GT convertible (aka "my midlife crisis). I'm not willing to risk an eye injury by riding around in a convertible.

    I was hoping to be screaming up and down the roads in that Mustang well into my dotage.

    Realistically, of course, one's eyesight is more important than driving a muscle car. Still....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Goggles?
      I had severe dry eye a few years ago. I'm not sure why it left, but faceshields and goggles can alleviate the wind discomfort.

      Delete
    2. Ed,
      I thought of using goggles, but profuse tearing of the other eye has become a problem. Not quite sure why I've suddenly developed that tearing, which was not a problem a year ago.

      I do wear goggles when I swim but have to remove them frequently because of the tearing.

      I suppose that tearing is better than dry eye, so I'm not complaining all that much.

      Delete
  10. I have a buddy down here who had that done about a year ago, and he's progressed tremendously since then. Remember, doctors always give you the most conservative prognosis. You take care of yourself, and your patience will be rewarded by needing less of it. ;)

    It's amazing, isn't it? How far medicine has come in such a short period of history.

    Hang in there! http://www.coolgames.com/poke-the-eye.html - You gotta see this man! LOL! ;)

    JMJ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope to be fitted with new glasses in July. My distance vision in the eye that suffered the detached retina is quite compromised, and I'm not sure that I could drive at all if I had to depend solely on the operated eye.

      I am at risk for detached retina in the other eye, too. But so far, so good.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for proving me right once again, Jersey. I've always said when push comes to shove, you have a very kind heart. Now, if we could just persuade you to straighten out your politics, you'd make fitst-class human being. §;-)>

      Delete
  11. Thank God my glaucoma could be cured with laser surgery. It doesn't sound like fun you two.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Odie,
      We're hoping that the worst is over for a while.

      I have a high threshold for pain, but knife-digging-into-the-eye pain is brutal.

      Delete
  12. Replies
    1. Angel,
      I've cut back on the time that I spend blogging. But I will be stopping by your blog site in a few minutes.

      Delete
  13. Cataract surgery with lens implant is one of the most successful surgeries performed. Retinal surgery on the other hand is more inconsistent in it's outcome but you sound like you are doing terrific. Now you have a mirror with a slight wave in it and the reflection will be a little off. Over time you it will heal and you will accommodate the imperfection.
    Sounds like you are on the mend now it's time to relax, I know easier said than done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Skudrunner,
      More often than people realize, detached retinas occur after cataract surgery -- sometimes years later.

      I was an anomaly in that I had my first cataract surgery in 1984, when I was only 32 years old -- followed two years later by YAG-laser surgery. Twenty-five years later, I suffered the detached retina; many people don't live as long as 25 years after cataract surgery.

      My second cataract surgery was in 2008, when I was 56 years old.

      My brain is doing pretty well at dealing with the waviness. However, the fact that the IOL is slightly out of position is a problem that my brain cannot reconcile. I hope to be fitted with distance glasses in July so that my vision can be restored to much closer to the pre-detachment period.

      Delete
    2. Skudrunner,
      PS: I am finding some time to relax -- between summer tutoring sessions. Bills to pay!

      Delete
  14. Thoughts and prayers go out to you and Mr AOW. Keep the faith.

    ReplyDelete

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