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My Eye, My Dad and Our Day

Thursday, 23 December 2010 By Leave a Comment

I’d been looking forward to today for the past dozen days. Back on 10 Dec, I went to my retina doc, who, as previously mentioned, noticed three things that he thought were causing my vision to be worse than it had been. Two of three “issues” were cornea related, while one was retina related (and not correctable.) Today, I had an appointment with my cornea doc, Dr. Ayres.

As I was getting out of the shower, I heard the phone ring. Jacob answered it downstairs. Since he didn’t come up to mention the call, I figured it wasn’t for me. Minutes later, after taking my morning eye drop, Jake came in and told me my mom called. He went on to tell me that my mom said my dad was having shortness of breath and chest discomfort and they were going to the hospital. I sat back on the bed and thought about canceling my appointment. Since my mom didn’t ask to get me on the phone, I assumed it was a precautionary trip to the hospital (I later found out my dad didn’t want to go to the hospital, but since he mentioned chest pain, the Maris Grove staff wouldn’t take no for an answer.) I tried to reach my mom on her mobile, but didn’t get an answer. I felt selfish, but I decided I’d keep my doctor’s appointment.

We arrived early for my 9.45 appointment (seven minutes is early for us…) After we checked in, Eliz tried to call my mom. She got the voicemail (and knowing my mom can barely make and receive calls, didn’t leave a message. A minute or two later, Eliz’s phone rang and she handed the phone to me since she needed some insurance info for the receptionist. It was my mom. I spoke to her and then my dad. My mom told me what was going on. My dad told me, “Don’t count the money yet.” At that point, I felt I made the right decision to go to my appointment.

A few minutes later, I went back into (Eye) Pod 1. I was able to read the L (but not the S) on the SL line (which is the 20/200 line.) Dr. Ayres came in a few minutes later. He asked how things were going and I told him about my appointment 12 days earlier with Dr. Garg. He seemed to get defensive when I told him what Dr. Garg said. Dr. Ayres then had a look at both eyes. He started on the right one and quickly moved on to the left after saying, “That one is trash.” This I already knew. I haven’t seen anything but light with that eye since the last century… After he looked at the left eye he told me that it looked pretty similar as previous visits.

He said the transplant looked good, though was less than perfect. (It’s from a 69 year old donor and I’ve had it for two years.) He didn’t see signs of rejection. He said he could do another transplant if I wanted, but he didn’t think it could be too much better. The downside was too steep for me, so we’ll revisit that at a later date. Dr. Ayres also noticed a bit of haze behind the lens implanted in the cataract extraction in April of this year. It’s called posterior capsule opacity. It can be dealt with doing a procedure called YAG laser capsulotomy. He said there is very little downside to this, so I am scheduled to have this done on 20 January. I’m not sure if this counts as my 16th surgery or not…

Once we finished up with my appointment, we headed down Route 1 to Riddle Hospital to see my dad. We spent about three hours with him. The cardiologist met with all of us and said he didn’t think the problem was a heart issue. After running Jane to a friends for a birthday party and a trip to Newark DE to pick up a small order, we returned to Riddle at 5.15. We visited with my dad for about 45 minutes and then took my mom home, stopping for dinner on the way (she treated us to Ruby’s Diner.) My dad was tired and seemed to want us to go. Hopefully he gets some rest and is able to go home tomorrow.

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Filed Under: cataract, event, eye check, family, surgery Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

One Week After Cataract Removal

Friday, 23 April 2010 By Leave a Comment

By this time last Thursday I was sleeping.  I guess I still had the pain and sleepy meds running in my system.  So I’m getting back to my “normal” routine.  It seems I get the most work done when everyone else in the house is sleeping and I don’t have phone calls to answer.  11:30 to whenever I go to sleep (usually between 1:00 and 2:00) is probably my most productive time working on the site or promoting it.

The fact that I can do that with some confidence is a result of the surgery.  I use reading glasses that enables me to see the computer screen more clearly than I did prior to the surgery.  I have the font size at +2 (two steps above medium,) which is where I used to have it.  I am now also able to read, briefly, without the screen being reversed.  For those not familiar with Macs, you can easily reverse the screen to see a negative view.  Fonts that are usually black on a white background are reversed and become white on a black background.  If my eye improve a little more, I may even be able to use a Windows machine (though why would I want to do that?  Our point-of-sale system runs on a Windows machine…)

Other achievements I’ve had in the past week include seeing colors more vividly.  I love just walking outside and looking around.  The grass and leaves are so green and the sky is so blue.  Flowers seem to have so much more color.  I can also see cars on the road, signs on buildings, and, on the down side, marks and dirt on the carpet and walls.

Watching TV has become enjoyable again.  I can now tell characters apart, where as before the surgery I was happy if I could tell if a character was white or black.  I’ve also noticed that I am reading the ticker(s) at the bottom of the screen while I watch Bloomberg, CNBC, FNC or CNN.  All the graphics on the news and sports looks sooo good.

