Post by anirbas on Sept 26, 2015 22:19:27 GMT -6
This has certainly been an interesting year for me. 2015 has proven to be a period in which I have dealt with old wounds, I hadn't the slightest idea, hadn't healed. I just thought I was getting, you know, over the hill.
And it started with a bang, one week into the first month of the year, when an ocular specialist informed me, I was legally blind in my right eye; and going blind in my left eye. I was literally "blind in one eye and couldn't see out the other", as the old saying goes.
I immediately assumed my blindness and pending blindness was due either to the autoimmune arthritis, I was diagnosed with in April of 2012; or due to the amounts of prednisone I had consumed in an effort to corral the inflammation and moderate to severe pain. I voiced this assumption to my specialist.
He bark laughed at my armchair prognosis. Yes, his laughter sounded like little barks. "No, young lady." (Doc, I've not been young in a very long while. Perhaps, never...) "No, young lady. This has nothing to do with your disease or the medications. You have the worst cataract in your right eye, I have seen in a long time. You are far to young for that. We see these in patients in their eighties and older. It is hard and it is called a white cataract. By the way, did you realize you are legally blind in y our right eye? And you are going blind in your left eye? These cataracts, I can tell, were caused by severe trauma to your eyes. And the cataracts have been growing steadily since. Were you hit with a baseball or a rock, at any point in time, in your life? Even as a child?"
Negative.
However, we traced the trauma back to thirty years ago, when I had sustained and suffered severe head injuries, all around the front and sides of my cranium; multiple hard impact bruises to my face; and three broken ribs in 1985. When I described my injuries, he said "Bingo!"
May of 2015, I had the first cataract surgery done to my right eye. Normally, cataract surgery takes seven to eight minutes. Or so I was told. Mine, took fifteen minutes. You are awake throughout the entire procedure and you cannot move. Or the eye surgeon might end up in your sinus cavities. (You are not awake, when they "deaden" the eye with a needle injection and put the device in that holds your eye wide open. You are put into "twilight sleep" for that, and then, they bring you back up for the surgery, itself. You cannot move. Therefore, you must be awake to tell the surgeon if you need to sneeze or cough. If you like you sinus cavities the way they are.)
As my surgeon explained it to me, the reason my surgery took fifteen minutes, was due to several reasons-the severity of the cataract itself. Being hard, the hardest to "vacuum" out. But, then he had to stop half way through and chase after my iris. As it suddenly decided to leave the site of the surgery. As I understand it, it was basically falling apart...He had to stop vacuuming my cataract, in order to corral my iris with a tiny, expandable ring.
I heard him calmly say, "I need ring # ??. The green part of her eye is leaving."
I asked, "You mean my iris?"
Cool as a cucumber he lied through his teeth and said, "No. Just standard procedure."
The ring, goes in tiny, to fit through the incision, then expands around the iris to hold it in place. Fascinating. And, as my surgeon said,after the surgery. "I lied. Your iris was literally leaving the surgery site, by falling apart. You and I have a Japanese man to thank for inventing the ring. Otherwise, things would have gone very, very wrong in there."
Whew! Lucky to have dodged that bus!!!
On to the second surgery, performed in August of 2015. Going along fairly routine. This cataract was still soft, pliable, easily "vacuumed". Half way through the surgery, four minutes or so in, the pupil decides to constrict! Despite the forced dilation from whatever they shoot into your eye. I heard Dr. Sweeney say, in a calm voice, like he was stating the sky was blue, "I need an epinephrine injection, now."
"Epinephrine?" Queried a soft, female voice, in an incredulous manner.
"Yes!" He replied tersely. "Her pupil has constricted to 2 millimeters (?) I can't see in here!"
Even during the infamous iris attempting escape escapade, I never heard Doc lose his cool. I was already still. I swear I willed myself to stone.
That surgery took ten minutes, instead of the hoped for seven to eight. I believe my pupil pissed my doctor off. When it was over, as he stamped out of the room, he said, angrily, "I don't know why some people take so long to take care of their eyes!!!"
Drugged or not, I had a comeback. "It's okay, Doc. You had this. You're magnificent!" Somewhere, outside of the cocoon I was swaddled in on the operating table, I heard the disembodied laughter of a couple of the female nursing staff.
But, Dr. Sweeney was wrong. It's not that I waited to long. I didn't realize I was that bad off. I just thought I was getting old. I thought the same thing about the signs of my autoimmune arthritis for the past thirteen years. I just thought I was getting older. Perhaps, a bit faster than other women in my age group. But, that's another story, entirely.
The moral of this story, never, I reiterate, NEVER self diagnose. See a doctor. And no, I don't mean WebMD.
P.s. I failed to mention, going without eye cosmetics, or any cosmetics, save lipstick, from May 14th to September 24th. I always run around sans makeup on my days off. But, it felt really odd being in the workplace, barefaced, approximately four months and ten days. I stated wearing "warpaint" again, on the 24th of this month. Yay! Though I must admit, it felt empowering entering the workplace, without maquillage in place. But, it felt equally empowering to return to work wearing it.
The most important thing of all, do not fear eye surgery of any kind, if you must have it. It is painless, even though you are awake throughout the entire surgical procedure. And it is the easiest surgery to recover from. The day after, basically felt like I might have a sore muscle in my eye, if that. You do have to apply three different drops to your eyes, for a few days before and several weeks after the surgery. And avoid bright lights and sunlight for several weeks. Must wear darkest sunglasses possible to avoid taxing the rebooted eye, or eyes, in my case.
