Faff: A Slight Delay to my Next Round of Eye Surgery

Called the eye hospital last Thursday to chase up the appointment for my next round of surgery (it’s now been two month’s since my consultation).

After being transferred across various departments and telling them my patient number about a squillion times I was told…

You’re not on the waiting list. I’ll have to dig out your file and give you a call back next week. 

I was too shocked/polite to react on the phone, but soon afterwards I was uttering expletives!

For some reason this song has been in my head ever since…

F***: Tips For Post Eye Surgery Recovery

I got bored of putting photos of me with arrows on my head with these articles
and thought this was far more amusing. Enjoy the 80s cheese! 

All eye surgeries are different: some require rest and recuperation, some mean almost continual posturing for up to ten days and with others you’re back to normal within a couple of days.

I had a scleral buckle fitted to my right eye and some cryotherapy in my left under general anaesthetic. I was signed off work for two weeks to recover. My eyes were sore for the first couple of days. After that, they didn’t really hurt, but I found they got tired very easily and my vision was slightly blurry.  It was difficult to know whether this was due to the eye surgery or the amount of eye drops I had to administer!

Here’s the advice I’d give for post-op recovery…

Do…

1. Follow the advice of the healthcare professionals. That surely goes without saying!

2. Ensure you have someone to look after you post-surgery, particularly if you’ve had a general anaesthetic – but regardless – things are likely to be blurry, you’ll need that support.

3. Take it easy. This is the time for rest, not to start ticking tasks off your to do list.

4. Make like a paparazzi fearing celeb. Wearing shades indoors is perfectly acceptable post eye surgery, especially if you’re using dilating eye drop and the sun has got it’s hat on. Likewise it’s fine to shut the sun out by closing your curtains.

5. Invest in some audio books (you might be able to get these for free from your local library). Recovery is boring and your eyes get tired quickly, give them a break by letting someone do the reading for you.

6. Get someone to help you fit your eye guard before you go to bed, if you have to wear one – it’s quite tricky to do on your own!

7. Take baths for the first few days. I found it a more sure-fire way of avoiding getting product near my eyes.

8. Keep topped up on painkillers for as long as you need to. I took a normal dose of paracetamol for the 24-hours after my eye survey and then weaned myself off the following day by taking a half dose. I didn’t need any by day three.

Don’t

1. Be scared to rock up to the hospital if you think something isn’t quite right.

2. Underestimate the time it takes to bathe your eye(s) in the morning. If you’re using a ton of eye drops (like I was) chances are your eyes will get all crusty overnight (oh the glamour), it can take a while (and a fair few tissues soaked in warm water) to de-gunk!

3. Be ashamed of taking afternoon naps. Normally the preserve of Granny’s and Grandad’s the world over. If you’re tired go for it. It’s the body’s way of healing and sometimes it just feels so nice to close your eyes.

5. Be embarrassed about increasing the font size/zoom on your computer/phone, even when you return to work.

6. Worry about housework. I politely declined to do the washing up for a week or so after my eye surgery because I simply couldn’t be sure whether the plates were clean or not. Sadly I can no longer get away with using that as an excuse.

7. Be too proud to ask for help. People wouldn’t offer unless they were prepared to help.

What tips would you add to the list?

Find out about my retinal detachment here and here.

Discover my top tips for visiting the eye hospital here.

Find out how people react when you tell them about your eye problems here.

Learn about the unexpected side effects that I’ve experience here.

F***: Eye Surgery & Retinal Detachment – Unexpected Side Effects

There are the side effects the doctors tell you about and then there’s, er, these…

1. Is that a fly or a floater? 

A pesky fly has made its way into the office. Your team are chasing it down. One person is holding a can of fly killer aloft, another  a rolled-up report – both ready to kill. The more humanitarian member of the team clutches at an empty glass and a piece of card. It was there a minute ago. Now where has it gone?

Aha!

You shout.

There it is!

Oh no!

Hold on a minute, there…

Nope…

Over there..

Oh hold on a minute that’s my floater not a fly, sorry!

2. I’ve never been very good at winking anyway. 

Seriously, I used to struggle with this as child, along with tying my laces and comprehending the concept of getting change when you purchased something (I always wanted the cashier to give me all the money back?!).

Anyway, it’s less of a winking issue but more of a closing eye issue. Y’see if I close my right eye (the one with the buckle) my left peeper stays fully open. If I close my left eye my right eye is open, but nowhere near as wide as my left one. Weirdly if I cover my left eye my right eye stays open to the max. Explain that one, in fact don’t… I’m already far too well acquainted with eye anatomy.