The best thing for me so far on TV has been watching the Flyers.  I don’t know if it is just from the surgery or also from watching in HD, but I can follow the puck much better that I’ve been able to in a long, long time.  I guess it doesn’t hurt that they’ve been winning either.  Lets see if I enjoy watching them play the Caps…  I do like Ovechkin — he is one of my favorite players.  He is a complete, tough player, unlike Crosby who is a gifted player but the worlds biggest crybaby.

My first outing to a sporting event was this past Monday.  I went to Jane’s softball game against Abington Friends.  I was very happy how much more of the action I was able to follow.  I did lose track of the ball on some hits though.  I enjoyed the game even though Jane’s team lost (though Jane knocking in a run and scored another) and the umpire was terrible (though that is not why they lost.)  I am looking forward to watching some of Jake’s lacrosse games.  His last game before my surgery, I had trouble seeing the players who weren’t near the sideline we were on.

Lets face it, my eyes still suck in a big way, BUT, I can see so much more than I could before the surgery.  I have more confidence wondering around a store by myself (of course, until I get glasses or better reading glasses, I still can’t see what is on the shelf…)  I’d also be comfortable finding the bathroom on my own in a restaurant, which is something I would not do before the surgery.  I am still hopeful of reading printed material and throwing a ball around with Jane or Jake.  Maybe next week…

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Filed Under: cataract, low vision, recovery, surgery Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

EyeOp XIV Report

Saturday, 17 April 2010 By Leave a Comment

I figured that I’ve gone through enough eye surgeries that I can label them in roman numerals.  In fact, if I had some time, I’d probably do this post on video, with cool graphics and theme music like a championship game post game show.  Here it is, without video, cool graphics, awesome theme music, and John Fecenda doing the voiceover:

Welcome to the Hotels.com EyeOp XIV Report.  We’ll take you through the entire operation from warm-ups to the very end.  The patient walked in relaxed and comfortable, but lacking any fashion sense in a button down Tigger shirt, grey sweatpants, and sneakers.  At check-in, he was informed of a last-second audible that there would be no transplant on this day, just the cataract extraction.  Not flustered by the surprising news, he moved to the waiting area and went through the word scrambles as quickly as Eliz could read him the letters.  Then, his number was called.  It was time.

In the prep area, he relaxed while Lisa went over the plan and put some “face paint” above his left eye.  There wasn’t a flinch when she put the IV into his left hand.  After a brief meeting with the surgeon, Dr. Ayres — where additional “face paint” was added above the left eye and a reason was given for not being prepared to do the partial cornea transplant (if it wasn’t needed, the tissue would have been wasted) — Dr. Curtis came over to start the IV.  She remarked that the patient already looked relaxed and sleepy before starting the IV.

At 11:06 am, the players took the field.  The patient was so very comfortable, only spoke to the doctor once or twice and enjoyed “twilight” (minus the vampires.)  Within 30 to 45 minutes there was a pat on the shoulder from Dr. Ayers and it was off to recovery.  After a grueling victory, the patient celebrated was a cool cup of water and an apple cinnamon bar.  He was given last minute instructions (keep the shield on, don’t get water — or anything else — in the eye, take 12 eye drops per day, etc,) and put his chai (jewish symbol for life, not spiced Indian tea) necklace back on.  Three hours after arriving, it was time to go home.

The 1-800 Contacts Great Sight of the Day was everything outside!  The grass and the trees looked greener.  The buildings had depth and dimension.  Some signs on buildings could be read.  So far, so good.

So that’s how the Hotels.com EyeOp XIV Report would end.  But the healing continues.  This morning, on our way to the first post op appointment, I was able to see more signs on buildings and stores and read some advertising on buses.  At my appointment, the doctor said everything looked good and I was able to read some of the 20/100 line without the pinholes.  I was even able to read the A in the CAV8 (20/80) line with the pinholes!  The other good news is that I only have to wear the plastic eye shield to bed.  I can also resume ALL normal activities on Monday (until then, no heavy lifting, gardening, or other strenuous activities.)

I watched some of the Flyers and Phillies games tonight.  Wow!  I was amazed at how much I could follow the play in the Flyers game.  I could see the score and time left in the period without getting up off the floor (where I lay, propped up on my left elbow to watch TV.)  Even the Phillies game looked good, though it wasn’t in HD since we have Fios.  I could see the rain pouring down on Halliday…  I was disappointed we didn’t get to Jacob’s lax game before the rain came.  We were in traffic on 202 after our delivery in Wilmington.  My next chance at live sports is Jane’s softball game on Monday.

I am pleased with the results thus far.  I believe I’ll be able to follow a movie on the big screen.  Maybe we’ll try that next weekend.  I am looking forward to trying things that I haven’t been able to do for many years.

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Filed Under: cataract, recovery, surgery, vision status Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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