Unique at 1 in 10,000

I've always known I was unique. And, being so astute in thinking this, I am always somewhat disappointed to find out that I'm just another normal person. Everyone deserves their 15 minutes of fame, right?

Don't pick my 15 minutes. I guarantee you won't like it.

As you may recall, I mentioned I'd be having cataract surgery on my right eye on March 22. I was looking forward to it, as I'd finally be "normal" visioned. No glasses to drive, I could wear sunglasses, etc. Reading glasses would be necessary, but the benefits definitely outweighed wearing glasses once in awhile.

Till I became that unique person.

Things were fine the first few days after surgery. Then about a week after surgery, I could see a "floater" - a four-leaf clover shaped shadow directly in the center of my vision field. No biggie, as I've always had floaters, but this one stayed constant. The surgeon was notified and he and my optometrist were both aware of things.

Then seven days ago, I got up, headed for work, almost killed myself with horrific driving. I blamed it on being very tired. When I got to work, I found that my vision was so poor that I could no longer see print, thus could not read the requisitions for my patients. No way was it safe for me to draw blood. I drove cautiously home, a little easier that time because it was getting light out, and had a mild case of hysterics when I got home because I was almost blind by that time. I went to bed and slept for a few hours, then called the doc when I got up and things were not better.

(The side note to this is that I'd had an appointment with the doc the day before and had told him I was not happy with this floater in the way of my vision; he basically patted my hand and laughed when I told him that I wanted my old, nearsighted eye back. I told him that I no longer had any quality of life left - it was difficult to read, the computer was impossible, and my hobbies were non-existant. He didn't take me seriously.)

When I talked to the doc, we ended up having a few choice words for each other. Mine were far more choice than his, btw. Robert was home on vacation, so he drove me to the doc, and I was so unhappy, that tears were streaming down my face when the doc came in. Those of you who know me know that I do not cry in front of strangers - bitch, moan, gripe, yes, but shed tears? No way is that part of my MO. Only a very few people have actually seen me cry. But, he saw me. I guess he started to get an idea of how bad it was.

The result of that visit was an immediate referral to University Hospitals, where I was hooked up with one of the best retina specialists in the world. The last several days has been a tremendous undertaking to save my vision. It's slowly coming back. I was finally able to see the computer screen late Friday afternoon and got some critical work done. And, we've pretty much been camped out at the University, so Robert was fortunate to be on vacation this past week.

I've had to devote hours a day to massive steroid drops, and my eye has been dilated constantly to prevent the cornea from getting stuck to the retinal wall. If that would have happened, my eye would have been dilated permantly open or shut and permanent loss of vision would have occurred. The dilation drops that were prescribed kept the eye dilated as wide open as possible, giving an eerie too bright look to everything. They've now taken me off that one, and I'm "down" to a lower acting dilation drop once a day, but the steroid drops continue once an hour, even have to use them in the middle of the night if I happen to wake up.

But, slowly the vision is coming back. I've been released for now from the specialist at the University, and will see the regular ophthamologist tomorrow afternoon. But, I won't be able to see well enough to go back to work until the dilation wears off. So, I hope that gets discontinued tomorrow. I've already been told this will take time to get back to where it should be, but at least I can begin to see to begin to find my life again.

Just wanted to let you all know I'm still around. It's gonna take me awhile to get caught up again, though.