recovering from eye surgery again...

[exploder]

I just wanted to take the time to let the community know where I have been the last couple of months. The implant in my right eye dislodged a couple of months ago and I had to have emergency surgery to remove it. I only have sight in the right eye so my vision will be rather poor until my eye heals.

Thanks to a member of the PCLinuxOS community that gave me a tip on how to make the print huge in Firefox I can use my computer to some degree now. This is the 5th time my good eye has been operated on. The doctors said I should be able to see as good as I did before when my eye is completely healed. For the time being though I see ghost images and can not read any text onless I make it very large.

I posted about this on the PCLinuxOS forum and had hoped that someone here would see it and mention it here but I have not seen anything posted and thought I should let the community know what was going on.

The doctor had to cut my implant in half to remove it and I had to have 6 stitches. The doctor removed 2 stitches that were loose on Friday but the other 4 have to stay in for another month. I had complications after the surgery, there was swelling around the macula. I was given drops for the swelling and when they checked me Friday they said that the swelling is going down. The doctor told me right before the surgery that it was too risky to replace my implant but because of the shape of my eye, I would get along fine withput it. The doctor said that when they tested me for the strength of the implant that it was almost a zero anyway.

The doctor also said that because of the shape of my eye from pre-maturaty damage I would not require the thick glasses that are common from not having a lens in my eye. My optomotrist mentioned a contact lens for distance vision and reading glasses to protect my eye and that is probably what I will go with when my eye has healed.

The PCLinuxOS forum has been very supportive. Many of the PCLinuxOS forum members are around the same age as me and have gone through some very tough health problems themselves. These people really did a great deal in lifting my spirits with their prayers and words of encouragement, it really means a lot to me. These people will never know just how much better they made me feel and how much they have encourged me. No words can express how much they have helped me.

Please pray for me, it would really help me out.

exploder

[rivenathos]

Exploder,

I am sorry to have heard of your recent health issues. My best wishes for a speedy recovery are extended to you. Get well soon!

[MALsPa]

I've been following this over at the PCLOS forums. Wishing you the best, exploder! Hope it all works out well.

[exploder]

Thanks both of you. I sure will be glad when I can see normal again.

[Paul_Vandenberg]

Speedy recovery Exploder! You're in my prayers.

Paul

[exploder]

Thanks Paul, I appreciate it very much.

Don

[xenopeek]

Having read your updates on the PCLinuxOS forums, I can only imagine how trying these times must be for you I wish you and your family strength to get through this. May you return to health soon!

[exploder]

Thanks Vincent, I just know I am going to make it through this and everything will be alright. I have been through worse and prayers have always got me through it.

[clem]

Hi Don,

Nice to hear from you and sorry to hear you went through this. All my hopes and wishes for a good recovery.

Talk to you soon
Clem.

[exploder]

Thanks Clem.

[vrkalak]

Sorry, to hear about your on-going eye problems. You'll get through it - OK.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

On the lighter-side:

True Story: My sister (57) is losing her eyesight due to being a diabetic, since childhood.
Her kids drive her around, she gets along pretty good, overall.
Well, a few weeks ago, she sent me a 'text' or two about her kids buying her a new cell-phone.

I didn't give this much thought, at first.

When she called, I asked if your eye-sight is so bad, how are you able to send and read 'texts'?
Her reply was, "I have a really big magnifying glass"

[zerozero]

Don,

i know you will be here with us in no time.

zerozero

[Oscar799]

Hope you feel better soon

My mother,who has only had sight in one eye since having measles at the age of five,really didn't need a cataract on her good eye.
But that was what she got
After about 18 months of deteriorating eyesight she was able to have surgery to fix it.She returned home afterwards,walked into her sitting room,looked across at the TV she'd bought a year earlier and said "Who on earth let me buy that,it's bloody enormous!"

[exploder]

I am using cont scroll wheel to be able to read web pages in Firefox. My cell phone is set up to read text messages to me and it has some voice commands. Glad I bought that Android phone now.

