15) Fixin' the Hole in the Socket

April 21st, 2021: So, the current status of my upcoming vitrectomy surgery is materializing on the horizon.  We got the date [May 5th]; the location [Seton Hospital]; the surgeon [Dr. Levitan]; the chair; and clearing Jack's schedule for the next 9 days.

May 4th was with us: Donnie brought by the massage chair and set it up for us.  She was very positive about people's experiences with macular hole surgery, sharing that some got off the chair in a week. After she left I felt more calm and prepared.

May 5th ~ Seton Hospital (switched at the last moment from Northwest Hills Surgical center because the anesthesiologist wanted it done in a full service hospital due to my complicated medical history) Arrive at 9; prep my eye for the vitrectomy; surgery from noon til 1; and awake and groggily done at 4. My assigned nurse wanted us us out by 4 when they lock the side door.  According to Liz I got situated in my chair with my head correctly positioned, and went right back to sleeping off the anesthesia for about 4 more hours. 

May 6th ~ Dr. Levitan morning meeting ~ Dr. Levitan brought me in with my trusty driver the next morning to unwrap the eye bandage, investigate his work and the results, and answer any questions about how carefully I must follow the treatment regimen until he sees me again on May 14th.  He reported that the surgery went great, that he was happy with the results, and he thought the rest should go without any problems as long as I followed the healing instructions. 

Here is an overview of the surgery and time needed for healing.  For me, sitting correctly in the massage chair with my head parallel to the floor was very challenging.  The instruction for that was to stay head down for 45 minutes of every waking hour.  In the other 15 minutes I could go to the bathroom, eat food or meals, check my email, etc.  

This behavioral strategy kind of runs against my habits.  I usually am very careful about putting my head in this position since either the position or pulling upright from the position can start a nosebleed.  Luckily that incidence did not occur through the whole 10 days!

Since I was spending so much time with my eyes level with the floor, I began to notice my field of right eye vision getting less cloudy as if the gas bubble was growing and becoming more focused. I reminded me of looking down on a petri dish of liquid that would slosh around when I moved my head back and forth. Over the healing time I had the notion that 1) my vision was getting clearer and clearer and 2) that the depth of the gas bubble was shrinking. On the 15th day after surgery I jotted down in my notes, "No petri" in the morning.

As I began to see the results of the gas bubble become clearer it slowly began to shrink: it was a strange kind of visual experience that I could imagine helping my healing.  When I looked straight out of my right eye, I saw a porthole kind of view with the bubble splitting the field. Every day or so it sank lower and lower in the porthole that was increasing to fill my whole field of vision.

My final meeting with Dr. Levitan is tomorrow morning.  Hopefully I'll get a clean bill of health and then be referred back to Dr. Smith for scheduling my next cataract surgery.  It's like we pulled out one more strand of the spaghetti that is my tangled dish full. "Yum.  That one was good... and not too crunchy.  It would've stuck to the wall."