Just When You Though It Was Okay To Get Back In The Saddle

Yep.  I've not blogged recently because I've had another health emergency.  Figures, doesn't it?

This time it was a problem with my left eye.  I thought I was seeing a big floater developing, so we called the VA hospital and they said to come in right away.  It's a good thing we did.

I was diagnosed with four retinal tears and a partially detached retina.  A long round of laser treatments on the tears and then a two hour long surgery to reattach the retina was the result.  Thankfully, we caught it in time and there will be no long term consequences.

The recovery period has not been fun.  To put the retina back in place, first all the "jelly" that is in the eyeball was removed and then a gas bubble was inserted into my eye, pushing the retina back into place so it could be stitched tight.  The gas bubble then puts pressure on the retina to re-enforce it in place until it heals.

The "fun" part is that I had to keep my head facing down to allow the bubble to stay in place.  I was not able to read, watch TV, or do anything that allowed me to have my head upright for any amount of time.  Sleep was on my stomach with my head face down.  Thankfully, I have a little DVD player that I could put at my feet and watch movies (while sitting) so I had something to do to prevent myself from going crazy (more so than I already am).

It has been tough on my neck and back muscles, but with some pain killers, along with a half dozen types of eye drops every couple of hours I reached a turning point.

A visit to the VA ophthalmologist today showed everything is knitting properly and I no longer have to keep my head down all the time (Thank Goodness!!!), but I still should sleep face down and avoid any undue stresses or bouncing around.  I can read again and legally could drive, but looking through my eye it is like I'm under water, so I'll leave the driving to Marti.  The gas bubble will slowly be absorbed until my sight will be clear and normal again.  It just takes time, possibly as long a six weeks.  I hope not.

It could be worse, I could have lost the sight in my eye, so I'm grateful to the VA doc that fixed me up.  Asking him the cause of all this, he listed three risk factors: Age, cataract surgery and an eye injury.  I had two of the three so I guess it was almost inevitable.

The doc wants to see me back in three weeks, so that is good news.  Our plans to attend our son's commissioning ceremony in St. Louis next week is still on, but we'll be driving our car and hoteling it instead of taking the Journey.  Our planned visit to the Winnebago factory service center will have to be rescheduled for another time.

It just goes to show that life on the road has the same ups and downs that living in a house can have.  We're so thankful that we caught this early and it's just a speed bump. Now with my other issue, all is looking good for an August surgery to reattach my plumbing and get rid of Krakatoa.    We'll both be glad to be rid of that challenge.   :c)

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