by Maggie Schafer
My mom checks in with an update about her eye surgery.
WARNING: This is not for the squeamish.
I always thought how great it would be to have the entire summer off work. Well, as they say, be careful what you wish for…
For those who don’t know, I had eye surgery again. My ever-optimistic eye doctor was doing a vitrecotomy. In layman’s terms, sucking out those floaters that pass over you eyes from time to time. In my case, the floaters had multiplied to the point that my eyeball appeared to be one of those microscope pictures you see in biology class with millions of sperms trying to penetrate the lone female ovum. Okay, maybe not millions but there were a lot.
I was awake during the surgery but didn’t want to distract my doctor. After all, he had inserted three needles in my eye and so I lay there like a corpse fearing that the slightest jolt on my part might cause one of the needles to poke my eyeball out. Not a good thing. As I lay there I heard the doctor say “this doesn’t look good” and “get me the gas”. I knew things weren’t going well. So I came out of surgery with another gas bubble, this time in my left eye.
The doctor had found another macular hole. For the hole to close, I must spend two weeks face down so that the bubble will rest on the retina and close it so I can see center vision again.
As I type this, I realize that I will have spent almost a month of my life staring at the fibers in my carpet. I got to thinking who was the poor soul that first had this surgery? Can you imagine having your doctor say, “okay, we haven’t tried this on anyone before but we think if we shoot a gas bubble in your eye and you lay face down for two weeks that hole is sure to close”. Thank God for medical research volunteers.
So as I enter my 10th day facing down I finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. The bubble will remain in my eye until it deflates like an old mylar balloon. That takes about 6 to 8 weeks and that should take me to the end of summer.
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