I keep thinking about what the first doctor that saw me when my implant dislodged. He said there was no reason I would not be able to see as good as I did before once my eye heals.

The swelling around the macula is slowly going away, they run tests each visit to check it. Also, I saw the retina specialist last Friday too and he said that my retina was looking alright.

The doctors said that the stitches were interfering with my cormea and there was some swelling there from the surgery. Since they removed the 2 loose stitches I am able to read road signs before I am right on top of them.

I had no idea how major this surgery was when I had it done. I know now that the surgeon had to make a very large incision and cut the implant in half to be able to remove it. I have brown eyes but my mother looked at my eye after the surgery and she said my eye was blue, it lasted about a day. The surgeon must have had to move things around a bit to do what he needed to do. They told me afterward that the stitches had to stay in a minimum of 2 and a half months. Since they are leaving the remaining 4 stitches in my eye another month, I guess they do not want to take any chances and they said that it was a very deep incision.

I have been using all of the eye drops as instructed and taking vitamins to try and help things along. I wear sunglasses when I go for a walk to protect my eye and I can get around pretty good. I had 3 new floaters when my implant dislodged but they appear to have leaked out when the surgen did the surgery. They told my that a little of the saline that replaces the vitreous in my eye had leaked out during the surgery. I only see one very tiny floater in my eye and that one has been there for years and it does not bother me. I feel pretty lucky that the new floaters are gone.

Things could have been much worse. They told me that when the implant dislodged it could have done all kinds of damage including blindness. I am very fortunate to have such highly skilled doctors taking care of me.

The retina specialist was not happy that the surgeon did not sew in a new inter-ocular implant, he thought it would be fine because he had done a laser pattern on my eye last year. The surgeon told me right before the surgery that he felt it was too risky to give me another implant and that a patient with similar history had lost his sight from complications from receiving a new implant. The doctor also said that when I was checked for the strength of a new implant that it was almost a zero in strength and because of the shape of my eye that I would get along better without the lens than someone with a normal shaped eye. I was disappointed that I was not getting another implant but I understand why and the doctor had my best interests in mind.

When they checked my vision before the surgery with the implant laying in the bottom of my eye, I was able to read the eye chart to the 20.60 line, so if I could read that much with no correction, what the doctor said makes sense.

I was told that my glasses would not be the thick glasses people with no lens in their eye usually require. They said this was one instance where the shape of my eye was in my favor. My optometrist talked to me briefly about what my options were after the surgery and my eye healed. (this is the doctor that I saw when the lens dislodged and made the arrangements for the emergency surgery) The optomitrist mentioned using a contact lens for distance and new progressive bi-focals for reading and to protect my eye. I used to wear a contact lens and glasses look pretty nice these days so that sounds like a good idea to me.

I never could have imagined my implant falling out but the doctor said that it happens fairly often. My implant just sat there in the lens cavity, the modern implants I was told are sewn in somehow and the stitches they use are good for 15 years. My implant was 15 years old and they acted like it was an antique. Apparently technology has come a long way in the area of inter-ocular implants. I could see my implant floating in my eye and it looked like a tiny contact lens and it did not have the 3 little claws to anchor it in place like the very early implants had.

I think what the optometrist has in mind will be just fine and I want to go with the lenses for my glasses that darken in the sunlight because my wife and 7 year old son have them and they like them a lot and the doctor has been telling me that I need to protect my eyes from damage from the sun.

I think everything will turn out fine in the end and maybe not having the implant in my eye will save me from having more problems in the future. I think it is best for me to keep an optimistic point of view about the whole thing and leave it in God"s hands. The recovery process is slow but things are going in the right direction since the swelling is going down and there are a lot of terrific people praying for me.

I walked to church a few weeks ago and they anointed me and prayed for me and I left feeling 100 per cent better. The members on this forum and the PCLinuxOS forum have done a great deal to lift my spirits and give me the confidence that I will make it through this. I was pretty terrified when this happened but I feel much more at ease now.