Eyes

WARNING...about later pictures in this blog. I will let you know  when the photos are coming, although I don't think the pictures are that bad.  Some people mentioned  the word eeewww when they saw them.


I have reached the time in my life to get rid of my cataract lens in my eyeballs.  As mentioned in a much earlier blog, I did not pass my vision test for my new Iowa driver's license.  I am not allowed to drive at night.  The first step was to find a doctor, which I did. I contacted the Eye Surgeons Associates and was told the earliest I could get in was late July with Dr. O'Malley.  I didn't do any research on the doctors but knew the Eye Surgeons Associates had an excellent reputation.  My first appointment was meeting with him and to have eye tests. Everyone seems to be baffled why I am having this problem at such a young age.   I had to go to Rock Island for further tests and then scheduled for the two eye surgeries in August. My first was this past Monday, my right eye. This is my worst eye. This eyeball photo is a selfie, a little blurry but that is how I see everything anyway.

Deciding on the best surgery and lens is quite confusing. When I went through all the tests in Athens, I canceled everything because that doctor didn't have the time to answer my questions and the staff was not a happy staff. I was so confused, I decided to wait.
Dr. O'Malley is wonderful. He answered all of my questions and I didn't feel like I was a number in mass production.  Insurance will pay for only the bare minimum which is hand eyeball cutting by the doctor and a clear lens where you would still need to wear glasses.
After talking with the doctor and the great staff, we came up with a plan. I would have the fancy laser machine cut my eye and get the lens that would  require reading glasses. I would be able to see at a distance without glasses. It will also correct my astigmatism. Yippee! I will finally be able to read street signs when I go garage sale-ing.

I stayed busy all weekend before the surgery. Mike was at his 40th high school reunion while I stayed home and painted more doors. I decided not to worry about this surgery.

Monday morning I had to be at the surgery center at 7:50.  This is the last time I will be wearing my glasses and the last time I will need the large clock next to our bed. Everyone that saw our clock laughed at it until I told them that was the only way I could see time at night, without my glasses.

The nurses asked me tons of questions I have been asked many times already, and inserted a needle for an IV. Three times. and then it finally worked. I wouldn't be put completely out but would be placed in La La Land.  This reminds me of a story when one of our girls had teeth pulled and we told her how wonderful La La Land was and how much fun she would have there. When she came back into the real world she was disappointed and said she did not find her husband there!

There were two steps to this. First the laser to cut my eye and to break up my lens into tiny pieces. This took 30 seconds and was a little uncomfortable. I put myself into a trance so I wouldn't move my eye at all. It was hard because the show was amazing. Blue worm spirographs. Beautiful. Also, black shapes outlined in neon green, red and blue. Amazing.

I was then taken into the surgery room where they put me in La La Land.  I could hear them vacuuming my broken lens pieces out.  The next thing I saw was a background of tiny white balls and three blue shapes.  It kind of looked like this, only whiter balls without the chocolate pieces.
(This is what was left over in my bag of chocolate non-pareils)

Then I saw the 3D shapes of the Lucky Charm Marshmallow pieces that would fit right into the blue holes, although it took him awhile to do it. It was like that child's game to get the right piece in the right shaped hole. Once again I was amazed.

I was home by 10:30am, still a little happy.

When I saw the following picture, I thought how much I look like Dad.

This is the last picture of us together, a week before he passed.

My right eye was very dilated, swollen, and droopy. I slept all day.

I had a followup appointment the next day and found I was doing well, except my eye pressure was 32! The doctor said he could either drain my eye or try an eye drop to bring down the pressure. Eye drop of course! It moved down to 20 and I was able to go home. Before I left I asked him about what I saw during surgery. He was curious about what I saw during the laser part but said people see what the brain wants them to see during the vacuuming and lens replacement  surgery. That part is different for everyone. I wondered why my brain wanted me to see Lucky Charm marshmallows.

The next day I had a bad day. I was adjusting to my new vision. I always wondered how I was going to see with one good eye and one almost blind eye.  I can see perfectly with distance in my new eye but not up close, and can't see anything with my old eye. I became grumpy.  Besides only seeing far away, my other eye was creating a fog. Projects around the house would have to be put on hold because I am not allowed to bend over or create dust near my eyes.   I feel like I can't do anything .  I can't see up close, can't do projects far away, can't look at the computer.  So I decided to try to find a small project to keep me busy. Otherwise I was just wandering the house.
I found a French chocolate box and decided to cover it.

At least I didn't feel like it was a worthless day because I was able to do something!

Today was much better. I was struggling trying to read my emails. but Mike came up with a solution.

He thought maybe I should try his glasses.

