Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Fast trip north for eyeball repairs

We dropped the motorhome off at the storage lot on Nov 15 and headed north via Blythe CA.  Not a leisurely trip this time as there wasn't much point dawdling, especially once the weather turned colder.  We put in a long first day and stopped just north of Salt Lake City the first night (actually around midnight, having left Quartzsite shortly after noon).  With my loathing of SLS traffic I wanted to get past there with the least traffic possible, and it worked as we cruised right through with no problems.  We listened to the radio next morning and traffic was brutal headed into the city with accidents and gridlock everywhere... but we were headed AWAY from the mess and quite happy to be doing so.  We stopped at Great Falls in late afternoon on the 16th and rewarded ourselves with a hotel with pool and hot tub.  La Quinta is a nice spot, and I recommend it if you're passing through there.  
It's always a little somber when we discover fall again on the way north.  We know what's coming, soon! 

Got in for surgery on the 24th, and unfortunately things did not go swimmingly.  The new lens placement wound up being "not ideal, but OK" (I think that's a direct quote from the doc).  Even less desireable though was the fact that some large pieces of the lens cortex escaped him and were floating around inside the eyeball.  Sometimes the eye can absorb some small bits, I'm told, but these were just too many and too big to leave alone.  

So he gave me a basket full of prescriptions and made me an appointment with the retinal surgeon for the following week.  

Every 2 hours for the first one, 4 times a day for the next 3, 2 times a day for the 5th, and once a day at bedtime for the last one.  Oh, and wait 10 - 15 minutes between drops.  This was pretty much like having a full time job again!  

So December 5th was my next surgery day, where the retinal surgeon vacuumed the junk out of my eye.  Very similar process to last February, except of course the retina didn't need to be re-attached.  And no gas, so no travel restrictions.  

Nope, not a duplicate picture... this one's after the Dec 5th surgery.  Just noticed I wore the same shirt both days though... 

December 6th, after getting the patch off.  Vision is 20/60 in that eye and will get better... but it's already a big improvement over the past 6 months of cataract and 4 days of shadows.  Here's hoping that things are now on the upswing!  

On the brighter side, there's been a lot of humidity around so combined with the cold it's made for some nice hoar frost on the trees.  Here are a few pics to finish this post off on a nicer note.  Cheers!