Friday, Nov. 07, 2003
Emergency Surgery, posted at 11:05 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com A lot is new.Have I mentioned that I've been having trouble seeing out of my right eye lately? Yes, I have. Because eye insurance only covers one eye visit in two years, I was hesitant, though I figured all I needed was new contact lenses. Because it was more of a cloud in the eye rather than just plain fuzziness, though, I ended up going through the HMO hell of getting a referral from my family doctor, then going to the opthamalogist.
The opthamalagist informed me on Monday night that I had a detached retina. He immediately send me over to the retinal specialist, and apparently the problem was serious, and I was on the surgical table on Tuesday morning. Detached retinas are the most common cause of blindness today, and usually it happens to old people, but it happened to me. I had my first ever surgery on Tuesday morning, and am still recovering. My eye looks like an outtake from a horror movie, and I'm expected to miss 1-2 weeks of school.
The good news?
1. The surgery wasn't that bad, and the drugs they gave were really good.
2. Because my surgery was classified as "STAT," I got to go in front of everyone else in line at the hospital. I was within days of blindness in that eye.
3. My mom flew into town to take care of me.
4. A detached retina is serious, but it's nowhere near as serious as the worst that I had expected. When the doctor's face got all grave and serious, I was expecting to hear "brain tumor."
The bad news?
1. My right eye was totally detached, and my left eye has seven tears in it and is becoming detached. That one goes under the knife in eight weeks.
2. There is no cause for this, other than nearsightedness and unluckiness. That's a quote from the doctor.
3. I'm missing a lot of school.
4. My eye hurts like hell.
5. Because my right eye was totally detached, I'll be luckily to retain 50%-60% of my original vision in it, even with contacts. There goes the baseball career.
6. Grades are due on Monday, and I can barely see.