And it started with a bang, one week into the first month of the year, when an ocular specialist informed me, I was legally blind in my right eye; and going blind in my left eye. I was literally "blind in one eye and couldn't see out the other", as the old saying goes.
I immediately assumed my blindness and pending blindness was due either to the autoimmune arthritis, I was diagnosed with in April of 2012; or due to the amounts of prednisone I had consumed in an effort to corral the inflammation and moderate to severe pain. I voiced this assumption to my specialist.
He bark laughed at my armchair prognosis. Yes, his laughter sounded like little barks. "No, young lady." (Doc, I've not been young in a very long while. Perhaps, never...) "No, young lady. This has nothing to do with your disease or the medications. You have the worst cataract in your right eye, I have seen in a long time. You are far to young for that. We see these in patients in their eighties and older. It is hard and it is called a white cataract. By the way, did you realize you are legally blind in y our right eye? And you are going blind in your left eye? These cataracts, I can tell, were caused by severe trauma to your eyes. And the cataracts have been growing steadily since. Were you hit with a baseball or a rock, at any point in time, in your life? Even as a child?"
Negative.
However, we traced the trauma back to thirty years ago, when I had sustained and suffered severe head injuries, all around the front and sides of my cranium; multiple hard impact bruises to my face; and three broken ribs in 1985. When I described my injuries, he said "Bingo!"
May of 2015, I had the first cataract surgery done to my right eye. Normally, cataract surgery takes seven to eight minutes. Or so I was told. Mine, took fifteen minutes. You are awake throughout the entire procedure and you cannot move. Or the eye surgeon might end up in your sinus cavities. (You are not awake, when they "deaden" the eye with a needle injection and put the device in that holds your eye wide open. You are put into "twilight sleep" for that, and then, they bring you back up for the surgery, itself. You cannot move. Therefore, you must be awake to tell the surgeon if you need to sneeze or cough. If you like you sinus cavities the way they are.)
As my surgeon explained it to me, the reason my surgery took fifteen minutes, was due to several reasons-the severity of the cataract itself. Being hard, the hardest to "vacuum" out. But, then he had to stop half way through and chase after my iris. As it suddenly decided to leave the site of the surgery. As I understand it, it was basically falling apart...He had to stop vacuuming my cataract, in order to corral my iris with a tiny, expandable ring.
I heard him calmly say, "I need ring # ??. The green part of her eye is leaving."
I asked, "You mean my iris?"
Cool as a cucumber he lied through his teeth and said, "No. Just standard procedure."
The ring, goes in tiny, to fit through the incision, then expands around the iris to hold it in place. Fascinating. And, as my surgeon said,after the surgery. "I lied. Your iris was literally leaving the surgery site, by falling apart. You and I have a Japanese man to thank for inventing the ring. Otherwise, things would have gone very, very wrong in there."
Whew! Lucky to have dodged that bus!!!
On to the second surgery, performed in August of 2015. Going along fairly routine. This cataract was still soft, pliable, easily "vacuumed". Half way through the surgery, four minutes or so in, the pupil decides to constrict! Despite the forced dilation from whatever they shoot into your eye. I heard Dr. Sweeney say, in a calm voice, like he was stating the sky was blue, "I need an epinephrine injection, now."
"Epinephrine?" Queried a soft, female voice, in an incredulous manner.
"Yes!" He replied tersely. "Her pupil has constricted to 2 millimeters (?) I can't see in here!"
Even during the infamous iris attempting escape escapade, I never heard Doc lose his cool. I was already still. I swear I willed myself to stone.
That surgery took ten minutes, instead of the hoped for seven to eight. I believe my pupil pissed my doctor off. When it was over, as he stamped out of the room, he said, angrily, "I don't know why some people take so long to take care of their eyes!!!"
Drugged or not, I had a comeback. "It's okay, Doc. You had this. You're magnificent!" Somewhere, outside of the cocoon I was swaddled in on the operating table, I heard the disembodied laughter of a couple of the female nursing staff.
But, Dr. Sweeney was wrong. It's not that I waited to long. I didn't realize I was that bad off. I just thought I was getting old. I thought the same thing about the signs of my autoimmune arthritis for the past thirteen years. I just thought I was getting older. Perhaps, a bit faster than other women in my age group. But, that's another story, entirely.
The moral of this story, never, I reiterate, NEVER self diagnose. See a doctor. And no, I don't mean WebMD.
P.s. I failed to mention, going without eye cosmetics, or any cosmetics, save lipstick, from May 14th to September 24th. I always run around sans makeup on my days off. But, it felt really odd being in the workplace, barefaced, approximately four months and ten days. I stated wearing "warpaint" again, on the 24th of this month. Yay! Though I must admit, it felt empowering entering the workplace, without maquillage in place. But, it felt equally empowering to return to work wearing it.
The most important thing of all, do not fear eye surgery of any kind, if you must have it. It is painless, even though you are awake throughout the entire surgical procedure. And it is the easiest surgery to recover from. The day after, basically felt like I might have a sore muscle in my eye, if that. You do have to apply three different drops to your eyes, for a few days before and several weeks after the surgery. And avoid bright lights and sunlight for several weeks. Must wear darkest sunglasses possible to avoid taxing the rebooted eye, or eyes, in my case.
My eyes are still adjusting, but, at this point, I have twenty/twenty vision long range and mid range, respectively. I will need glasses for book reading and surfing the net. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!