In the blink of an eye part 2

the saga continues

(I encourage you to read PART 1 first if you haven’t already.)

Sunday was an incredibly long, scary and traumatic day. But nothing could prepare me for what was to come. The following day I went into the Ophthalmology office and saw the doctor that performed my emergency surgery for a follow up.

(Spoiler alert: I will learn more about the eye and all of its parts than I ever imagined or cared to.)

He examined me and explained the procedure he performed (repaired a ruptured globe, or as I like to say sewed up my burst eyeball.) He then said that because of the “extensive damage” I would need to see a retina specialist at a different office. This isn’t something they deal with at this office. They told me to make an appointment with the Retinal Eye Center in town. As I mentioned earlier, I never had surgery and not much experience with doctors so all this started to feel overwhelming. Thankfully Michael was by my side (and in the drivers seat, as I obviously couldn’t get around on my own) throughout all this.

We called for an appointment but they couldn’t see me until Friday. I remember going home and not doing much else. I was not in extreme pain anymore, but the discomfort of wearing the metal eye shield and having to sleep on my back, meant I wasn’t really sleeping at all. And my appetite was nowhere to be found as I was incredibly anxious awaiting the appointment.

Finally Friday arrived and we went to the specialist’s office. I was brought into the room and sat in the big chair with all the eye machines in front of it. The doctor removed the metal guard to look at my eye. He pulled the machine in front of my eye, examined it for a few minutes, read some records I am assuming, and then paused before speaking.

“This isn’t really something we can deal with here.” I felt what can only be described as the floor dropping out from under me and I got incredibly dizzy and nauseous. I imagine the color left my face as well.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“There isn’t much we can do about it.” he replied.

I had no words. What did this mean? Would I be wearing this metal patch on my eye forever? Would I have vision in that eye? What do I even say.

He then spoke again. “Well, if you have the wherewithal I would suggest going down to Ann Arbor to the University of Michigan.”

Wherewithal? Who uses that word, I remember thinking.

Michael then spoke. “Yes we can.”

“Okay then,” the doctor responded. “We can call down there for you and see when they might have an appointment.

(Side note: My accident occurred on Sunday June 25. Today was Friday June 30 and we were headed into July 4th weekend. Not the best time to try and schedule things.)

The front desk called down and asked us if we could get down there by 2 pm today. (It was around 10 am at this point and Ann Arbor was a good 4 hour drive away. On a good day…. Not necessarily July 4th weekend.)

“Sure.” Michael said. We then left the office, got in the car and headed south. Heading south down the highway the traffic was mostly headed “up north” for the weekend. That would be us later I’m guessing.

We arrived at the Kellogg Eye Center (Yes, named after the cereal people!) which was a pretty impressive building. It was 4 or 5 stories dedicated to eyes! That’s it. One floor for each specialty. We went up to the retina floor I’m assuming and proceeded to have an ultrasound on my eye. Well, that was something I had never even thought was possible, much less having one myself. Apparently, the doctor at the clinic that sent me down here was concerned because with the equipment they had in the office they couldn’t see the retina because of the hemorrhage. Without getting into all the eyeball details they were able to see the retina (which was detached) and quite alot of blood still in the eye. They said I needed to come back on Wednesday July 5  (remember it’s July 4th weekend) and hopefully some of the blood would clear from the eye to have another exam with a surgeon.

(Another side note: After the accident my mom had thought we should come to NY to get “top notch care.” I mentioned this to one of the technicians during the ultrasound and they replied. “You are at one of the top 10 best hospitals in the country for the eye. If anyone can help you we can.”)

So back in car we go and drive the 4 hours back home…. Honestly I don’t remember if there was traffic or when Michael ate anything but I’m sure both happened. That was a long 8 hours in the car. And now we had a whole extra long weekend to wait before knowing what was next for me. For now I was instructed to avoid strenuous activity, continue to sleep on my back and basically wait.

Wednesday came and we got in the car and drove the 4 hours south again. I was starting to feel horribly anxious about everything. I remember putting my hand over the good eye and seeing blackness out of my left eye.

We sat in the waiting room and I remember noticing that I was one of the few younger people there. Mostly more routine eye procedures I was guessing. I got to have another ultrasound on the eye. And then my consult with Dr. Z the retinal surgeon. The minute he walked in the exam room I got a good feeling. He was calm and somewhat serious (as a surgeon should be I’m thinking!) He got out his model of the eye and explained what was going on with mine. He said that this was a serious injury and I would likely need multiple surgeries. The first being to reattach the retina, that he would perform. He asked some more questions about me and the accident.

“So you are an endurance athlete? Well, just to let you know, you won’t be training for a while.”

I needed to know what the prognosis was. Would I get vision back in that eye?

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” he said.

Well, I would take that. He explained that I would come back have the procedure on Friday and then told what the recovery would look like. And that the recovery was just as important as the surgery itself. For the procedure he would be putting a gas bubble in my eye that basically would be holding the retina in place so it could reattach. Then the gas bubble would dissolve. In order for the this to work I had some pretty specific instructions.

- Assume a face down position for 50 to 55 minutes of every hour. You may temporarily stop positioning to eat and use the restroom.

• Sleep on your right side

• Do not lay flat on back

This sounds fun right?

And this would need to be done for 2 weeks following the surgery and then I would come back and we could see what needed to happen next.

We drove the 4 hours back up north and planned for the surgery. We needed to get a hotel room in Ann Arbor as we would have to come back the day after surgery for a follow up before heading back home up north for the recovery.

The morning of the surgery I was not allowed to eat or drink because I was getting anesthesia. In the pre-op room they drew a big circle around the eye that they were operating on. Glad for that! And the next thing I knew I was in recovery. Not sure how long I was there. Our hotel was not far from the hospital so we went back there. Michael must have gotten us some food, but I was still out of it. I fell back asleep but then woke up around midnight with a pounding in my head, and my eye and incredible nausea. I hadn’t eaten so there was nothing to come out of me. But I remember the pain being intense and throbbing. Michael called the emergency number on my discharge papers and they suggested ibuprofen or Tylenol but that was about it until morning.

The next morning couldn’t come fast enough. Somehow I was able to walk to the car. I was still so nauseous and dizzy. When we got back to clinic Michael got a wheelchair to wheel me in as I couldn’t really walk. It was a Saturday morning so things were kind of quiet at the clinic. Dr Z wasn’t there for the follow up but Dr T was. She had also been present for the surgery. She was very gentle examining me even though I could barely hold my head up because of the nausea. She explained that the pressure in my eye was causing the headaches and the pain, and the nausea was most likely from the anesthesia. She gave me something for the nausea and then put some drops in my eye to help lower the pressure. She then gave me prescriptions for 3 different eye drops that would need to be put in 3 times a day for the next 2 weeks. Then we were on our way back up north.

If you remember the instructions for recovery I was required to lie face down. So since we had a 4 hour drive I had a pillow, flattened the seat and curled up onto my stomach, head in the pillow for the ride home. This recovery was going to be like nothing I’d ever done. My hardest endurance event yet.

If you enjoyed my musings click the “heart/like” button so others can discover me!