Mrs Lion Comments

He can see! It’s very blurry, but yesterday’s surgery was a success. We’re hoping things will get less blurry as time goes on. Apparently, the industrial strength medicine they use to dilate your eye for surgery keeping working for about a week after. That’s partially the cause of the blurriness.

I was trying to help him set his computer up to read things for him. It doesn’t help when the instructions say, “Click the start button.” If I can’t see well, how do I know where the start button is? Oh well. He can figure it out as he sees better.

To be fair, this week from hell started with an extra day off, so how bad could it really be? Ha! Tuesday started out with a long doctor appointment. The pressure in his eye was too high. We had to sit in the office until some eye drops brought the pressure down to a more acceptable level. Wednesday was an appointment with the retinal specialist. She decided it was time for surgery to clean out the debris from behind the lens and stabilize the retina. Thursday is surgery day. For the third week in a row, it’s surgery day.

We’re off to the hospital in a little while. The hope is that once the debris is cleared out, his vision should return. At the very least, they should be able to see into the eye better to see what else might be wrong. Do I see another Thursday surgery next week? I really hope not.

Lion goes from being depressed about not being able to see, to angry, to wanting to learn to live without being able to see, and back to depressed. He says I can’t understand what he’s going through. It’s true. Sure, I can close my eyes and pretend not to be able to see, but it’s not the same. The best I can do is be here to help him.

I apologize for not writing a post lately. I haven’t had time. Today is the first day since Monday that we haven’t been running to one or more doctors. Lion’s eye pressure last Friday was 4. That worried the doctor so much, he sent us to a retinal specialist. His eye was sort of collapsing. Who knew that was possible?

The retinal specialist confirmed the choroid was separating and the only way to fix that was to add pressure to his eye. How do they do that? Lion went in Tuesday for the glaucoma doctor to inject some sort of goop into his eye. Basically, they pumped up the tire. On Wednesday, the retinal specialist checked his pressure and it was back down to two or three. The theory was that the tube, put in Thursday, was doing its job too well. Back to surgery.

On Thursday, Lion had his third surgery in eight days. The glaucoma doc sutured the tube closed and reinflated his eye.  Friday morning, we were back to have the bandage removed and the pressure checked. It was ten. That was lower than the doctor had anticipated. He’s going to call us today to let us now when to meet him at the office on Sunday. Sunday! That’s amazing. Not only Sunday, but the Sunday of a holiday weekend. That’s incredible.

Of course, we also have appointments with the glaucoma doctor and the retinal doctor next week. I just hope next week is not like this past week. I don’t know if either one of us can handle that.

In all this time, Lion hasn’t been able to see. The choroid is still detached and blocking the retina. Since his left eye is mostly useless, he’s essentially blind.

Aside from being very antsy after being made to wait about an hour past his scheduled surgery time, Lion’s surgery went well. By dinnertime, we were able to take of the bandage and he could see, although it was blurry. That was to be expected. The anesthesia was still affecting things. The fact that he could see at all was a major coup since that meant there was no bleeding. By Friday’s post-op visit, things were back to pre-surgery, non-contact lens vision. Today, however, he’s having a little more trouble seeing.

I’m not sure at what point we need to call the doctor. Is this temporary? I was encouraged that he could see yesterday. He’s thinking the end is near. I don’t think it’s near, but I am a little worried. On the one hand I think his vision may fluctuate. His eye has been invaded, after all. On the other hand, why would his vision fluctuate? It was okay. Why wouldn’t it stay okay?

Assuming things calm down again and he can see, the biggest hurdle is getting past the two-week mark until he can wear contacts again to gain a little more vision. I’ll be right here with him no matter what.