I Can See...Kind Of...

 *As usual, the following is written from my memory of the events.  Some things may be inaccurate due to faulty memories.  In any case, this is how I remember it:


March 11, 2014 I had surgery number two on my right eye.  The first surgery, three weeks earlier, was to clean up my eye from the ravages of diabetic retinopathy.  This second surgery was to clean out my eye fluid of blood from a hemorrhage that didn't want to stop on its own.  And also to take out the remainder of the gas bubble that was put in three weeks earlier, and put in silicon oil.  And, finally, to finish the laser treatment that was started during the first surgery.

I am happy to make some pleasant points of difference between the two surgeries:

Surgery one:                                                                   Surgery two:
3 hours                                                                             1 hour
 pain throughout (not unbearable)                                    Pain at beginning and end (not unbearable)
 all conversations in the room were about the surgery   Conversation varied and was lighthearted
           at hand (very serious)
Nausea and vomiting in recovery room                          No nausea or vomiting
Extreme swelling and bruising of eyelids and cheek      Some swelling, no new bruising

March 12th I went in for my post-op appointment and the doctor said everything looked great.  There were sutures in my eye that would probably cause discomfort and irritation for a while, but I can live with that, I guess.  The happy awesome part was when I realized I could see out of my right eye!  It was extremely blurry but I could make things out.  This was awesome because for the last three weeks I had been completely blind in my right eye.

So what was this surgery all about?  First, they had to clear out my eye fluid because there was a bunch of blood mixed in with it that wasn't clearing itself out.  This bleeding was caused from a hemorrhage in the back of my eye that wasn't stopping on it's own (they usually do).  During the first surgery they had put in a gas bubble to hold my retina in place while it healed. Usually they let the gas go away on it's own but since they had to do this second surgery they had to remove the gas to do the job.  Next they used a laser to close off the hemorrhage.  After this they injected silicon oil into my eye, this stuff does pretty much the same job the gas was doing but allows for better vision than the gas did.  Next, they went to the front of my eye and cleaned up a hemorrhage there.  Then they did a laser treatment, sutured me up, and called it a day.

If all goes well, I wont have to have surgery again until they go in to remove the oil and fix my cataract. This will be in 3-six months...