I had my surgery "around" 10 AM on Monday. (NY Eye And Ear apparently is in its own space - time continuim.) I have NEVER waited with a group of other OR patients in the area between the outer door to the OR area and the inner door. I had visions of Grady Hospital in downtown Atlanta. BUT, they FED me before I was released. Go figure.
My brother met my at New York / Newark Internaltional Airport. (Never been delayed 30 minutes getting OFF an airplane because they could not get the jetway attached to the aircraft. Gotta love NY.) We then picked up his wife and two girls because Santa told him we needed to see the movie Polar Express starring Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks and Tom Hanks. (NOT Kidding!) The next morning, the girls found a Lionel Polar Express running around the tree. (How many adults does it take to put a model train together? In our case, all three of us and we could have stood some help. Trying to figure out Disney Monopoly this afternoon was at least as difficult.)
We had a REALLY great Christmas. Christmas is just SO different with the bright eyes and excitment of children in the house. My nieces really are remarkably well behaved and loving. They have just enjoyed having me lie around their house so much. It is like another present to have Aunt Nary around at Christmas.
My doctor, Dr. Kenneth J. Rosenthal, MD, FACS, and one of his staff cane in in Sunday, 12/26 for a VERY torturous pre-op exam. (I honesty never knew there could be such painful, mostly bright and flashing lights, machines in one doctor's office.) Gotta give them bonus points for working this whole thing out best for me. My brother lives in Tenefly. He drove me out to Great Neck, Long Island, New York for the exam. Gotta give him AND his wife bonus point for putting up with me AND driving / escorting me to where ever I need to go. My brother sat in the rather cramped waiting room for the better part of the afternoon.
Monday Found my brother and I standing in the snow, waiting for a 6:30 AM bus, that, of course, was LATE! (Gotta love3 NY.) He escorted my to NY Eye and Ear and then went to work. Ya-Ling, my sister-in-Law, was there when I woke up and had flowers and PIZZA!!! Unfortunately, the staff would NOT let me sit there and enjoy my treat. (They run some sort of assembly line with the surgical patients and want you up and GONE as soon as possible so someone else can have your chair. Beds? They move you from a bed to a chair ASAP when you open your eyes and we started on the fourth floor, had to follow a staff member, with us wearing those funny looking socks with the rubber on the bottom, to the second floor, where he dumped us in the area between the hallway and the ORs. They call your name and you walk inti the OR, not even an IV in yet. Oh, and the floors are COLD!!! WAY too cold for the funny socks the gave me to wear. Shame on me for taking MINE off.)
Dr. Rosenthal apparently had to work on me for considerably more time that his "average" Iris Reconstruction Implant Human surgical Trial Patient. My Zonules, the hairline muscles that keep the sack of liquid that is the Inter Ocular Lens in place, are missing from 4:00 to 8:00 in my right eye. (There were a good chunk missing in my left eye, but apparently not to the extent they were missing in my right eye. He had to be ever so careful in order to keep the chamber and the entire eye from collapsing. (I went in with the utmost confidence that what ever he found, Dr. Rosenthal could deal with it band he did.) I have no idea how long I was in the OR. Dr. Rosenthal and I had an agreement: I would not hurt him when he came at my eye with a scalpel because I was going to take a nap. A very nice nap, thank you very much. But, my throat still hurts. Oh, well, what we have to put up with to NOT hurt our Surgeon.)
Monday afternoon found my sister-in-law, my 2 nieces and I in Great Neck. I think you my have gathered from her name, my sister-in-law is DECIDEDLYNOT Jewish. my family is DECIDEDLY Catholic, not Jewish. But my 7 year old niece came into the (last) exam room and sang a Chanukah song for my DECIDEDLY Jewish doctor. It was just so sweet. We were there a good part of the afternoon and the girls were so good. We stopped in Flushing(?) to get some Chinese food to eat there and to bring home. (By the time I leave Tuesday morning, I don't know if I will ever want to eat Chinese again.
Dr. Rosenthal neglected to inform me FOUR external stitches would be needed. (I told him on Monday I can feel for the oyster.) Smart man. I am not real sure how well I would have reacted if he had dropped the bomb pre-op. (My ENT never covered just how painful having your tonsils out as an adult. Good thing too. I don't deal well with pain and BOTH doctors KNOW this.) Well, the stitches hurt so much, I was tearing so much on Monday, the exam was difficult, to say the least. BUT, with correction, we got my vision up to 20/100!!! WHOO HOO!!! Sunday Afternoon, the vision in that eye was a solid 20/400. Even before the cataract blossomed, my vision was only 20/200.
But, I have always had "droopy" upper eye lids. Well, for some reason, the upper lid is drooping INTO my line of sight. The GOOD news is that the eye lid lift I have ALWAYS wanted is now covered by insurance because it is interfering with my field of vision. (Oh, THIS ought to be fun. Today I am covered by CIGNA PPO, tomorrow, I am covered by Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Georgia. So, who ponies up? Good thing Dr. Rosenthal has a good staff. THEY get to fight THAT battle for me.)
Today is the first day I have been able to "use" my right eye. (Stitches and Nystagmus do NOT go together!!!) I can see crisp and clear AND the pupil of this implant in only 4 1/2 mm across. The pupil in the Aniridia Ring in my left eye is 6 mm. I really and truly can SEE the difference. AND, I think I may have found one of the many problems that has affected the vision in my left eye. The vision in the left eye is hazy, like I am looking at the world through a piece of gauze. I didn't "see" it before because my right eye was so hazy from the cataract. I am REALLY hoping we have just had a breakthrough in relation to my left eye. (I am down to 20/400 in that eye after getting UP to 20/100 post op in May of 2000. Good Grief, has it REALLY been that long???)
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Mary P. Blanton, Owner
The Needlework House
3360 Satellite Blvd
Suite 5
Duluth, GA 30096
(770) 622-4249
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http://www.needleworkhouse.com
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