3. Have you gone for a smoky eye, or a splodgy eye look today? 

Y’see point 2 can make it difficult to apply your eye make-up. It’s a bit difficult applying make-up to your left eye lid when your right eye is trying to close. Add into the equation that when you’re a spectacle wearer you have to stand right-up-close to the mirror to be able to see what you’re doing in the first place and, well, it’s enough to turn you into a bright lips kinda girl. Weirdly though, practice makes perfect and I think I apply my eye-make-up better now than I ever used to. Result!

4. Sorry I didn’t see you there. 

No really I didn’t. Providing some comedy moments at work when people approach, or walk up to my desk from the right hand side and I simply don’t see them as they’re standing in my blind spot. Can be played when there’s someone you don’t want to see too. But more often than not it is genuine and can be a tad awkward!

5. Don’t worry about me. I’m just having my own private rave. 

I’ve always been partial to some Prodigy, house music, old skool dance, acid house, drum and bass, etc… etc… so I like to think of those occasional flashes as, a-hem, flashbacks to my fluffy boot wearing days.

6. The Girl does nothing. 

She doesn’t wash-up (doesn’t wash-up), never cleans up (no she never cleans up).

This was more of a post-surgery one for me, but certainly I struggled to see whether plates were clean or not, so it got me out of housework duties for a good while. Grey cloud, silver lining and all that.

7. No amount of carrot munching is going to help. 

Can we put a bit of light on the subject

is now one of my most over-used phrases, along with:

Can we put the big light on

It depends on your eye issue, but for me dark rooms means me not seeing things massively clearly.

Have you had any unusual side effects as the result of a health issue? Share in the comments below 🙂

Find out more about my eye problems here and here.

Find out some top tips for visiting the eye hospital here.

F***: My Retinal Detachment – An Update

Firstly, I want to say thank you. I was overwhelmed by the support I received from my first post about my experience of retinal detachment, both through this blog and on Facebook. Messages of support from old friends, messages from people who have been (or are going through) similar experiences, a delicious dinner cooked for me by one of those friends who you don’t see that often but know that they’ll always be there for you if you need them. For someone who is used to people reacting with sarcastic jokes about white sticks and cute Labradors it’s quite a shock when people are so supportive! But I really do appreciate it – the support…and the sarcastic jokes! People admonish the lack of community spirit in modern society, but I’m happy to report it’s alive, well and residing on the web. Thanks guys – you’re the best.

So I thought I’d give you a little update. I had my follow-up appointment on 1st March, usual routine: eye chart with the weird blue mask (a kind of NHS masquerade ball?), dilating eye drops, waiting a while for the eye drops to act and then through to my consultant who carried out the original surgeries. I gave him an update and then it was the standard slit lamp drill – look left, look right, look up, look down… The good news: My consultant was really impressed with how well my eye sight has recovered since my original surgeries, apparently he didn’t expect it to be so good! Yay! The bad news… I have another hole in my right eye and some small holes in my left eye, which means I need more laser surgery. The laser surgery isn’t urgent and is simply preventative which is more comforting than being rushed in straight away. I’m still getting occasional flashes, but with the overwhelming support I’m receiving means I’m not feeling so scared now!

F***: Me and My Retinal Detachment

Around two years ago I paid a visit to the opticians for my regular check-up. I was conscious that the sight in my right eye had got worse, but wasn’t too perturbed. Ever since I’d started wearing glasses aged 17, my right eye had always been the weakest of the two. But when I went to see my usual optician something wasn’t right. I was really struggling to read the sight chart, even with stronger corrective lenses. The optician put it down to a lazy eye and dismissed me with my new prescription.

I didn’t think anything of it until I arrived home. A lazy eye, I pondered, isn’t that something you normally develop in childhood? Why had it never been diagnosed before? I knew people with lazy eyes and I didn’t have the same symptoms as them. 

Something wasn’t right.

I decided to make another appointment for an eye test with a different opticians. I went along and didn’t mention anything about a lazy eye. I wanted to see what they said. I performed terribly on the peripheral vision test and the optician was concerned by the number of floaters I had in my right eye. He mentioned something called retinal detachment and asked if I’d experienced any flashing lights or other symptoms. Nothing rang any bells with me, so we continued with the test and I went away clutching my new prescription.

