Friday, February 12, 2010

Surgery, round two

My second PRK surgery was yesterday and it was just as horrible as I remembered.  In fact, it was actually worse because I knew exactly what they were doing.  I had to retreat back into my deep yoga breathing to avoid jumping off the operating table.  I also made the nurse hold my hand.  My eye is really swollen this time, because it is necessary for them to use an instrument to hold the eye open.  I think it is a cross between a suction cup and kitchen tongs.  My left eye was fighting as hard as possible to close and it strained the muscles around the eye.  I will spare you the rest of the details. 

At any rate, because I can see out of my right eye, I am using it much more than I should.  The eyes are sympathetic to one another, and the right eye is watering and irritated, much as the left is.  So in other words, I need to get off the computer!  I need to not strain the eye that is trying to heal.  In the meantime, I have the Neurontin to cut the pain, but cannot tolerate any pain medication.  This time around, Dr. A prescribed Valium, which while it is not a painkiller, at least it makes me relax and care less about the pain. 

Last night after the surgery, several of my friends came over with dinner and to chat.  It was great to have their support, although because of the sedatives, I do not really remember our conversation.  My dear friend Becca spent the entire day with me today, going to two different pharmacies and my post-op appointment with me.  She was attempting to read me a book, but I kept falling asleep as soon as I laid down.  So instead we shopped for airline tickets for our trip to the Oregon coast next fall. 

I think I need to go to sleep, my eyes just cannot stay open anymore.  Blessedly, I am not in a huge amount of pain, but if things go the course of last time, the next couple days will be worse.

1 comment:

Joseph Bergantine said...

ahhhhh. good luck my friend. i'm jealous of your trip to oregon. i'm hoping to make it out there myself in september maybe, we'll see how things go. glad you had some folk there to be there.