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The Clicking Lens
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March 29th, 2002
I guess I'll start at the beginning... I was born, born a waif in a (oops too far back.. let's go foraward a few years.. Oh look, I lost my first tooth! Not far enough.. Oh look it's JC junior. Whoah, way too far forward! back up.. there! Here we go.. red minivan on the highway to Portland. much better.)
Actually we'll back up just a little bit earlier to trying to get the car started. It would not start! So Dad pulled my car out and we jumped it. Then we went to Les Schaub and wasted a half hour to get a new battery. (PTL that it wasn't anything worse than the battery.) After that we were finally on the road.
I won't bore you with details about how I was sooo thirsty and didn't get a drink until after thesurgery, and various sordid facts of a 5 hour drive...
We got to the hospital about 1 and they immediately stuck me in one of thos hospital gowns (Which, btw, I still think they weren't thinking. I mean, shouldn't the warmth be important in a hospital? Of course there were nice rainbows on it...) So I got to sit in a hospital bed for an hour or two. I hate waiting...
Finally got the IV in and they wheeled me into the operating room. I had decided that I wanted local instead of general because the recovery was better. (believe me, I'm glad I made that decision.) They knocked me out to stick a need in my eye to numb it and then kept me sedated the entire time. Now supposedly I was supposed to have been aware of what was going on, but I don't. I believe they kept me on a steady drip of the drug and I don't remember a thing of the surgery.
Dr. Terry came into the waiting room after the surgery and said taht the surgery went awesome. (which, when I woke up, I was glad to hear.) They came down to the short stay room and listened to me wake up. Apparently I was telling them all about a Diagnosis Murder episode where a kid gets a cornea from one of the victims. I apparently went on for quite some time. And then, when I was more aware, I started talking about it again. *grins* I would say that I was high.
We took our stuff to the hotel and then went to a brewery to eat. Don't worry, I didn't get any beer or anything like that. I actually had a good bleu cheese stuffed burger with a side of garlic fries! Though that was rather heavy for my stomache later on...
My eye didn't start hurting until about 9 or so.. Then it burned all night. Wasn't fun.
Got up and could barely open my right eye. very sensitive to light and since my left eye wouldn't open, the right one would open just a crack.
We had a check up that was very encouraging. They took the bandage off and very gently pried my eyelid open. Then I loked at the eyechart, and without glasses or correction of any type, I could read two lines below the E. PTL!! I haven't been able to do that in ages, even with glasses! Of course it was cloudy and not exactly in focus, but a huge improvement for just the first day. Thank You Lord!!
The doc looked at my eye and showed mom how to put the ointment in and wrote a prescription for steroid drops. Then we were off and going home.
I enjoyed my ride home. We took seats out of the van and had a little bed made up. I was able to sleep just fine and the turns weren't very hard on my eye.
Now it's three days since the surgery. I'm able to keep my right eye open pretty good. I've actually been able to read a bit. And obviously I was able to get on the computer for a bit. the sensitivity to light is subsiding and the burning is almost gone. My eye feels scratchy, but that's to be expected. I've actually been able to open my left ey to the point where I can see, albeit cloudy. That's for just a little bit though, can't sustain it for long.
March 31st. 2002
My eye is doing pretty good for the last couple of days. I've actually been able to hold it open wider than before. The pain has subsided to where it just feels like I'm wearing a contact.
Of course, my right eye is pretty strained. I was able to wear my contact for a little bit yesterday, but not for long. I still have problems seeing. Guess those books on tape will still get used.
Tomorrow I have an appointment over in Portland. So we'll go see what my eye is doing. I'm sure that he'll be pleased. I know I am!
Thursday, April 4, 2002
Ahessh! I’m frustrated. I spent a better part of an hour typing in this word document, basically rambling for me blogger. The I finish and go look at it and saw that I hadn’t had the cursor in the window. The hazards or having a wireless keyboard.
Let’s see if I can dredge up some of that ramble...
I basically talked about being bored and having to lay about listening to books on tape.
I had kind of a scare today.
My eye’s vision was bad and it hurt more than normal. It also was red. We kept an eye on it through the day and it got better, we’ll know whether a rejection has started if it gets worse tomorrow.
I kinda doubt it though. I think I just over used it the past couple of days. Plus I think I had an eyelash in there. So I’m not too worried.
I hate this not being able to see. When my eye hurts, I can’t put the right contact in, so I can’t see worth a lick. Thus I can’t see well enough to get things done. IT’s amazing how much I rely on my vision. That’s why I like this wireless keyboard. I can actually type my thoughts out without seeing anything. I mean, I’m sure to have typos and I’ll try to proofread it sometime, but it frees me. Very nice.
Anyways, back to my eye. We had that appointment on Monday. We went over to the city and got to the institute. The doc looked at the eye and said it was healing nicely. Before he had looked at me, I looked at an eye chart and through the pinholes I could see 20/50! Very, very good.
For an example: My mother was working on a photo album and I went and stood above her. I wasn’t wearing my glasses and I looked down and was able to read letters that were three fourths of an inch high. The b and e of celebrate were hard to make out, but it was very encouraging! So PRAISE GOD!!
Well, it’s late and I’ve only gotten about half of what I talked about earlier. Oh well, perhaps I’ll type that in sometime.
Good night!
I wrote that last night.
My eye's doing a lot better and I'm pleased. Still not doing much. I was stuck doing the same sort of thing all day. I finished listening to Michael Chrichton's Terminal Man I wasn't too impressed. The story was a good medical thriller, but they stuck imorality in and I did not like that. Fast Forward button! Oh well, I think it's a hit and mis with him. I know I liked Congo.
I also watched two movies. Kazaam with Shaq O'neal and Battlestar Galictica an old sci fi movie. I'd have to say that these both rate a so-so on my rating scale. Kazaam because there were some suggestive things in it and the poor kid was in a broken home; and Galactica because it had very cheesy acting and plot. BG wasn't too bad though. Better than a lot of the corny sci-fi's I've seen.
Makes me mad. All I can do really is lay around and do nothing. I'd rather be working on my website and writing emails! Oh well... It shouldn't be too long..
Tuesday, April 16, 2002
I ended up coming home 5 hours early. Turns out that I didn't get a form filled out by my doctor. I need a medical discharge saying I can return to work. I did a little bit of work, mostly getting updated on what was happening and then they had some training that I was able to take part in. after the class ended, Karen, one of the HR people that I've been working with about the LOA and etc, grabbed me and I found out that I couldn't work any longer. (I hate paperwork) I was able to get the eye institute's fax number from Mom and Karen was going to send it. Hopefully they got it and have already sent it back.
I decided (actually the way my eye is today did the deciding) that I need to ease into the work. So I'll be working 4 hour shifts this week. I'm glad I did, because my eye is doing really strange things...
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