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!"
Before I got my eye put out –
ReplyDeleteI 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.
.
ReplyDeleteGood luck on your recovery. Allow time to heal by not straining your eyes. Take a breather from reading and writing.
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
.
__ "PEEKABOO, I Almost See You" __
ReplyDeleteMiddle-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)
FT,
DeleteThat poem by Ogden Nash is a gem!
It's interesting that Ogden lived from 1902 to 1871.
DeleteWell, Ed, I can only hope you got a little more out of Nash's work of genius than my silly typo. ;-)
DeleteAOW 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!
I once heard a rumor
ReplyDeleteThat 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
FT,
DeleteWith a spouse who's prone to snoring
You've met Mr. AOW? **wink**
Avis Herz said
ReplyDeleteTunajatihidi sana!
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.
ReplyDeleteKeeping up prayers for you and Mr. AOW
I am so sorry... :-( I cannot imagine the annoyance and disappointment for both of you.
ReplyDeletePatience must be difficult but I hope continued improvement helps your spirits.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe think of the alternative.
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.
ReplyDeleteI 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....
Goggles?
DeleteI had severe dry eye a few years ago. I'm not sure why it left, but faceshields and goggles can alleviate the wind discomfort.
Ed,
DeleteI 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.
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. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt'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
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.
DeleteI am at risk for detached retina in the other eye, too. But so far, so good.
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. §;-)>
DeleteThank God my glaucoma could be cured with laser surgery. It doesn't sound like fun you two.
ReplyDeleteOdie,
DeleteWe'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.
feel better..I miss u:(
ReplyDeleteAngel,
DeleteI've cut back on the time that I spend blogging. But I will be stopping by your blog site in a few minutes.
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.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are on the mend now it's time to relax, I know easier said than done.
Skudrunner,
DeleteMore 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.
Skudrunner,
DeletePS: I am finding some time to relax -- between summer tutoring sessions. Bills to pay!
Thoughts and prayers go out to you and Mr AOW. Keep the faith.
ReplyDelete