When I got home I checked the prescription against my contact lenses. It was weaker than them. That didn’t seem right. I Googled retinal detachment, but still didn’t tick enough boxes for me to think I had it. Then I had an appointment at the hairdressers. At one stage during the hair cut she accidentally covered my left eye with hair. I looked in the mirror with just my right eye.

Something wasn’t right.

It was like looking in a crazy mirror. My face and the whole salon behind it were cinched in at the middle and there were areas that I just couldn’t see. As soon as my cut and blow dry was complete I headed back to the opticians, feeling more than slightly worried.

I was here for an eye test earlier and the optician mentioned something about retinal detachment. I’ve just experienced something weird and I wondered if I could be checked out for it. I asked the helpful receptionist.

The optician agreed to see me again, but he still wasn’t sure that I had retinal detachment.

We can put some eye drops in and take a look, just to be sure, if you’d like, he said.

I agreed, those were the first of many eye drops I was to experience.

As the optician looked into my eye, his face went pale.

I just need to go and speak to my colleague, he said, backing out of the room.

When he came back in he explained that I had some holes and retinal detachment in my right eye and I would need to go to the eye hospital immediately.

What followed was more eye drops and a consultation which confirmed his findings and got me booked in for an appointment with the retinal specialist.

At the appointment with the retinal specialist I knew something wasn’t right (again) when he looked into my eyes and started counting. He was counting the holes in my eyes and, even more worryingly, they weren’t just in my right eye.

What followed was a series of operations. A scleral buckle fitted to my right eye and some cryotherapy to fix the holes in my left under general anaesthetic. A check-up revealed that the cryotherapy had been unsuccessful so I was booked in for a round of laser surgery under sedation. That seemed to do the trick and a few weeks later I was discharged from the hospital with some loss to the peripheral vision in my right eye and instructions to buy some new glasses (the scleral buckle changes the shape of your eye which, in turn, alters your prescription) and not to bungee jump or participate in a parachute jump!

I got my new glasses. I started driving again. My vision had been, pretty much, saved. I was one happy chick.

Until the week before last where I started experiencing some small flashes of light in my right eye. At first they were in the innermost top corner and were a tiny semi-circular shape. They only happened about once or twice a day, if that. I ignored them at first. But then they continued. Never more than once or twice a day, but they were still there. And, then, on the Saturday a big flash in my right eye. I knew flashes were one of the warning symptoms that all was not good and so on Sunday Hubby and I trundled off back the eye hospital. I honestly thought it was a waste of time. I talked myself in and out of going so many times. They were going to tell me to stop being so paranoid and send me away. That’s what I truly thought. So, when, after copious amounts of eye drops the doctor spent a little longer than I’d anticipated looking into my right eye and then made no comment before looking into my left I got that horrible sinking feeling.

Something wasn’t right.

Another hole had developed in my right eye and whilst no fluid seemed to be leaking out of it, it was important that I had laser surgery that evening to prevent retinal detachment. Oh joy! Here we go again. The laser surgery was carried out and a check up appointment with my consultant scheduled in.

Onwards and upwards, I thought. It’s a good job I went and that they could sort it, I mused.

Then, on Friday, I experienced more flashes. I presumed the worst…

Something wasn’t right.

I called the eye hospital and was told to come in to be checked out again. I waited for around three hours to be seen to be told there was nothing new. I love that. Not there’s nothing wrong, there’s nothing new. It’s like saying Yep, your eyes are still screwed, but they’re not any more screwed than they were the last time we saw you. 

I have my appointment with the consultant next week and I’m trying to look on the bright side I really am. But it is getting me down. I’m paranoid every time I bend down that the back of my retina is just going to decide to slide off, I worry about losing my vision and start thinking about making plans for the future. I muse over futile questions. Should we move somewhere with no stairs? How would I do housework if I couldn’t see? How would I do my hair? If my eyes are this bad when I’m just 33, what are they going to be like when I’m 83? I realise these questions are pathetic, I should be embracing the fact that I’m so fortunate instead of musing on the darker side, but sometimes I just can’t help it. On the plus side it does make me feel fortunate and it does make me want to see ‘all of the things’ just in case I can’t at some point in the future…

So if you’ve been wondering where I’ve been hiding for the past few weeks. Under a blanket on the sofa, feeling sorry for myself and resting my tired eyes.

Want to find out more about retinal detachment? This is a really useful guide. And if you have any of the symptoms – go and get checked out immediately, the sooner they catch it the more they can generally do to save your vision.