It worked! I can almost read what is on the  screen. That is why I am able to sit here now and write my blog, Mike's glasses!

I am still struggling though.  Today I am going to try a little bigger project. I had reupholstered this chair when we were still in Athens, but never did the cushion. Today is the day!

I can't wait until they do my other eye August 28th! I am not sure why the doctors wait two weeks before the second surgery. Hopefully I won't go crazy.  My sister Mary is having her first cataract surgery on the 29th.

I have a calendar checklist to make sure I put all the drops in my eye. This will go one for a month.

All of this eye business reminds me of Molly's eye issue in the summer of 2010. The eeewww pictures are below.
This was the summer Molly had just finished high school and was getting ready to head to college that fall. We were not sure she was going to be able to go that first semester.

It started when she told me her eye hurt and she couldn't keep it open. I remembered when I was in high school and had hard contacts when they scratched one of my eyes. I just kept my eye shut for a day and it healed.  I told her to do the same thing. She was wearing contacts and I thought it was just a scratch.  She woke me in the middle of the night and said it was so painful she couldn't stand it. I thought about taking her to the emergency room but thought it would be better to take her to the eye doctor first thing in the morning.  I couldn't get out of work so Mike took her.  The next thing I know, Mike and Molly are headed to an eye specialist in Atlanta. The doctors in Athens wouldn't touch it. It was bad.  That is when I felt guilty for not taking her to someone right away.

The doctor in Atlanta said it was definitely a bacteria but couldn't directly treat it until they knew which bacteria it was.  They took some of it and sent it to the lab. In the meantime, we had to find a compound pharmacy that would make a cocktail of eye drops to fight as many types of bacteria as possible. I had never heard of this type of pharmacy and didn't even know we had one in Athens.  Molly needed to have the drops put in every half hour, even during the night.
We made a bed for Molly in the living room and I would sleep on the couch. Her phone alarm would go off and I would go to the fridge, get the drops, touch her to wake up, she would roll on her back, I would hold her eye open and put in a drop. This was every half hour! I didn't sleep much but Molly learned to sleep through this whole nightly process. Since Molly couldn't open her eye and couldn't stand any light, we had the curtains closed for complete darkness during the day. She wasn't able to watch T.V. or look at the computer screen. When I would get home from work, it was very dark, quiet, and depressing. I was so worried.  Once a day I would have her put the super duper sunglasses on and I would drive her around the block, just to get out of the house.

Molly kept an extremely positive attitude. She kept telling me everything would be okay. She never got upset or even cried.

We had to take Molly to Atlanta every morning. I had to work because of Orientation at UGA so Mike took her most of the time. I was able to take her on  Saturday. I knew it was bad when the doctor left the room to make a phone call.  We were the only ones there and I could hear part of the conversation. When he came back, I told him he should tell us everything.  He said the bacteria was melting a hole in her  cornea and the worse case scenario would be losing the eye ball.  He was leaning toward the idea this would happen.  I held back tears as Molly just sat there with her very positive attitude, knowing this would not happen.  He also said if she was able to keep the eye, she would no longer be able to wear contacts.  We left the office and this was the only timed she cried, not being able to wear contacts. The following picture is the sad day of no more contacts.  She had just stopped crying to smile for this picture.

The lab results finally came back  and we now knew it was  pseudomonas aeruginosa.  We could now treat it aggressively.   Back to the compound pharmacy to get drops made just for that bacteria.  Trips to Atlanta became less and less.

In the picture above, you can actually see the bacteria melting a hole in her eye.  The green is from eyedrops which makes it easy to see the shape of the melting hole.

So, how did this happen? The doctors were  pretty sure there was a scratch but not sure how the pseudomonas entered her eye.   I was convinced it was her contact lens hygiene. I thought that maybe she wasn't changing out the solution enough, or not changing to new contacts on time.  Molly said that when she felt the scratch, she held her eye open under the faucet and let tap water run over her eyeball.  The doctors were leaning towards the water being the culprit.  We will never know.  Tap water  is one thing I cannot let near my eye  during my healing time. (It is even in writing)

Next was the healing process and to see what would actually happen with Molly's eye. The doctors were amazed and surprised when her eye started healing quickly. Soon we learned she would not lose her eyeball.  I cannot describe how happy I was to hear this.  

What is even more amazing, the melting smoothed out her astigmatism where she now has 20/20 vision in that eye.  She does have a scar but her brain soon learned to look around it. Our eyes are amazing.

Since she has perfect vision in that eye, she decided to have Lasik on the other. No glasses or contacts needed! Although I think she wears glasses now to drive.

Molly was able to attend college on time.